Rhee, M

=see belated supermanBb pre-emptive strike for devos?==https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/11/22/michelle-rhee-takes-herself-out-of-the-running-for-trumps-education-secretary/Rhee, who rose to national prominence as the controversial chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, appeared on Tuesday to take herself out of the running to become President-elect Donald Trump’s education secretary.Rhee’s name had been circulated as a potential candidate for education secretary, speculation that only intensified after she and her husband — former NBA star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson — met with Trump over the weekend. Trump pronounced them both “greatly talented” and, according to his transition team, they spoke about “the possibility for increasing competition through charter and choice schools.”[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/michelle-rhee-was-an-outsider-trying-to-tear-up-the-school-bosses-just-like-trump/2016/11/22/c50876a0-aeca-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 165); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">Jay Mathews: Rhee was an outsider trying to tear up the school bosses, just like Trump</a>]Rhee put the education secretary rumors to bed on Tuesday afternoon, tweeting that she was not pursuing the position. But she pushed back against criticism by some in the education reform community that she should not have met with Trump, given his statements about women, immigrants, Muslims and people with disabilities.[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/11/17/advocacy-group-warns-fellow-democrats-dont-become-trumps-education-secretary/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 165); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">Advocacy group warns fellow Democrats: Don’t become Trump’s education secretary</a>]“I have appreciated the opportunity to share my thoughts on education with the PEOTUS,” Rhee’s message said, using an acronym for President-elect of the United States. “Interestingly many colleagues warned me against doing so. They are wrong. Mr. Trump won the election. Our job as Americans is to want him to succeed. Wishing for his failure would be wanting the failure of our millions of American children who desperately need a better education.”<div class="moat-trackable pb-f-theme-normal pb-f-dehydrate-false pb-3 pb-feature pb-layout-item pb-f-page-newsletter-inLine injected-by-front-end" moat-id="page/newsletter-inLine|local" data-chain-name="no-name" data-feature-name="no-name" data-feature-id="page/newsletter-inLine" data-pb-fingerprint="0fkivqGnQpy" id="f07Wg82X65zHlq" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 844.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; float: inherit; position: relative; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); max-width: 1000px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: auto !important; margin-left: auto !important; clear: both !important; padding: 0px !important;"><div class="border-bottom- nl-top-hairline" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="newsletter-inline-unit codedNewsletter" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; margin: -10px 0px;"><div class="signup-module row inline-newsletter" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: -10px; margin-left: 0px;">
</div><div class="clear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;" />“I am hopeful about the opportunity to find common ground on this important issue of education and will do whatever I can to be supportive,” she wrote in a separate tweet.<div class="inline-content inline-html" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 12px 0px; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><twitterwidget class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" id="twitter-widget-1" data-tweet-id="801168638782930945" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: static; visibility: visible; display: block; transform: rotate(0deg); max-width: 100%; width: 500px; min-width: 220px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div data-twitter-event-id="0" class="SandboxRoot env-bp-350" style="direction: ltr; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 32, 34); white-space: initial; position: relative;"><div class="EmbeddedTweet EmbeddedTweet--mediaForward media-forward js-clickToOpenTarget js-tweetIdInfo tweet-InformationCircle-widgetParent" data-click-to-open-target="https://twitter.com/MichelleRhee/status/801168638782930945" data-iframe-title="Twitter Tweet" data-dt-full="%{hours12}:%{minutes} %{amPm} - %{day} %{month} %{year}" data-dt-months="Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec" data-dt-am="AM" data-dt-pm="PM" data-dt-now="now" data-dt-s="s" data-dt-m="m" data-dt-h="h" data-dt-second="second" data-dt-seconds="seconds" data-dt-minute="minute" data-dt-minutes="minutes" data-dt-hour="hour" data-dt-hours="hours" data-dt-abbr="%{number}%{symbol}" data-dt-short="%{day} %{month}" data-dt-long="%{day} %{month} %{year}" data-scribe="page:tweet" data-tweet-id="801168638782930945" id="twitter-widget-1" lang="en" data-twitter-event-id="1" style="overflow: hidden; cursor: pointer; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; border-radius: 4px; max-width: 520px; position: relative;"><article class="MediaCard

