Rhee's Group Helped Pass Controversial Ohio Teachers Bill

Huff Po:

The nonprofit group set up by former Washington D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is facing criticism for hiring a lobbyist to work on controversial legislation in Ohio that partially restricted the collective bargaining rights of teachers.

 For those that don't know Michele Rhee has been a media star recently for the tough reforms she implemented as Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools under former Mayor Adrian Fenty. Ever since Fenty was voted out of office in 2010, Rhee has appeared on several news shows, was the main protagonist in the recent documentary "Waiting for Superman", and started a group called StudentsFirst to promote educational reform. Rhee's become a controversial figure among the education reform movement. During her time as chancellor, she negotiated a form of performance-based pay for teachers, closed 21 public schools due to excess capacity, and fired 241 teachers due to poor evaluations. Her fans point to her tough straight-forward approach, her demands for accountability, and the improvement of test scores under her watch. She's been praised as a breath of fresh air to a system that some see as bloated, unaccountable, and failing. While her detractors claim that she is anti-union, that she conducted politically motivated firings, and that many of the test results had been doctored. Many of her policies were unpopular with D.C. residents and is cited as the main reason Mayor Adrian Fenty was voted out of office. In addition, since leaving office, she has sided with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker over the recent budget cuts that included the abolition of collective bargaining rights. Considering this, her group's support for a similar bill in Ohio comes as no surprise.

As someone who is going to school right now with the intention of becoming a teacher, news like this hits home. Too often teachers and their unions have become the subject of scorn for people unsatisfied with the performance of our public schools. Yes, there are bad teachers out there, and yes some deserve to be fired, but there are bad employees in any profession. This notion that teacher are fat cats living high off the hog is simply laughable. Most teachers I know are dedicated to their job, work hard for not a lot of pay, and put up with YOUR children 180 days out of the year (sometimes more). This crusade against teachers unions is more about politics than it is real education reform. Republicans are trying to crush what is essentially the base of the Democratic party under the banner of "fixing public education". I don't pretend to know all the answers and I certainly don't know how to improve test scores, but if we are going to reform public education teachers deserve a seat at the table. Teachers know better than anyone what works best in the classroom and what doesn't, they don't deserve to be made out as villians.