Etc.

Prominent feminist writer Mary Thom, 68, died Friday from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.

She was one of the founders of Ms. magazine.
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Speaking of obituaries, is there anything that can be learned from the rise and crashing fall of one of the nation's leading sociopaths?

I am not kidding when I say Michelle Rhee is a sociopath. She fits the description to a "t."
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Tell me about it:

Forty-six percent of all US adults did not have insurance for the full year, or had coverage that provided insufficient protection from health costs. Nearly a third—55 million—were uninsured at some time in 2012. Some 30 million people—an additional 16 percent—were insured, but had such high out-of-pocket costs that they could be considered underinsured, according to the report.

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Whatever you do, don't do it.

Don't go into teaching anyway; you will be used and abused and tossed out like garbage if you are unlucky enough to have a bad administrator.

I had two terrible ones in a row, and they made my life hell.

All About the Recent Cheating Scandals

Good report I saw on YouTube:

Despite Being Discredit by Scandal,

Michelle Rhee is still flitting around from legislature to legislature trying to pull her anti-public education scam on people. She is trying to get a "parent trigger" law enacted all the while she has a likely prison term hanging over her head thanks to the D.C. testing scandal which occurred on her watch.

I know the term "sociopath" gets thrown around a lot, but I truly believe Michelle Rhee IS one. There is no hint of a conscience or of appropriate boundaries.

Rhee bragged about duct taping students--a firing and license revocation offense--when she was a "teacher." She allowed filming of her firing a principal, which was shown on national television. She's outright lied on her resume about her "achievements" as a "teacher" (she was a TFA, hence the quotation marks around the word "teacher"). In interviews she comes across as somebody totally soulless.

How They Did It

A more accurate headline should read how Michelle Rhee did it, since teachers never risk their licenses to manipulate standardized testing results.

They are always pressured to do so at the risk of losing their careers.

Anyway, more info about the cheating scandal in D.C.:

What may be the most most egregious case is at Langdon Education Center, where there are also allegations of cheating in years prior to 2012, the year that is the focus of the new report. Concerns about widespread cheating over the years on high-stakes tests in D.C. schools were heightened late last week with the publication of a 2009 memo that raised suspicions about nearly 200 educators cheating on the 2008 test, when Michelle Rhee was schools chancellor.

The report mentioned in the article

Michelle Rhee on the Ropes

Chris Hayes of MSNBC looks at the latest dirt on the filthy Michelle Rhee by interviewing John Merrow:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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She can go to prison for all I care, and she should take her buddies Obama and Duncan with her.

Rheegate

USA Today had a report based on John Merrow's expose linked yesterday about a memo warning of test tampering in the D.C. public schools during the reign of district dictator Michelle Rhee:

The 2009 memo was written by an outside analyst, Fay "Sandy" Sanford, who had been invited by then-chancellor Michelle Rhee to examine students' irregular math and reading score gains. It was sent to Rhee's top deputy for accountability.

The memo notes that nearly all of the teachers at one Washington elementary school had students whose test papers showed high numbers of wrong-to-right erasures and asks, "Could a separate person have been responsible?"

It recommends that DCPS contact its legal department "as soon as you think it advisable" and ask them to determine "what possible actions can be taken against identified offenders."

Something tells me this scandal isn't going away.

Can Michelle Rhee Stay Out of Prison?

Via Diane Ravitch is this piece by one-time Rhee groupie John Merrow, who has seemed to have changed his tune as of late.

So will she be able to avoid the fate of Atlanta's Beverly Hall?

Michelle A. Rhee, America’s most famous school reformer, was fully aware of the extent of the problem when she glossed over what appeared to be widespread cheating during her first year as Schools Chancellor in Washington, DC. A long-buried confidential memo from her outside data consultant suggests that the problem was far more serious than kids copying off other kids’ answer sheets. (“191 teachers representing 70 schools”). Twice in just four pages the consultant suggests that Rhee’s own principals, some of whom she had hired, may have been responsible (“Could the erasures in some cases have been done by someone other than the students and the teachers?”).

Rhee has publicly maintained that, if bureaucratic red tape hadn’t gotten in the way, she would have investigated the erasures. For example, in an interview [1] conducted for PBS’ “Frontline” before I learned about the confidential memo, Rhee told me, “We kept saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to do this; we just need to have more information.’ And by the time the information was trickling in back and forth, we were about to take the next year’s test. And there was a new superintendent of education that came in at the time. And she said, ‘Okay, well, we’re about to take the next test anyway so let’s just make sure that the proper protocols are in place for next time.’”