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overflow: hidden !important; width: 1px !important; height: 1px !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px) !important;">✔</span></div></span><span class="TweetAuthor-screenName Identity-screenName" title="@MichelleRhee" data-scribe="element:screen_name" dir="ltr" style="color: rgb(105, 120, 130);">@MichelleRhee</span></font></a></div></span></div><div class="Tweet-body e-entry-content" data-scribe="component:tweet" style="margin-top: 14px;"><p class="Tweet-text e-entry-title" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; border: none; cursor: text; direction: ltr;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In light of the speculation about the Secretary of Education role, I wanted to clarify my position and what's best for America's students.</font></p><div class="Tweet-metadata dateline" style="color: rgb(105, 120, 130); margin-top: 3.2px;"><a class="u-linkBlend u-url customisable-highlight long-permalink" data-datetime="2016-11-22T21:01:03+0000" data-scribe="element:full_timestamp" href="https://twitter.com/MichelleRhee/status/801168638782930945" style="background-color: transparent; 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margin-bottom: 24px;" /></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As an Asian American woman, Rhee would have brought diversity to a prospective Cabinet that is otherwise shaping up to be largely white and male. She also would have brought a diversity of ideas: Rhee is a longtime Democrat who has been a strong supporter of the Common Core State Standards, which Trump and his base abhor. She says that young undocumented people who have grown up in the United States should have a route to citizenship, putting her squarely at odds with the president-elect, who put mass deportation at the center of his campaign.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Rhee’s blunt pronouncements about broken public schools — and the way she seemed to relish public battles with the teachers union as she instituted sweeping changes in D.C. schools — have made her one of the most widely known figures calling&nbsp;for change in the education system. She has been a foremost voice pushing for the expansion of charter schools and a rare Democrat who embraces vouchers for private schools — on expanding such taxpayer-funded alternatives to traditional public schools, she and Trump see eye to eye.</font></p><p><wp-ad id="slug_inline_bb_2" class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb" data-slot="local/blog/education" data-json="{" targeting="targeting" pos="pos" inline_bb_2="inline_bb_2" ctr="ctr" zeus="zeus" zeus_inline_bb_2="zeus_inline_bb_2" categoryexclusions="categoryExclusions" data-size="[[300,250]," fluid="fluid" data-google-query-id="CPvwmoPvs9QCFQdtfgod1AoCKQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); margin: 15px auto; width: 300px;" /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 0px auto 18px; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And not incidentally, Rhee’s brash style is a lot like Trump’s: The two share the distinction of having fired employees on national television, Trump on his show “The Apprentice” and Rhee during a public television documentary.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/18/federalist-democrat-michelle-rhee-education-secretary-terrible-choice/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/18/federalist-democrat-michelle-rhee-education-secretary-terrible-choice/</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dr susn berry</font></p><div class="entry-content" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin: 10px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.3em; display: inline; clear: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">resident-elect Donald Trump is reportedly meeting Friday with Democrat Michelle Rhee, the former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor and potential candidate for the post of U.S. secretary of education.</font></h2><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 1em 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew Ujifusa, writing at&nbsp;<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Education Week</em>,&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/11/trump_meeting_michelle_rhee_secretary_transition.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>&nbsp;the slated meeting Friday.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Trump’s search for education secretary appears to be crossing party lines,” writes Ujifusa. “Rhee, who has identified as a Democrat throughout her career, is a strong supporter of school choice (including vouchers), which appears to be the top K-12 priority for Trump.”</font></p><div class="tout-sdk tout-mid-article" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rhee, however, who was D.C. schools chancellor from 2007 to&nbsp;2010, is a Common Core supporter, </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">a fact that does not mesh with Trump’s stated goal of finally getting rid of any federal mechanisms that are keeping the boondoggle going.</span></font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Federalist</em>’s Joy Pullmann writes that Rhee “doesn’t fit Trump at all.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“For one, she’s highly skeptical of school choice,” Pullmann says, and continues:</font></p><blockquote style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: "><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She strongly supports charter schools, a good but highly managed government alternative to traditional public schools, and&nbsp;<u><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/04/michelle-rhee-my-break-with-the-democrats.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">prominently reversed her opposition to vouchers in 2013</a></u>.&nbsp;Yet she still supports a highly regulated version of vouchers driven by applying the tests to them that public schools use, which undercuts their very premise. We don’t want&nbsp;to use vouchers to mold private schools into the public schools whose failure justifies vouchers in the first place, but to provide diversity of parent choice in education. That requires light regulation.</font></p></blockquote><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There are a lot of people out there who sort of believe, the free market, let the free market reign, the market will correct itself — give every kid a backpack with their money in it and let them choose wherever they want to go,” Rhee&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2012/03/michelle_rhee_talks_vouchers_and_politics.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a>&nbsp;in a 2012 interview with&nbsp;<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Education Week</em>. “I don’t believe in that model at all.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Instead, she supports highly limited and highly regulated voucher programs just for poor families, not all taxpayers,” says Pullmann.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pullmann observes the all-important distinction among methods of bringing about school choice, and vouchers are a means that have been shown to create the greatest amount of regulation to private and other&nbsp;schools that agree to accept them for low-income students.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A recent&nbsp;<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Education Next</em>&nbsp;poll&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/25/support-school-choice-high-voucher-support-declines/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">shows</a>&nbsp;that while overall support for school choice is high in the United States, support for the use of vouchers to access choice programs has declined.