Chancellor Michelle Rhee: Savior or Corrupter of D.C. Schools?

The D.C. school system ranks third in the nation for student funding, yet sits near the end of the list for performance. It seems sometimes that even politicians realize that you can only throw money at a problem for so long when all you get is the same result. Sometimes, a fundamental change is required to make the money do its job. For the D.C. school system, Michelle Rhee appears to be the answer. More about D.C.'s school system failure can be found at http://www.citizenlink.org/fnif/A000007084.cfm.

Michelle Rhee, whose parents emigrated from Korea in the 1960s, received a Bachelor's degree in government in 1992 and a master's degree in public policy. As a recruit of Teach for America, a non-profit organization that works to remove injustice and unfairness from schools, Michelle Rhee taught for three years before founding The New Teacher Project, another non-profit organization that finds and trains new teachers for needy schools. In 2007, the Washington D.C. mayor appointed Michelle Rhee as the D.C. public schools chancellor. Michelle Rhee only agreed accepted the appointed on the condition that the mayor would back all of her decisions to change school system's trend of poor performance. More about her history can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Rhee.

Since her appointment as chancellor of the D.C. school system Michelle Rhee has closed 23 schools and fired over 30 principals and cut over 100 jobs from the central office staff. CNN quoted Michelle Rhee, "We are always going to put the best interests of kids above the rights, privileges and priorities of adults". Michelle Rhee then explained that only 12% of the eighth grade students are proficient in reading and that only 8% are proficient in math. Her plan is to completely restructure the school system from the top down within eight years.

Michelle Rhee is only in her second year as chancellor and her quick-draw methods to change the system has been met with criticism. Some critics say that the methods Michelle Rhee is using are reckless and dangerous. Critics have challenged Michelle Rhee on her use of monetary rewards for attendance and good behavior. Michelle Rhee defends her methods by pointing out that outside of school there are far too many incentives taking student's focus away from their learning experience and that the monetary rewards help to reclaim that focus. You can read more about Michelle Rhee and her plan at http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/09/dc.schools/index.html.

Whether you are a proponent of quick change or slow change, so far Michelle Rhee is determined that she has only made positive steps forward and that her eight year goal will be achieved, and the mayor of D.C. appears to be very please with her efforts so far.