Video a Microcosm of Rhee DC Legacy

 The video below is a microcosm of one of the goals of ed deformers - to drive a wedge between teachers and parents by any means necessary. You will continue to see this story repeated over and over - even the same words will be used in just about every city under the attack of the ed deformers.

But guess what? It just ain't working. Check out Sue Peters at HufPo: From the Fall of Cathie Black to the Mirages of Michelle Rhee: A Bad Month for Corporate Ed Reform. And last night was a rough one for Harlem Success Academy in District 14. The lies no longer are working. I will report on that event later.

The 6 minute video has it all: an imposed decision from the top, a young ed deform principal put in charge of a middle school who came from an elementary school and had not been a principal before. She was "Rhee-like with an outright disdain for the teachers and the other adults who worked at the school." On the first back to school night with parents and teachers and some students - the new principal comes in: Parents and students: "I'm the hip-hop principal. I want to let you know it's parents and us against the adults in this school, including the teachers."

From Rhee First: The Sad Legacy Under Rhee

This gripping video shows community members tell the tragic story of how Rhee failed to heed the warnings of teachers, parents, police, and community members, and the chaos that followed in their school.  The Hart school story underscores the kind of non-collaborative model of education reform that Rhee believes in, despite her rhetoric to the contrary.  Yet she continues to spin her tales of illusory successes. In an article today in the Huffington Post, Rhee said:
“I know some of my decisions were unpopular and generated what some might call bad press…….. but making real change requires decisive action. Let’s examine my decision to close 23 schools where enrollment numbers were low, as was academic performance levels. In the end, the kids got to go to better schools that were still in their neighborhoods”.

This video tells an opposite story–one among many such stories that deserve to be heard.

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