Education reform: Michelle Rhee to raise $1 billion to fight teachers' unions
Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, famous for battling teachers' unions, creates Students First to forward her education reform priorities.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee (l.) walks away from the podium after announcing that she is resigning, Oct. 13, during a news conference in Washington. She announced Monday that she will start a new organization, Students First, to further her education reform agenda, which has been criticized by teachers' unions.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Michelle Rhee made a splash Monday with her announcement of a new organization – Students First – to push her education reform priorities.
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The advocacy group will be “a new voice to change the balance of power in public education,” Ms. Rhee promises in a Newsweek cover story that she wrote, which was kept under wraps until after her appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Monday morning.
And – as was the case when she was chancellor of Washington, D.C., schools – she promises not to “shy away from conflict.”
“When [Rhee] left D.C., she kept saying she recognized that there was a need for a political support and political ground game to support that kind of reform,” says Frederick Hess, the American Enterprise Institute’s director of education policy studies, referring to controversial