At best, that story is misleading.

To say the least.

Read the whole long piece. It's pretty revealing.

Etc.

Obituary: Brash former NYC mayor Ed Koch, 88, has died of congestive heart failure.

He wasn't one of my favorite politicians, but there have been much worse mayors around, including the incumbent NYC mayor.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg praised Mr. Koch as “an irrepressible icon, our most charismatic cheerleader and champion,” calling him “a great mayor, a great man, and a great friend.”

Mr. Koch’s 12-year mayoralty encompassed the fiscal austerity of the late 1970s and the racial conflicts and municipal corruption scandals of the 1980s, an era of almost continuous discord that found Mr. Koch caught in a maelstrom day after day.

But out among the people or facing a news media circus in the Blue Room at City Hall, he was a feisty, slippery egoist who could not be pinned down by questioners and who could outtalk anybody in the authentic voice of New York: as opinionated as a Flatbush cabby, as loud as the scrums on 42nd Street, as pugnacious as a West Side reform Democrat mother.

“I’m the sort of person who will never get ulcers,” the mayor — eyebrows devilishly up, grinning wickedly at his own wit — enlightened the reporters at his $475 rent-controlled apartment in Greenwich Village on Inauguration Day in 1978. “Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I’m the sort of person who might give other people ulcers.”

He could and did.

I like this part:

Mr. Koch and his sister, Pat Koch Thaler, wrote a small volume, “Eddie: Harold’s Little Brother,” a children’s book that appeared in 2004. His brother, Harold M. Koch, a carpet distributor, died in 1995. Besides his sister, a former dean at New York University whom he saw regularly in later years, Mr. Koch is survived by New York itself, as an old friend put it a few years ago.

It's not clear whether NYC will survive Bloomberg at the rate things are going.
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I don't think the question as to why prep schools don't have to meet the same standards as public schools is hard to answer at all.

This is what happens when you have an elite that wants to force the masses into a vast economic underclass.
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The duct-taping test cheat is at it again.
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One of the few bright spots in the George W. Bush White House, his dog Barney, has died at the age of at least 12.

The Scottish Terrier had been suffering from lymphoma.

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Yet another obituary: Inventor Andre Cassagnes, not a household name himself, but his invention, the Etch A Sketch, is known throughout the world, has died at the age of 86.


He invented the toy in the 1950s, but Ohio Art manufactured his invention in 1960 and became a childhood icon.

Whistleblowing in Education is Dangerous

for the whistleblower involved. Naturally non-teacher John Merrow, in his "report" about crooked administrator Michelle Rhee, didn't go into much detail about the principal who tried to blow the whistle on the D.C. cheating scandal.

Whistleblowing is deadly in the ed field. Typically an educator who is ethical is too much for the higher-ups to stomach because, after all, any violations are reflections on THEM, and that can't be allowed. Better the teacher or principal be railroaded out of a job than face criticism by the public.

Merrow, of course, didn't give this principal much airtime. He was too busy shilling for Rhee.

Why the code of silence? One person explained that she wouldn’t be able to find work in education if she spoke out—and then hung up. Others told much the same story.

So let me tell you more about Adell Cothorne, in her own words.

“I grew up in poverty. I’m a minority, of course, (laughs). (And the daughter of a) teenage mother. So I absolutely understand the value of a strong public school education. It will take you places you’ve never been before.”

Education enabled Adell Cothorne to rise from those unpromising circumstances, and she ended up as an Assistant Principal in Montgomery County, Maryland. For those unfamiliar with the Washington, DC, area, Montgomery County is a wealthy suburb of the Capital with excellent ‘Blue Ribbon’ public schools. It’s one of the top-ranked school districts in the nation.

Since John Merrow is so fixated on those mythical "bad teachers," he sounds totally shocked that teachers and principals are terrified to speak out because it is career-ruining. He doesn't understand the extreme power imbalance in education between teachers and administrators, or even with the few ethical principals and the higher-ups.

Districts have a million ways to blackball educators, and this blackballing can cross state lines. Disclosure questions are supposed to weed out the truly dangerous or incompetent educators, but any teacher or principal can be weeded out regardless of ability if they have been forced to resign, were dismissed regardless of how bogus the allegations are, or are non-renewed for whatever reason. I once copied-and pasted WCSD's application questions which ask the same question about six different ways in order to screen that teacher applicant from ever being eligible for a job.

Merrow is too much in bed with the privatizer interests to ever take a hard look at the power games in education, which "reform" efforts would make much worse.