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Program design matters,” Lindsey Burke, education fellow at Heritage Foundation, told Breitbart News. “The poll results found a drop in support for school vouchers, which could reflect recent experiences in states that have heavily regulated their school voucher programs, leading, paradoxically – as the regulations were promulgated in the name of accountability – to lower participation among high quality private schools.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/WorkingPaper-1-Coulson.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">2010 study</a>&nbsp;at the Cato Institute, Andrew Coulson found that voucher programs are more likely to “suffocate the very markets to which they aim to expand access” because state funds—which invariably invite state regulation—are directly transferred, in the form of vouchers, to parents to spend in an alternate education setting.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead, tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts are fast becoming the more popular means to create school choice.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the possible consideration of Rhee as U.S. education secretary raises other&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/10/21/scandal-plagued-kevin-johnson-wont-run/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">concerns</a>.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rhee is&nbsp;<a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2015/10/16/the-comeuppance-of-creepy-obama-crony-kevin-johnson-n2066473" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">married</a>&nbsp;to current Sacramento Mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson, who was the focus of considerable scandal&nbsp;in 2015.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a&nbsp;<a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2015/10/16/the-comeuppance-of-creepy-obama-crony-kevin-johnson-n2066473" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">piece</a>&nbsp;titled “The Comeuppance of Creepy Obama Crony Kevin Johnson,” conservative author Michelle Malkin highlighted&nbsp;published&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/mayor-kevin-johnson-his/content?oid=16919316" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">reports</a>&nbsp;by the&nbsp;<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/07/15/naacp-slams-ca-newspaper-for-racist-cartoon-of-mayor-kevin-johnson/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Sacramento News & Review</a>&nbsp;</em>on Johnson’s alleged “use of public resources for personal gain.” Sports&nbsp;site Deadspin had also&nbsp;<a href="http://deadspin.com/how-kevin-johnson-used-public-money-to-his-own-personal-1708971481" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">slammed</a>&nbsp;Johnson for allegations of “sleazy financial dealings and personal perversities.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Malkin continued, “Among Deadspin’s damaging scoops: an exclusive interview with accuser Mandi Koba and video of her 1996 police interview in which the then-17-year-old victim graphically described repeated sexual molestation by Johnson, then 29 and a star member of the Phoenix Suns.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Having reported on similar behavior by Johnson in 2011, Malkin writes that then-federal inspector General Gerald Walpin of the Corporation for National and Community Service uncovered&nbsp;other examples of “inappropriate contact” between Johnson and several high school students while also probing into misuse of about&nbsp;$1 million in AmeriCorps funds at St. HOPE Academy of California, the charter school organization founded by Johnson.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Malkin reported Walpin concluded Johnson used AmeriCorps funds for his own political and personal purposes.&nbsp;Additionally:</font></p><blockquote style="border-width: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: "><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Johnson’s attorney, Kevin Hiestand, approached at least one of the (St. HOPE) students describing himself only as “a friend of Johnson’s,” and “basically asked me to keep quiet.” She had complained to St. HOPE officials that Johnson groped her sexually after instructing her to grade papers with him in her apartment. According to her interview with Walpin’s investigators, “about one week later, Kevin Johnson offered her $1,000 a month until the end of the program, which she refused to accept.”</font></p></blockquote><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walpin’s office also found that Rhee, who was Johnson’s fiancé at the time and a St. HOPE board member, “played the role of a fixer, doing ‘damage control’” for Johnson, Malkin wrote.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The White House, which so ostentatiously crusades against sexual harassment and the War on Women, looked the other way,” she wrote. “The Obamas and Johnsons are close pals. Reminder: Johnson donated the maximum individual amount to Obama for America, campaigned across the country for Obama in 2008, and bragged to California media during his mayoral run about his friendship and access to both Barack and Michelle Obama.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rhee now&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sthope.org/public-schools-st-hope-public-schools-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class=" x5l" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">chairs</a>&nbsp;the board of St. HOPE Public Schools, the charter school organization her husband started.</font></p></div><footer class="articlefooter" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><aside><h3 style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read More Stories About:</font></h3><p style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Big Government</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/education/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Education</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/charter-schools/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">charter schools</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/donald-trump/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Donald Trump</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/mayor-kevin-johnson/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Mayor Kevin Johnson</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/mayor-kevin-johnson-sexual-harassment/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Mayor Kevin Johnson Sexual Harassment</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/michelle-rhee/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Michelle Rhee</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/school-choice/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">school choice</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/school-vouchers/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">school vouchers</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/trump-cabinet/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump cabinet</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tag/u-s-secretary-of-education/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Secretary of Education</a></font></p></aside></footer><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font><br/>

