Mayor Kevin Johnson and wife Michelle Rhee bring Students First education road show back to Sacramento
By Nick Miller
nickam@newsreview.com
 Mayor Kevin Johnson and wife Michelle Rhee (above) speak on how to fix California’s broken schools at last week’s Students First event. Activist Kate Lenox (below) protests Rhee’s school-reform agenda. |
Mayor Kevin Johnson and his wife, Michelle Rhee, played a hometown gig last Wednesday night. But groupies didn’t cheer the couple at the venue. Instead, some 40 silent protesters, wearing masking tape over their mouths and holding anti-Rhee signs, picketed the education event outside downtown’s Tsakopoulos Library Galleria.
Both Rhee, who heads education-advocacy outfit Students First, and the protesters agree that schools are broken. Both disagree, however on how to go about fixing them.
At one end of the spectrum, activists say Rhee just wants to ratchet up testing, fire bad teachers and shut down underperforming schools. Rhee argues that teachers are protecting their own and not looking out for students’ best interests.
At the event—which was touted as a “listening tour” where Rhee’s Students First group could hear from real people about the state of California education—the mayor and