The documentary should have centered on Adell Cothorne rather than Merrow's hero Michelle Rhee.

Michelle Rhee Belongs in Jail,

not continuing to spew bullshit about school "quality." She wouldn't know "quality" if it bit her in the ass.

She's a con artist out to make a buck at taxpayer expense.

Anybody that would put public education hellhole Louisiana at the top of rankings of how good schools are is completely full of shit. Louisiana belongs at the very bottom.

43 Alabama F 0.67
39 Alaska D- 0.75
8 Arizona C- 1.85
26 Arkansas D 1.15
41 California F 0.69
9 Colorado C- 1.83
18 Connecticut D+ 1.35
11 Delaware C- 1.75
4 District of Columbia C+ 2.40
2 Florida B- 2.73
15 Georgia D+ 1.42
7 Hawaii C- 1.88
40 Idaho D- 0.71
29 Illinois D 1.13
3 Indiana C+ 2.46
45 Iowa F 0.58
36 Kansas D- 0.83
35 Kentucky D- 0.88
1 Louisiana B- 2.88
21 Maine D 1.23
17 Maryland D+ 1.38
14 Massachusetts D+ 1.54
6 Michigan C- 1.94
26 Minnesota D 1.15
32 Mississippi D 1.00
34 Missouri D- 0.94
48 Montana F 0.44
48 Nebraska F 0.44
21 Nevada D 1.23
41 New Hampshire F 0.69
21 New Jersey D 1.23
26 New Mexico D 1.15
21 New York D 1.23
32 North Carolina D 1.00
51 North Dakota F 0.40
10 Ohio C- 1.77
13 Oklahoma D+ 1.58
37 Oregon D- 0.81
19 Pennsylvania D+ 1.33
5 Rhode Island C+ 2.33
30 South Carolina D 1.02
44 South Dakota F 0.60
11 Tennessee C- 1.75
30 Texas D 1.02
25 Utah D 1.21
46 Vermont F 0.48
38 Virginia D- 0.77
16 Washington D+ 1.40
48 West Virginia F 0.44
20 Wisconsin D+ 1.31
46 Wyoming F 0.48

Con artists like Rhee unfortunately have the backing of the political apparatus. It's long overdue to hold our politicians accountable for their anti-democracy leanings.

More about Rhee's bullshit can be found here. Rhee spews the same debunked and discredited nonsense the privatizers have been spewing for years.

Proof of How Far Democrats Have Gone Astray

of bedrock principles includes the current attitude toward unionization and public education. What a goddamned piece of shit lying, incompetent, and crooked Michelle Rhee is. She doesn't deserve any goddamned respect. This unfit, sociopathic individual is allowed to ingratiate herself to one of the major political parties because you have Obama and Duncan who support the same horseshit. Horseshit that DOES not work at all but allows corporations and billionaires to make money off of something that should be sacred to all, and that is the education of our children and the RIGHT of those children to have free, public, NEIGHBORHOOD schools.

The Black Agenda Report ALWAYS has it right:

As if the choice of Charlotte weren’t bad enough, an anti teachers union movie, Won’t Back Down, was shown at a convention event after being vetted by Democratic Party leadership. Michelle Rhee, the face of teacher union busting and the destruction of public education, appeared on a panel at the film’s screening. Rhee told the harsh and ugly truth about the way the Democrats are treating teacher unions. “There is no longer sort of some assumed alliance between the Democratic Party and the teacher’s unions.”

If teachers and other unions had any self-respect, they would boycott the convention altogether. Instead they will be front and center, proclaiming their love for a party that never passes up an opportunity to stab them in the back.

This individual Rhee needs to be locked up in a padded cell, and all of her political cronies defeated in elections around the country.

Squirming and Lying Like a Rug

Leave it to the BBC to out Michelle Rhee as the fraud and cretin she is.

Michelle Rhee Is At It Again

She's going around the country peddling her dubious reform ideas, all of which center on the questionable notion the problem in education is with teachers, the people who have the least power in the system:

I am troubled that Rhee thinks that teachers are the biggest problem facing American education. Attacking teachers seems to be her hallmark. I was at an event on Martha's Vineyard last August when Rhee repeated a story she has often told: three "great teachers in a row" closes the achievement gap. I was waiting for her to say it, and I quickly chimed in to say that it is an urban myth. While writing my last book, I tried to discover if there was any district or any school that had actually closed the achievement gap by providing "three great teachers in a row." Certainly teachers make a difference, and no one would dispute that it is wonderful to have three great teachers in a row. But no one has ever figured out how to achieve this feat in an entire district. Certainly Rhee didn't when she was chancellor in the District of Columbia.

