Michelle Rhee - Rant and Rave (my 25 cents)

Alas, my mayoral candidate, Adrain Fenty, did not win the primary last week, so it is looking more and more likely that his hand-picked, school reform champion and My Hero, Michelle Rhee, will not remain the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools.  At least that what it looks like here after Rhee and likely mayor-elect Vince Gray met yesterday. (Photo cribbed from the Internet)

As a mom to a child in the DC public schools, I'm pretty discouraged.  Rhee has been a reformer in the true sense of the word, bringing in sweeping and widespread change.  And while I'm usually not much of a radical - I believe that change is generally incremental and requires process - when the situation is as dire as it was when she arrived on the scene, there is no other choice in the matter than to be monomaniacal (City Paper's word - but I love it - check out their other endorsements for the primary, a total hoot!). Seriously, DCPS was an utterly failing system - poor performance, ineffective teachers, crumbling infrastructure, and a systems failure on everything from the timely delivery of textbooks to the opening of schools on time.  And yet somehow, in America, in Washington, DC (our Nation's Capital) that had become good enough.  Good enough for public school, good enough for urban schools, good enough for poor people, good enough for blacks.  Sorry, but that status quo is just plain unacceptable.  

Rhee didn't have the time nor the charge to fix things with finesse and pretty dancing - she needed to make tough, hardcore decisions - and frankly she had results to show for it.  Enrollment stabilized and went up for the first time in years.  Test performance improved.  Infrastructure improvement and schools modernization was plain staggering.  And she took a stand against ineffective teachers - she fired them!  hundreds of them! at a time!  Ouch, ok, that's harsh, and hard, and it did not win her many fans...except people like me who sort of sat there stunned, thinking, "Wow, she's brave...and I'm scared shitless of her."

I imagine that it was entirely possible, even probable, that there were a handful of innocent casualties in those decisions, and that is unjust and a real shame.  Not my usual scene at all.  In fact, I had my own feathers ruffled a few times, when parents and other stakeholders were not consulted in certain decisions - like the middle school consolidation plan for my neighborhood and the school calendar which starts two weeks before Labor Day and had spring break a full 3 weeks before Easter.  Had she consulted me (proxy for engaged parents of public schoolers), I would have had a few constructive inputs that might have led to a bit more informed decisions, not to mention better buy-in from those of us who had to swallow it.  But again, Rhee's brash and bold style was a necessary overcorrection for decades of wussy, ball-less leadership on a critical issue in this city and our society - not to mention my own daughter's future.  

Rhee has had national-level visibility for her reforms - Time magazine, New York Times, Oprah, and the recently released documentary on US public education, Waiting for Superman (Note to self: must see this!).  In each she is portrayed in a tough, but good, light.  And it's nice for a change, that reform is of our existing public school system - not sexy charter schools, school "choice" initiatives (Aside: why are so many school choice people anti-chice?), and idealistic Teach for America young'uns (who are fabulous young adults, I know several of them - but sadly, I've found that  they're often burnt out on education reform by the time their 25 years old, and *know* firsthand the need for broad systemic reform.).  And I was always proud that that bold woman portrayed in the national media heads up my daughter's school system.  Ay me - I almost feel like I'm betraying my own self when I am so dismissive of  the important concepts of participation and a consultative process (as Rhee, and her boss and champion, Fenty were - and ultimately lost an election and a education reform war that were his/hers to win!).

I could go on and on about why I was a Fenty supporter  and how great he helped make DC.  And on and on, about how Vince Gray gives me great, great pause about DC's future, despite being a man of integrity.    And I suppose, while I am profoundly disappointed and slightly pessimistic about the whole thing, I think it will still be hard to reverse the progress that has been made in this city and in these schools over these last years - though it will probably get slowed down.  And finally, my sometimes fear..no make that terror...that my daughter and her education are one big guinea pig in my little experiment in urban living and public schooling.  But I'm still here, as long as it's working...and it's still working, as far as I can tell.  So far, so good...knock wood.