Michelle Rhee drops out of school group
By STEPHANIE SIMON | 8/13/14 8:05 PM EDT Updated: 8/13/14 11:44 PM EDT
Michelle Rhee had big ambitions when she went on Oprah four years ago to launch her new advocacy group, StudentsFirst, with a promise to raise $1 billion to transform education policy nationwide.
But as she prepares to step down as CEO, she leaves a trail of disappointment and disillusionment. Reform activists who shared her vision say she never built an effective national organization and never found a way to use her celebrity status to drive real change.
StudentsFirst was hobbled by a high staff turnover rate, embarrassing PR blunders and a lack of focus. But several leading education reformers say Rhee’s biggest weakness was her failure to build coalitions; instead, she alienated activists who should have been her natural allies with tactics they perceived as imperious, inflexible and often illogical. Several said her biggest contribution to the cause was drawing fire away from them as she positioned herself as the face of the national education reform movement.
“There was a growing consensus in the education reform community that she didn’t play well in the sandbox,” one reform leader said.
A senior adviser to StudentsFirst rebuffed the criticism. “It’s safe to say that none of what’s been accomplished in the ed reform space over the past decade would have been possible without Michelle’s leadership in Washington, D.C., and with this organization,” the adviser said.
Rhee divulged few details about her decision to step aside as CEO in a memo she sent to her staff Wednesday afternoon. She said she remains “100 percent committed to the success of StudentsFirst” but that “it’s time for a shift in the day-to-day management” of the organization, which has 110 staff members.
“It’s also time,” Rhee wrote, “for my next step in life, which will be focused on my family and supporting my husband,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. “His focus and passion for underserved communities … will be central to whatever comes next for us,” she wrote. There has been speculation that Johnson, a former NBA star, might be laying the groundwork for a future run for governor or U.S. Senate.
Rhee’s decision to step down was first reported on Tuesday night by The Huffington Post.
Spokesman Francisco Castillo said StudentsFirst will soon name a new president. That position has been vacant for more than a year; the previous president, Kahlil Byrd, left last July after
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