An engaged Chancellor Rhee

November 8, 3:28 PMDC Ward 5 Community ExaminerRobert Vinson Brannum

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  A newly engaged Chancellor Rhee at an education forum.

Is DC Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee now engaged?  The question is not related to her personal life, but rather to her governmental responsibilities and being held accountable to the public.

In a disastrous appearance before the Council of the District of Columbia regarding her decision to fire 388 DCPS employees, DCPS Chancellor Rhee boasted she placed herself above the prerogative of an elected legislature. Chancellor Rhee may now be trying to find a way to regroup and to repair her public image.  It may be too little, too late.

According to some, DCPS Chancellor Rhee may have belatedly come to realize she did not do herself or her reform efforts any good as she gave her belligerent, dismissive, and arrogant Council testimony.  However, it was vintage Chancellor Rhee.  Later, in the words of at least one attendee during a recent unannounced meeting with some DCPS staff and selected parents, Chancellor Rhee acknowledged she has not been as open to public engagement as she should have been in the past.  She reportedly indicated a willingness to become open to the views of other District education stakeholders.  One suggestion made to her was to make a public apology to the public and to the Council for her personal abrasiveness, as well as recognizing her policy mismanagement.  Do not hold your breath for an apology.

Recent events may have awakened Chancellor Rhee toward reality.  However, it seems her allies at the editorial board of The Washington Post, special interest business and education reform groups, and other newspaper columnists have not experienced a comparable epiphany and willingness to acknowledge her mistakes.   During a recent appearance at a very supportive District public education forum organized by DC School Reform Now (largely a commercial pitch for KIPP school management), false and misleading comments continue to be made asserting DCPS has been failing for over 50 years. Another fallacious argument made by supporters of Chancellor Rhee is those who oppose her and DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty are opposed to education reform.  

In an op-ed piece published in the Sunday, November 8, 2009 edition of The Washington Post, former Ward 3 DC council member Kathy Patterson faults Chancellor Rhee, although without naming her, for ignoring the Council and its rights of legislative oversight.  Despite the valid points raised by Ms. Patterson, the editorial board of The Washington Post should not attempt to hide behind the nuanced words of a former member of DC Council to raise a mild admonition of Chancellor Rhee and still misrepresenting Chancellor Rhee's critics. 

The editorial board of The Washington Post and other supporters of Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty need to stop asserting the only path for District education reform is with Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty. They also manipulate test result data to manufacture dramatic improvement in DCPS. In her op-ed column, Ms. Patterson offers a way back from the brink of continued District public education disaster by highlighting the importance of trust and public communication. However, that is not the management style of Chancellor Rhee or Mayor Fenty. It most certainly has not been the way of the editorial board of The Washington Post, which continues only to offer its op-ed pages to newly formed education organizations supporting Chancellor Rhee, while it and other proponents of Chancellor Rhee's initiatives ignore decade's old education councils in Ward 4, Ward 5, Ward 7, and the DC Federation of Civic Associations. 

Mr. Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor and Ms. JoAnn Armao, education editorial writer for The Washington Post print regular editorials and op-ed columns hailing Chancellor Rhee.  However, they have steadfastly refused to offer "equal time" to critics of Chancellor Rhee with alternative views for positive and effective District education reform. Their clear editorial objective is to force feed onto the District public only a one-sided review of education reform.  The idea education reform in the District started with Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty is bogus.  Their notion if you do not support their reform initiatives, you do not support education reform and children is intellectually illogical, irrational, as well as dishonest. 

But, their most vicious and pernicious theme is Africa-Americans in the District of Columbia do not care about the education of African-American children.

During her sworn testimony during the DC Superior Court hearing on a lawsuit filed by the Washington Teachers Union, Ms. Lisa Marie Ruda, DCPS Chief of Staff apparently stated the DCPS staff firings were not related to teacher or staff effectiveness, but rather to the DCPS budget shortfall.  Accordingly, those around Chancellor Rhee with knowledge of events who claim these recent firings were necessary to rid DCPS of "bad teachers" are saying Ms. Ruda may have committed perjury and are hypocrites. 

There is some common sense in the opinion of former councilwoman Kathy Patterson. However, those critical of Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty are not who must park their egos to get along.  The fundamental issue is Chancellor Rhee, Mayor Fenty, the editorial board of The Washington Post, and education reform groups like DC School Reform Now fail on factors of trust, openness, and credibility with the public and do not really put kids first.  They have a problem with the truth.

E-mail contact: rbrannum@robertbrannum.com