Rhee’s Next Assignment?
Michelle Rhee
What’s next for Michelle Rhee? The combative Washington, D.C., schools chancellor resigned last week following September’s primary defeat of her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty. “Not being in this role is heartbreaking,” she said. But, she tells NEWSWEEK, “everyone in the city needs to embrace reform, and that couldn’t happen while I am in the picture.” This does not mean, however, that she’s done working on the issue.
One friend and fellow reformer, who didn’t want to be named discussing Rhee’s future, says he’s received calls from “almost every major city, including many without superintendent vacancies…seeking to assess her interest” in overhauling their local schools. Rhee’s pending marriage to Sacramento, Calif., Mayor Kevin Johnson would seem to make a move to the West Coast the most likely. But there has been a lot of speculation about whether Rhee is interested in taking over the deeply