Rhee-Action to MichelleFirst in Boston
In 2007, the same year you became Chancellor of DC Schools, a 12 year old boy named Deamonte Driver died (Edelman, 2011) from a brain infection that could have been avoided had Deamonte's mom been able to pay $80 weeks earlier for a routine extraction of a bad tooth. Your comments this evening substantially add to the master narrative that urban schools are failing and that they need saving and that they can be saved if we get rid of the wrong teachers and get in the right teachers, even ones who have very little training, no understanding to urban cultures, and ones with only a two year commitment to "serve" the "mission." This master narrative, in turn, has dulled citizen awareness of the other issues that contribute to low