salon

In the last week or so, <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/entry/our-next-chapter" target="blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">Michelle Rhee stepped down from StudentsFirst</a>, an education reform organization that she founded four years ago. During her tenure at StudentsFirst, and before then, Rhee meticulously crafted her image as a firebrand who intended to shake up education in the country. Although most of the coverage of Rhee and her departure <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/michelle-rhee-students-first-departure" target="blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">has focused on her education theatrics</a>, her remarks on the issue of child poverty have been far more troubling.

In debates about education reform, one very common pattern of arguments has emerged. Education reformers like Rhee jump into the forum and confidently proclaim that poor students are failing to acquire good educations because of bad schools and bad teachers. Then, those who actually know things about child poverty respond that poverty, by itself, is a massive impediment to educational attainment <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/status-and-stress/?r=1" target="blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">because of its damaging effects on human functioning</a>.

On its face, this response should pose no particular problem for education reformers. If they want, they can synthesize these two points by saying that both poverty and bad schools drag down educational attainment, and that we should therefore target both. Under such a synthesis, the reformers would come out in favor of very simple and empirically proven ways (they love data!) <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/7/21/14/one-weird-trick-actually-cuts-child-poverty-half" target="_blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">to dramatically reduce child poverty</a>, and also make the case for their specific education reforms. But, with few exceptions, they don’t do that.

Instead, would-be reformers like Michelle Rhee totally abandon advocating for poverty reduction in favor of flavorless, politically neutral policies that don’t offend big donors. Generally, the refusal to recognize the role poverty plays in diminishing educational attainment forms three themes. In the first, reformers claim that people who chalk up low educational attainment to poverty are just <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-rhee/poverty-must-be-tackled-b_b_1857423.html" target="_blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">excuse-making</a>. This is, of course, manifestly absurd: Someone who says educational outcomes are harmed by poverty is not making an excuse out of poverty; they are identifying it as the (or a) cause. To argue such explanations are really excuses is as absurd as saying that Michelle Rhee is using “bad schools” as an excuse for low educational attainment. In other words, the “excuse” gambit is both false <em style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">and nonsensical.....

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the nation: Levesque’s ask has become reality. According to author Steven Brill, ex–DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee’s new group, StudentsFirst, raised $100 million within a few months of Levesque’s remarks. Rhee’s donors include Rupert Murdoch, philanthropist Eli Broad and Home Depot founder Ken Langone. Rhee’s group has pledged to spend more than $1 billion to bring for-profit schools, including virtual education, to the entire country by electing reform-friendly candidates and hiring top-notch state lobbyists.

===

JEB Bush, who is giving a prime time speech at the RNC Thursday, said Mitt Romney will be a “very good president on education.” But he also praised President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on their education initiatives, including Race to the Top. “This will be very heretic but I’m getting used to being heretical,” Bush said. “The president by picking Arne Duncan did a good thing for the country.”

Rhee, the former Washington D.C. education chancellor who now heads the advocacy group StudentsFirst, said it’s important to continue building bipartisan bridges to counter critics who will continue to try and sow division. “We have to fight really hard against that polarization,” she said.

