Pushback Greets Rhee's Radical Reforms of D.C. Education System:
"District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee was appointed two years ago to revamp and radically reform the D. C. public school system. Her unconventional, some would say illegal, policies have the teacher's union and the council up in arms.
As the Washington Post noted on Saturday, October 31, 'Mayors from Boston to San Jose have been taking over school districts since the early 1990s, recognizing that their city's economic growth and their political longevity are inextricably linked to the quality of the local educational system.'"
In Washington this didn't happen until 2007. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced the Education Transition Strategy on April 27, 2007. A few months later Michelle Rhee was brought in as Chancellor, tasked with converting the policy into practice and practicalities. According to Washington Post staff writer Bill Turque, "in 28 months, she has upended almost every sector of public school operations, from school closures to classroom instruction to teacher evaluations to labor relations" in the District of Columbia, Public Schools (DCPS)
The latest battleground has been labor relations and the opponents have been Rhee, the teachers' union and D.C. Council Chairman, Vincent C Gray. Over the summer of 2009 Rhee hired 934 new teachers, approximately double the number typically hired each summer. In July she told the Lehrer News Hour that DCPS is "so fortunate, in that the economy, as bad as it is, has not impacted DCPS in the way that it has other jurisdictions, which I think might make us the only school district in the country that is not making any cuts." New hires, no budget cuts, 25 schools closed and half the principals in the system replaced in 28 months. To all appearances Rhee was successfully and relatively peacefully carrying out rapid and radical change successfully.
"District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee was appointed two years ago to revamp and radically reform the D. C. public school system. Her unconventional, some would say illegal, policies have the teacher's union and the council up in arms.
As the Washington Post noted on Saturday, October 31, 'Mayors from Boston to San Jose have been taking over school districts since the early 1990s, recognizing that their city's economic growth and their political longevity are inextricably linked to the quality of the local educational system.'"
In Washington this didn't happen until 2007. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced the Education Transition Strategy on April 27, 2007. A few months later Michelle Rhee was brought in as Chancellor, tasked with converting the policy into practice and practicalities. According to Washington Post staff writer Bill Turque, "in 28 months, she has upended almost every sector of public school operations, from school closures to classroom instruction to teacher evaluations to labor relations" in the District of Columbia, Public Schools (DCPS)
The latest battleground has been labor relations and the opponents have been Rhee, the teachers' union and D.C. Council Chairman, Vincent C Gray. Over the summer of 2009 Rhee hired 934 new teachers, approximately double the number typically hired each summer. In July she told the Lehrer News Hour that DCPS is "so fortunate, in that the economy, as bad as it is, has not impacted DCPS in the way that it has other jurisdictions, which I think might make us the only school district in the country that is not making any cuts." New hires, no budget cuts, 25 schools closed and half the principals in the system replaced in 28 months. To all appearances Rhee was successfully and relatively peacefully carrying out rapid and radical change successfully.
