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Published: 02/22/11

Union Protests in Wisconsin Could Affect Obama's Chances in 2012

By  Andrea Stone - AOL News
Union Protests in Wisconsin Could Affect Obama's Chances in 2012

WASHINGTON -- The protests in Wisconsin over Republican efforts to breach the last major bastion of organized labor -- state and local governments -- are likely to reverberate in the 2012 election. But to whose advantage is anyone's guess. Democrats say Gov. Scott Walker's bid to close his state's budget gap by gutting the power of the state's public employee unions, as well as similar efforts in more than a dozen states, have energized the party faithful, whose enthusiasm for President Barack Obama has waned from the heady and historic days of 2008. Jim Watson, AFP / Getty ...

Published: 02/11/11

Opinion: Can Michelle Rhee Save Public Schools?

By  Richard Whitmire - AOL News
Opinion: Can Michelle Rhee Save Public Schools?

If school reformer Michelle Rhee hasn't yet parachuted into your hometown, chances are she soon will. You'll recognize her immediately -- she's the blunt-talking, young Korean-American woman praised by governors, scolded by teachers unions and pursued by the press. Alex Wong, Getty Images Former Washington, D.C., public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is taking her successful reform ideas nationwide. As someone who spent the better part of a year researching a book about Rhee, allow me to set the scene for what made her famous in Washington, D.C.; why she's visiting your state; ...

Published: 12/3/10

Michelle Rhee, Controversial Education Reformer, to Advise New Florida Governor

By  Tom Diemer - Politics Daily
Michelle Rhee, Controversial Education Reformer, to Advise New Florida Governor

No one thought former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee would be out of work for long. Rhee, who could not come to terms with the District's new mayor, has signed on with the education transition team of Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott, a Republican. Scott's office said the nationally "recognized education reformer" would help him find innovative ways to "create a new education system for a new economy," the Washington Post reported. Tall task, and the transition office did not spell out Rhee's responsibilities beyond advising. But she certainly ruffled feathers in Washington ...

Published: 11/12/10

Opinion: Teachers Unions in the Forefront of Education Reform

By  not in system - AOL News
Opinion: Teachers Unions in the Forefront of Education Reform

(Nov. 12) -- Disparaging our children's teachers and blaming teachers unions won't improve public education. While, sadly, bashing unions is the specialty and mission of the Center for Union Facts, as it demonstrated in its AOL News opinion piece last week ("Will Teachers Unions Bend to Education Reform?"), the American Federation of Teachers prefers to focus on concrete solutions that will improve the current state of the American public education system. Do we have to makes changes? Absolutely. But improving schools requires building on what works and replicating it. There are countless ...

Published: 10/13/10

Five Reasons Michelle Rhee's Departure Does Not Spell Disaster for D.C. Schools

By  Melinda Henneberger - Politics Daily
Five Reasons Michelle Rhee's Departure Does Not Spell Disaster for D.C. Schools

All right, so Michelle Rhee did not take my unsought advice -- which does happen now and again, even in my own house. (I'd hoped that the hyped-to-the-heavens Washington, D.C. schools chancellor, who has dismissed as "overrated" such niceties as collaboration and consensus-building, might astound us by sticking around and at least trying to work it out with the city's mayor-almost-elect, Vince Gray. Sure, she owes her high profile as the country's best-known school reformer to Adrian Fenty, the incumbent Gray defeated in last month's primary, which effectively decided the race in heavily ...

Published: 10/13/10

Did the White House Abandon Michelle Rhee, Education's Superwoman?

By  Alex Wagner - Politics Daily
Did the White House Abandon Michelle Rhee, Education's Superwoman?

Two days before the resignation on Wednesday of D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, President Obama took a little-noticed meeting with the young students featured in the hugely hyped documentary "Waiting for Superman." For the reform-minded president, it was, perhaps, tacit approval of the film's message: the documentary lays much of the blame for the country's failing and underperforming schools squarely on teachers, and calls for an overhaul of how educators are paid and evaluated. Teacher pay and evaluation -- as well as turning around low-performing schools -- are, in fact, ...

Published: 10/13/10

DC Schools Chief Michelle Rhee Stepping Down

By  not in system - AOL News
DC Schools Chief Michelle Rhee Stepping Down

(Oct. 13) -- D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has announced she will leave her post at the end of the month, a development seen by supporters as a blow to education reform. The decision comes after weeks of speculation about Rhee's future in the wake of Mayor Adrian Fenty's loss to Vincent Gray in September's Democratic primary election. (In heavily Democratic Washington, the primary is tantamount to a general election.) ...

Published: 10/13/10

D.C. Schools Chief Michelle Rhee Stepping Down; Move Seen as Blow to Education Reform

By  Alex Wagner - Politics Daily
D.C. Schools Chief Michelle Rhee Stepping Down; Move Seen as Blow to Education Reform

D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has announced she will leave her post at the end of the month, a development seen by supporters as a blow to education reform. The decision comes after weeks of speculation about Rhee's future in the wake of Mayor Adrian Fenty's loss to Vincent Gray in September's Democratic primary election. (In heavily Democratic Washington, the primary is tantamount to a general election.) Rhee, who was hired by Fenty to reform the city's trouble school system, had taken aggressive measures. Last fall, she fired 266 of the city's teachers; this summer, she fired ...

Published: 09/20/10

D.C.'s Mayoral Primary: When Losing Can Feel Like Winning

By  Eleanor Clift - Politics Daily
D.C.'s Mayoral Primary: When Losing Can Feel Like Winning

The candidate I supported won the Republican primary for mayor in the District of Columbia, a victory that doesn't signal a change in my politics -- nor his. Adrian Fenty declined the GOP nod, the product of write-in votes, and will leave office in January after a single term as the youngest and, at least in my memory, the city's most energetic and dynamic mayor. I backed Fenty and when he lost his bid for reelection, it felt like a member of the family had taken a big hit. He was my councilman in Ward 4, which is racially mixed, and I've been buying running shoes from his parents' running ...

Published: 09/13/10

Why D.C.'s Next Mayor Ought to Keep Michelle Rhee (Who Doesn't Love My Husband)

By  Melinda Henneberger - Politics Daily
Why D.C.'s Next Mayor Ought to Keep Michelle Rhee (Who Doesn't Love My Husband)

If Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty loses to his Democratic primary challenger, D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray, this Tuesday as expected, I hope Gray does something wholly unexpected and finds a way to keep Michelle Rhee on as chancellor of the city's long-struggling public schools. Not because she has in the last three years miraculously transformed the schools, where only 9 percent of ninth-graders will graduate from college within five years of leaving the system. And not because she's necessarily the superwoman we've been waiting for, as per Davis Guggenheim's admiring documentary ...

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