Rhee on Stewart: A Breakdown, Part III
I've been breaking down Michelle Rhee's extended interview with Jon Stewart: here's Part I and Part II. This segment is worth a close look as I believe it's one of the few times Rhee has been pressed to explain her agenda to a relatively well-informed skeptic.
Stewart makes the case several times that the fixation with schools as the primary cause of and primary solution to poverty misses a critical point: too many kids arrive at "failing" schools not ready to learn, which is why the schools "fail." Rhee, of course, will have none of this: in her view, "failing" schools are the cause of poverty, and improving schools - and by extension, improving teaching - is the best way to solve America's chronic economic inequality.
What's fascinating to me about this interview is how casually Rhee brushes aside the notion that children cannot be expected to learn - and, therefore, teachers cannot be expected to teach - if the problems of poverty are not