Former Washington, D.C., schools chief and founder of the website studentsfirst.org, Michelle Rhee, came back to Philly to participate in the Philadelphia Speaker series at the Kimmel Center on Monday. The auditorium was nearly full and several teachers outside picketed.
Michelle Rhee seems to be the type of person that you either really like or you really hate. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground probably because she tends to rub people in the education system the wrong way.
Rhee claims to be a reformer who’s in favor of school vouchers and merit pay for teachers, but that isn’t all.
Rhee cemented her reputation while overseeing the D.C. schools. She wanted teacher quality in her schools and would fire teachers who didn’t quite meet her standards of quality. When layoffs were required she refused to go along with the program by laying off teachers who lacked seniority. In fact, that’s one of her agendas. Rhee doesn’t think that lay offs should follow the last in, first out (LIFO) policy. She wants the ineffective or, as she puts it, bad teachers to go.
Rhee feels that keeping teachers just because they have seniority is hurting the schools; that it causes more layoffs because the newer teachers get paid the least so there's more of them and it hurts the lower performing schools because they’re the ones with the newer teachers.
During her time in Washington, Rhee took a lot of heat for her position regarding educational policy and eventually lost her job. Now many states such as Pennsylvania, New York, Idaho and California are taking a hard look at the LIFO policy and whether they can get rid of it. This is why Rhee is so popular.
On Monday night, Rhee was asked if she was interested in becoming the next superintendent of Philly schools which she didn’t answer, but imagine this. It would be quite a coup for Rhee to become the superintendent here. If she could take down the PFT and the teachers in Philly, other states will follow.
The PFT would have their hands full because Rhee is known for being a fighter who refuses to back down. Perhaps her visits here and in Harrisburg aren’t as much of a coincidence as everyone thinks. It also helps that Rhee, right now, is the darling of the Republican Party and Governor Corbett is a Republican who hates the School District of Philadelphia.
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