A fun social experiment: Walk into a Washington D.C. public school and mention “Michelle Rhee.” Chaos ensues. Local parents scream in horror; the Teacher’s Union immediately materializes with pitchforks.
Rhee, who served as D.C.’s School Chancellor from 2007 to 2010, was initially regarded as an efficient and visionary education reformer, promising to transform embarrassingly underperforming public schools by clearing out ineffective teachers and eliminating unsuccessful schools. She resigned after closing 23 schools and firing at least 241 teachers with minimal public input
Being from the D.C. area myself — yes, The Daily Tar Heel is lucky enough to employ a REAL D.C. INSIDER — I remember Rhee’s reign. Her aggressive purge of D.C. public schools was hugely unpopular.
Rhee was even more controversial because of her overwhelming support for the Common Core standards. Common Core, developed in 2009 by state leaders from 48 states, was intended to create a national movement to better educate American kids for college and careers, introducing stricter expectations in English and math.
Much of the motivation behind Common Core came from a sense of international panic. Funding for schools that adopt the Common Core standards is available through Race to the Top grants, a name that evokes a sense of Space Race-era competition.
I would assume, given his self-proclaimed desire to make America great again, that Trump would be in favor of elevating U.S. education standards to a competitive international level. Common Core, though, has become a partisan issue. Advocates for states’ rights, usually conservatives, insist that federal education standards undermine the voice of local people in their children’s educations.
Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly blasted Common Core. He regarded it as a “disaster” of an attempt by the government to “take decisions away from parents and local school boards.” Gov. Mike Pence made Indiana the first state to adopt and reject Common Core. And yet, when looking for a new Secretary of Education, Trump recently met with Michelle Rhee.
Trump’s potential appointment of Rhee seems completely incongruous with his campaign promises to forgo Washington insiders and fight against federal control of education. Perhaps Trump simply resolved himself to the inevitable mingling with Washingtonians that accompanies the presidency, or perhaps he doesn’t understand the apparent ferocity and magnitude of Rhee’s will.
Either way, I would love to see Trump challenge Rhee on the importance of national standards for education. Whether or not Rhee’s strong-handed version of educational reform in D.C. was correct, I believe that we need people like Rhee in Trump’s new government — efficient, strong-willed, passionate people who will, hopefully, fight for their causes within our strange new political context, even if — especially if — that means fighting against their new boss.
