Bill Maher takes on Michelle Rhee
Bill Maher (hbo.com)
Bill Maher clearly had done some homework when he sat down with to über-school reformer Michelle Rhee onhis HBO show, challenging her “no-excuses” philosophy on teachers by saying that he thinks the problem with public education is “poverty and parents.”
On Friday night’s episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” he wasn’t the sledgehammer that he can be on other topics, but he did push back on some of her major talking points: teachers can overcome poverty, teachers don’t need tenure, etc.
After asking her to explain why she left as D.C. public schools chancellor after Adrian Fenty, the mayor who hired her in 2007, was tossed out by voters in 2010, in part because of her performance, he moved on to some of her common bromides about school reform. The issue of closing down schools came up, and he asked her, “Where do the kids go then?”
Her response: “… You can close down the low-performing schools, and then,