Comments from the pair came after StudentsFirst sponsored a special screening of “Won’t Back Down,” the soon-to-be-released Hollywood movie about a mother and a teacher who use a parent-trigger-type law to turn around a struggling, inner-city school. They spoke before hundreds at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts along with the film director, Daniel Barnz, producer Mark Johnson and the moderator, former CNN anchor Campbell Brown. (Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also scheduled to be part of the panel, but could not make it because of the weather.)

===

atlantic:

<h1>Why Michelle Rhee's Education 'Brand' Failed in D.C.</h1>

<h5 class="author">By Natalie Hopkinson</h5>

</div>

<div>The urban education reform movement just got a much-needed reality check as D.C. Democratic primary voters fired Mayor Adrian Fenty, and effectively along with him one of the movement's biggest <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2009/0127/is-michelle-rhee-the-new-face-of-education-reform">superstars</a>, District schools chief Michelle Rhee. Chancellor Rhee was as a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/31/AR2010083105065.html">key</a>, polarizing figure in Fenty's reelection campaign, which ended when he was defeated in the Tuesday primary by his challenger, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray.</div>

<div>

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<div>Rhee brazenly politicized her job as Schools Chancellor in a way that may be unprecedented for education bureaucrats. Back in the spring, the charitable arm of Wal-Mart and other corporate foundations <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042702791.html">threatened</a> to yank millions they had donated to break the teacher's union if Rhee was not retained. Then Rhee not so subtly hinted to a reporter that she would not work for Gray. Finally, the weekend before the election, Rhee hit the campaign trail along with Fenty to round up votes in the wealthiest ward in Washington.</div>

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</div>

<div>D.C. voters responded with a resounding rejection of her, her boss and their education policies. (Gray, who has no Republican challenger in this overwhelmingly Democratic city, has not said if he would retain Rhee.)</div>

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<div>Some are <a href="http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/77395/washington-dc-mayoral-race-future-education-reform-michelle-rhee">already blaming racial identity politics</a> and the ghosts of Marion Barry for the resounding defeat of education's Great Hope at the polls. But if education reformers think the election is the problem, they are missing some major lessons in an often racially charged battle for urban school reform. A majority of black voters <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/31/AR2010083105065.html">cited</a> Rhee as a reason to fire her boss, while a majority of white voters cited Rhee as a reason to vote for Fenty. But the stink swirling around education reform in D.C. goes beyond race. The hundreds of millions of corporate dollars used to break the D.C. teachers' union have dangerous <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042702791.html">strings</a> attached.</div>

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<div>There is pushback against the movement to treat public institutions and the precious people in them like factories. And when the impacted public is treated as an obstacle and not a partner to urban reform, it gives the whole effort colonial and paternalistic smell.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>Since Fenty appointed Rhee as schools chancellor in 2007, reformers have been closely watching the once-obscure Teach For America alumna's quick <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/23/AR2009092303309.html">rise</a> from educational <a href="http://www.tntp.org/newsandpress/061207_TNTP.html">entrepreneur</a> to Time magazine <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1862444,00.html">covergirl</a> and the adored subject of squabbling by Barack Obama and John McCain during the 2008 presidential <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/jeff-chu/inquisition/michelle-rhees-wake-call-obama-vs-mccain-education">debates</a>.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>This Spring, Rhee <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/02/AR2010060202762.html">negotiated</a> among the most revolutionary teacher's contracts in the country, which essentially broke the union, loosening tenure protections in exchange for the potential for teachers to make more money and earn performance bonuses. D.C. is being hailed as a model in urban education reform, and there are plans to replicate this model; The Obama Administration is putting more than a billion dollars behind a "performance-based" rewards <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">system</a> similar to the one being tested in D.C.</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>D.C.'s high-profile status as nation's capital means that for decades, our kids have been the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061001496.html">subjects</a> of virtually every passing education fad and experiment--like lab rats. But usually the meddling comes from Congress.  D.C. is the only city where Congress <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB125590715138893147.html">pays</a> private school tuition. About 40 percent of public school kids go to charter schools, also <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/custom?q=cache:4qA5tB3qaNAJ:www.dcpubliccharter.com/data/files/Anniversary/10thanniversary.pdf+history&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=google-coop-np">thanks</a> to Congress. All of this "experimentation" and "competition" has destabilized the system so badly that the most competent D.C. school administrators rarely know how many kids are enrolled in public or charter schools on a given day.</div>

</div>

...

<a href="http://educationnext.org/the-case-against-michelle-rhee/">http://educationnext.org/the-case-against-michelle-rhee/</a> no gains?

