Another response to the Klein-Rhee “How-to-Fix-Our-Schools Manifesto”: WHY TEACHER QUALITY CAN’T BE THE ONLY CENTERPIECE OF REFORM
BY RICHARD ROTHSTEIN - RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AT THE ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE | WWW.EPI.ORG
FIRST PUBLISHED AS ISSUE BRIEF # 286 ON THE ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE WEBSITE ON OCT 14, 2O10 | HTTP://BIT.LY/AKU6EM
SUBSEQUENTLY PUBLISHED AS A GUEST BLOG/OP-ED IN THE WASHINGTON POST ON OCT 17, 2010 | HTTP://WAPO.ST/BWGURG
14 Oct 2010 - Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City public school system, and Michelle Rhee, who resigned October 13 as Washington, D.C. chancellor, published a “manifesto” in The Washington Post claiming that the difficulty of removing incompetent teachers “has left our school districts impotent and, worse, has robbed millions of children of a real future.” The solution, they say, is to end the “glacial process for removing an incompetent teacher” and give superintendents like themselves the authority to pay higher salaries to teachers whose students do well academically. Otherwise, children will remain “stuck in failing schools” across the country.
Klein, Rhee, and the 14 other school superintendents who co-signed their statement base this call on a claim that, “as President Obama
