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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee wins over a critic

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee wins over a critic:


Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee wins over a critic

In October, a former teacher and education activist named Greg Harris was tapped as director of StudentsFirst Ohio, part of former D.C. public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee’s national anti-union education advocacy organization. But not long before that, he had been decidedly anti-Rhee, publicly attacking her involvement in Ohio school reform. “If students truly did come first, then why is Rhee using her celebrity to coddle the very governors who are ransacking education funding?,”  he asked in the following scathing blogpost that he wrote in 2011. It was called “Smoking Rhee-fer” but has been since been removed from his blog — though it still lives elsewhere online. Following the post is a statement from Harris, sent  in response to a question I asked about the reasons for his conversion to Rhee-style reform. I find that the statement raises more questions than it answers, but see what you think. Harris, a Democrat, has a history of activism; among other