A YouTube video circulating on the Internet provides some of the most candid confessions to date from D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee about the frustrations she’s faced in trying to weed out poor-performing school staff and in getting communities to understand just how troubled the schools are.

Rhee, speaking to the Democrats for Education Reform a week ago, asks the group and other like-minded agencies to support her in the likely uphill battle to pass legislation allowing for the firings of hundreds of weak central office members.

Such legislation, which has yet to be submitted to D.C. Council members, will be key. Yet it could be a tough sell to local politicians, who Rhee urged would have to have the “intestinal fortitude” to support her in passing such a drastic measure.

“This is the only way that we’ll be able to change the system, the only way,” the chancellor tells audience members in the 12-minute clip. “If we don’t have high quality then we’re not going to be able to change the system.”

This story continues below
Advertisement

Rhee declined to talk about the video Friday.

Since it became public that Rhee planned to take the needed steps to clean house, she said she’s been bombarded by people who are fearful about the fates of any central office members losing their jobs.Such thinking is “skewed,” she complains during the speech.

“We’re not here to make sure that we’re taking care of people; we’re here to make sure kids get educated,” Rhee continues.

In speaking out against the bureaucracy that she’s up against, the chancellor describes D.C. Public Schools as running “counter to the way any good organization operates.”

“It’s mind-boggling,” she says.

In terms of the school communities, Rhee’s complaint is that there’s not enough of an awareness of how problematic some of the failing schools are.

A video posted on YouTube shows Michelle Rhee discussing the D.C. public school system.

For instance, she speaks of visiting a school in which less than 10 percent of students are deemed proficient, yet parents are convinced that the school is thriving and are only worried about the site closing.

“The very people that we are doing the most disservice to don’t understand the level to which we are not doing our jobs,” she says.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com