Do as I say, not as I do: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the public education paradox
Education activist argues for radical change in public schools but sends her children to private school, like many other officials
Michelle Rhee's daughter attends a $22,000-per child private school in Nashville. Photograph: Iris Harris/US Department of Commerce
Our personal finances play an all-but-unspoken role in how our children are educated. In the United States, we fund public education via local property taxes. This means the more expensive the neighborhood real estate, the more likely that the children living there will attend a school with decent teacher-student ratios and more in the way of "extras" like art and music classes than their peers with less financially flush moms and dads.
Others will go to private schools. The benefits of such a decision are obvious. You don't like the increased state and federally mandated testing in even the best public schools? You don't have to tolerate them at private schools. There is all but certain to be an institution for you and yours – if, that is, you can afford a hefty tuition bill, one that runs in excess of $40,000. The parent who pays the piper gets to call the educational tune for their children.
All this background is a way of introducing my readers to one Michelle Rhee. If you have children and live in the United States, you almost