=

While much is being made of the Rupert Murdoch-Joel Klein connection this week, few seem to have considered the connections between the beleagured businessman and another big-name education reformer: Michele Rhee, who has been trying to drum up $1 billion to fund her new organization, Students First, for the past six months. A full donors list has never been released by the organization and federal 501c(4) rules allow for anonymous funders, but it’s widely rumored that Murdoch was one of the first big-money guys to commit to funding the fledgling effort.  After two days of emails and phone calls — they must have been freaking out behind the scenes trying to figure out what to do — a Rhee spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny the Murdoch money.  ”Our policy  doesn’t allow me to reveal who our donors are or aren’t.”

<a href="http://www.rheefirst.com/michelle-rhee-wont-say-if-murdoch-is-funding-her">http://www.rheefirst.com/michelle-rhee-wont-say-if-murdoch-is-funding-her</a>

=

pals <a href="http://www.rheefirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Rhee-Company-B1.jpg">http://www.rheefirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Rhee-Company-B1.jpg</a>

<a href="http://www.rheefirst.com/backers">http://www.rheefirst.com/backers</a>

===

StudentsFirst is a 501(c)4 organization based in Sacramento, CA that advocates for education reform. According to its website, StudentsFirst works at both the national and local level to promote school choice, through policies like "parent trigger" and the adoption of charter schools, as well as school accountability programs involving school report cards and educator evaluations based on student achievement.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a>

<h2 style="color: black; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; background: none;">Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Founding_and_Mission" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">1 Founding and Mission</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Policy_Agenda" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2 Policy Agenda</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#School_Choice_and_Parent_Trigger_Laws" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2.1 School Choice and Parent Trigger Laws</a>

<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Pushing_the_ALEC_Agenda" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2.1.1 Pushing the ALEC Agenda</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Eliminating_Teacher_Tenure" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2.2 Eliminating Teacher Tenure</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Reforming_Teacher_Pensions_and_Benefits" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2.3 Reforming Teacher Pensions and Benefits</a>

<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Lobbying_against_defined_benefit_plans" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2.3.1 Lobbying against defined benefit plans</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Funding" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3 Funding</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Personnel" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">4 Personnel</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Staff" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">4.1 Staff</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Board_of_Directors" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">4.2 Board of Directors</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Contact_details" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">5 Contact details</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#Resources_and_articles" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">6 Resources and articles</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#References" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">6.1 References</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</div>

<h2 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Founding and Mission</h2>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">StudentsFirst was founded by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Michelle_Rhee" title="Michelle Rhee" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Michelle Rhee</a>, former chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools, to "lay out a legislative agenda with the kinds of laws that states and local jurisdictions should adopt so that real reform can take place."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-politico-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a>After three years as the head of D.C. schools, Rhee built a national reputation as a hardline reformer, willing to make any change she saw necessary, regardless of concerns from parents and teachers unions.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-politico-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a>

StudentsFirst states as its mission "to build a national movement to defend the interests of children in public education and pursue transformative reform."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-3" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a>

<h2 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Policy Agenda</h2>

<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">School Choice and Parent Trigger Laws</h3>

StudentsFirst also champions so-called parent trigger laws, "empowering parents to trigger the turnaround of a failing school."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-exec-4" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a> "If a majority of parents in a school attendance zone sign a petition, they gain the legal authority to transform their school...including bringing in a new school leader or putting the school under the management of a high-performing charter school operator."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-parenttrigger-6" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a>

<h4 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pushing the ALEC Agenda</h4>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">StudentsFirst supports "rights of parents to organize and demand the transformation of chronically failing schools"<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-parenttrigger-6" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a>, defined by student performance on standardized testing.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW2-7" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a> This so-called "Parent Trigger" law allows parents at any failing school to sign a petition to radically transform the school by: 1) firing the principal, 2) firing half of the teachers, 3) closing the school and letting parents find another option, or 4) converting the school into a charter school.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW1-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a>

