I like the president and agree with him on most issues, one of the few however where I disagree with him is education. I think the president’s policies have been a disaster. He made education a game with his race to the top initiative and has endorsed many of the corporate reforms, high stakes standardized tests, blame the teacher policies/teacher evaluations and charter schools that are wrecking the profession. He has been a huge disappointment.
I bet the superintendent of Atlanta wishes she had friends in high places too.
What does that have to do with Michelle Rhee? Well she has been the champion of those same reforms and the darling of the corporate reform movement. She went from taping kids mouths shut, to running the D.C. school system and brought her blame the teacher ideas with her.
She is currently embroiled in a cheating scandal that baffles the senses, however unlike in Atlanta where they take kids futures seriously, she has been able to skate by and I can’t help but wonder if the president has somehow influenced this.
This is from the Washington Post: There have been several probes, but two — one by a private testing firm and the other by the D.C. Inspector General — were limited. Another, by the U.S. Education Department’s Inspector General, resulted in no action taken, though the extent of the investigation is unclear.
The evidence seems overwhelming that some cheating occurred and either Mrs. Rhee was at the epicenter and encouraged it or she sat idly by and allowed it to happen and yet, no action has been taken. Why? Could it be because the president and her are lockstep on education policy? Could it be because if she goes down many of the president’s education ideas will go down with her? If there is nothing to hide, then why they half hearted probes by the president's department of education? I’m not a big conspiracy guy but there are questions that are being allowed to go unanswered. And lets not forget teacher’s lives are being ruined, kids aren’t getting the education they deserve and our public education system is on the cusp of being taken over by corporations more concerned with the bottom line than our children’s futures. I don’t think Rhee has the juice to sweep all this under the rug, but you know who does? President Obama.
