Well well well look how the mighty have fallen, Change.org has officially dropped Michelle Rhee's anti union StudentsFirst organization (full story at the bottom). Change.org is liberal, online organization that attempts to create social change by the use of online petitions so them affiliating with Rhee in any way, shape or form made no sense to me. Apparently this decision came as a shock to Rhee and her affiliates. I guess they assumed they could ride the BS wave of Waiting For Superman forever. Once again I just don't understand her. For those who aren't from the DC area and who only know her by the glowing interviews and documentaries she's been featured in let's look at some more realistic facts.
Not long after taking office she closed down several public schools without holding hearings
-She fired a very large number of teachers in the middle of the school day. The teachers who were being fired were told to gather up their belongings and leave the buildings.This caused an insane backlash by students, parents and other teachers. In one school the students even walked out in a heated protest that ended with police being called.
-When speaking about the 266 teachers she fired Ms. Rhee had this to say "I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of schools," "Why wouldn't we take those things into consideration?" Needless to say this was far from true and she was later forced to retract her statement after pressure from teachers unions and the school board.
- She has also been accused of not reporting complete budget figures at D.C. council hearings, excluding parents from involvement, hiring former supporters to conduct an evaluation of her performance, opposing student protests of her security policies, managing using authoritarian principles, spending considerable time before the national media (Time, PBS, lecture circuit) instead of visiting schools
And that's not even the half of it. I have only the best wishes for Rhee, as long as it's far away from education and DC
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