Who got to Rhee?
Less than a month after Anita Dunn's clout-heavy firm was brought in to manageMichelle Rhee's battered broom-wielding persona, the D.C. school boss has finally agreed to terms with the teachers union leadership. The deal, signed yesterdaycame amid worries that Rhee's base was collapsing and threatening to pull Mayor Fenty down with her. They even had to bring former Baltimore mayor, Kurt Schmoke into town to mediate the deal and pitch it as a win-win. But it was clear all along that it was Rhee who was in retreat. The union, with AFT prez Randi Weingarten calling the shots for Pres. Parker, had agreed all along to negotiate a voluntary performance-pay program, so long as it wasn't based exclusively on student test scores. The shaky part of the deal was an agreement by the private foundations to underwrite promised teacher pay raises to the tune of $64 million. What happens when the private money runs out or if the foundations renege? I guess Weingarten understandably felt that in times like these, you can't look beyond the short run.
Rhee's strategy had been nothing less than shattering D.C.'s teachers union and overriding the teachers collective bargaining agreement with the district. Broom in hand, she promised her patrons at Broad and Gates, that she would close schools, turn them over to private management companies and the Archdiocese, and