While the Parent Trigger law first came to be in California, the idea has been propagated by two controversial right-wing organizations: the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="American Legislative Exchange Council" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> and the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heartland_Institute" title="Heartland Institute" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Heartland Institute</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW1-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a> As CMD has reported, Parent Trigger laws have been backed by groups pushing the privatization of public schools. The pro-privatization <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heartland_Institute" title="Heartland Institute" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Heartland Institute</a> took up the idea in 2010, with <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://heartland.org/policy-documents/parent-trigger-model-transforming-education" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC) 100% 50% no-repeat;">their version of the bill</a> going much further in giving parents the authority to trigger a school's restructuring regardless of whether it is "failing" or not, and calling for the inclusion of a "school voucher" option. The <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC" title="ALEC" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">ALEC</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Education_Task_Force" title="Education Task Force" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Education Task Force</a> approved ALEC's model "Parent Trigger Act" also in 2010 after Heartland brought them the idea.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW1-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a> ALEC's education task force at the time was chaired by for-proift education firm, Connections Academy. Other members on the task force include tech companies, testing companies and for-profit higher-education "diploma mills" like Bridgepoint Education and Corinthian Education<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW1-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a>

According to professors of education and policy at the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin, there is very little empirical evidence to suggest that any of the restructuring models supported by Parent Trigger laws actually work.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW1-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW2-7" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a> Some, like Diane Ravitch, an education historian and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education in the first <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_H.W._Bush" title="George H.W. Bush" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bush</a> Administration, have claimed that Parent Trigger laws are a "clever way to trick parents into seizing control of their schools and handing it over to private corporations."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-PRW2-7" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a>

<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eliminating Teacher Tenure</h3>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In efforts to elevate teaching quality, StudentsFirst has made eliminating teacher tenure the cornerstone of its operations.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-9" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a> The organization argues that "tenure must be eliminated so that teachers feel best protected by the quality of their work and the role they play on the teaching team."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-10" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[10]</a>

<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reforming Teacher Pensions and Benefits</h3>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">StudentsFirst calls for wiser spending of taxpayer money by "creating pension and benefit programs responsibly."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-exec-4" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a> The organization lobbies against defined benefit plans (plans that promise a specified monthly benefit on retirement that is predetermined) for teachers, advocating for a shift towards defined contribution plans (in which future benefits fluctuate on the basis of investment earnings).<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-11" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[11]</a>

<h4 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lobbying against defined benefit plans</h4>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">StudentsFirst pushes "for states to abandon defined benefit plans – packages which guarantee certain retirement benefits for public workers like teachers – in favor of defined contribution plans, where the benefits are not guaranteed."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-wapo-12" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[12]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Dan_Loeb" title="Dan Loeb" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Dan Loeb</a>, a hedge fund manager and member of the board of the StudentsFirst New York chapter, has recently come under scrutiny for his work as head of Third Point, LLC. He manages money for several public school funds, including the Ohio Public Employees' Retirement System, the New Jersey State Investment Council, the Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System, and the City of Danbury Retirement System, while simultaneously working for StudentsFirst, which lobbies specifically against these kinds of plans.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-wapo-12" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[12]</a>

<h2 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Funding</h2>

In its second year, between August 2011 and July 2012, StudentsFirst raised $28.5 million, more than tripling the $7.6 million the group raised during its first year.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-budget-14" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[14]</a> StudentsFirst spent more than $3.6 million on political activities during the same time period.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/StudentsFirst#cite_note-budget-14" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[14]</a>

<h2 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Personnel</h2>

<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Staff</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Michelle_Rhee" title="Michelle Rhee" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Michelle Rhee</a>, Founder and CEO</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Kahlil Byrd, President</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Angelia Dickens, General Counsel</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Eric Lerum, Vice President of National Policy</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Tim Melton, Vice President of Legislative Affairs</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">George Parker, Senior Fellow</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Rebecca Sibilia, Chief Financial Officer</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Enoch Woodhouse, Vice President of Operations</li>

</ul>

<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Board of Directors</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/connie-chung-studentsfirst-board-of-directors" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC) 100% 50% no-repeat;">Connie Chung</a>, journalist</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/bill-cosby-studentsfirst-board-of-directors" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC) 100% 50% no-repeat;">Bill Cosby</a>, actor and comedian</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Jennifer M. Johnson, COO and Executive VP, Franklin Resources, Inc</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Joel I. Klein, CEO of the Education Division and Executive VP, Office of the Chairman, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/News_Corporation" title="News Corporation" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">News Corporation</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Roland S. Martin, journalist</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Jalen Rose, former NBA start and announcer/analyst for ESPN/ABC</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Blair Taylor, Chief Community Officer, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Starbucks" title="Starbucks" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Starbucks Coffee Company</a></li>

</ul>

<h2 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contact details</h2>

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