Did the White House Abandon Michelle Rhee, Educations 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, core tenets of the administration’s Race to the Top initiative. In Rhee, President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had a near perfect partner right in their own backyard. Appointed by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty in 2007, Rhee came in to clean up the District’s deeply troubled school system and did so aggressively, firing more than 500 teachers. She also closed 23 schools, fired 63 principals a