Rhee has turned this urban myth into a national crusade against teachers. If scores are low, she suggests, it is because the students have lazy, incompetent teachers who should be fired. She achieved national notoriety in Washington, D.C., for her readiness to fire teachers and principals whom she judged to be unworthy. You may recall the infamous cover of Time magazine, where she posed sternly with a broom, ready to sweep clean the District of Columbia's public schools. She did clear out a large proportion of the professional staff in the D.C. schools, and she did impose a new teacher evaluation system called IMPACT.

She should face the same fate as the Eli Broad Academy "fellows."

Good Riddance to Fucking Bad Rubbish

Unfortunately, some other unsuspecting district will hire this piece of human shit who isn't qualified to run a hot dog stand, let alone a huge school district.

Snip:

But Rhee will leave with considerable unfinished business in her quest to improve teaching, close the worst schools and infuse a culture of excellence in a system that has been one of the nation's least effective at educating students.

I thought reporters were supposed to write articles, not oped writers.

D.C. Voters Sent a Message

earlier this week by ousting Mayor Fenty, and it is to be hoped D.C. schools tyrant Michelle Rhee follows him out the door.

But if Rhee leaves, will any successor be worse?  If it is a Broadie, you can bet your ass the person will be worse.

With regard to Rhee, Sacramento's loss is D.C.'s gain.

If Because of the Defeat of D.C. Mayor Fenty

on Tuesday means Michelle Rhee may be shown the door, that is great news for teachers not only for the nation's capital, but for teachers all over the country, with the possible exception of the Sacramento area.

Michelle Rhee's Illegal, Draconian Methods of Running D.C. Schools

have gotten her into an ocean of hot water, so now she believes she needs to have "help" in restoring her shattered image:

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, whose image has been frayed by a series of high-profile news controversies, is turning to former White House communications director and veteran Democratic media consultant Anita Dunn for help.

A D.C. schools spokeswoman confirmed Friday that the agency is negotiating a contract with Dunn's firm, Squier Knapp Dunn. The objective is to more effectively handle the heavy load of local and national news media attention that Rhee attracts and to help roll out major stories to greater strategic advantage. The spokeswoman said Dunn has devoted time to District school issues but would not elaborate.

Dunn is expected, however, to assist with an announcement of the long-awaited labor contract between the District and the Washington Teachers' Union, which could be finalized in the next few weeks.

Not that anything can help Rhee's image at this point. And, as is being asked, WHO is financing this?

There appears to be conflict of interest galore with Dunn and the White House, by the way.

The Education Wars: Michelle Rhee's Fuzzy Math

Remember Rhee's notorious remarks regarding having RIF'd teachers who were accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with kids? Well, it appears that wasn't true at all.

It's pretty tough to be caught in a lie. After all, what Rhee REALLY did was fire people with experience AFTER she had hired too many new teachers to begin with.

Here is the article from Rhee's major media cheerleader.

The Education Wars: Foot in Mouth, Keep It There

Michelle Rhee, despite insulting and slandering the 266 teachers she RIF'd when talking about them to a magazine, is not going to apologize for her stupid remarks:

Late last week I had an interesting telephone conversation with D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. She called with a comment on a post in which I suggested she be more careful of her public words--like her statement that some of the teachers she fired hit or had sex with kids--in order to make sure she stays in her job and applies her considerable skills and knowledge to fixing our failing school system.

I suggested she apologize for offending teachers with her words so that we could get past this point and back to helping kids.

She said, in essence, that she is not going to do that. She said she wished that the Fast Company magazine item that sparked the controversy had included her statement that many of the teachers she had to fire for budget reasons were good people. But, she said, she was not going to compromise her methods or her beliefs. Some teachers did hit kids and have sex with kids, she said. She thought that was something people should know. It was important to root out such behaviors.

She continues to slander these teachers, who were RIF'd for budgetary reasons--actually for reasons of age discrimination--NOT because of any "misconduct" involving children, etc.

The Education Wars: Michelle Rhee's Diarrhea of the Mouth

D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee is trying to spin her illegal firing of teachers under "reduction in force" as being justified for some "misconduct" on their part.

Of course, she's lying about that.

The reason they were let go was because of cost, and it's completely illegal.



Susan Ohanian comments:

Ohanian Comment: I post this because Rhee is in the national spotlight, the darling of the corporate politicos who are out to deform public education.

Even though an apology isn't enough to redress the wrong Rhee did, her unwillingness to make such an apology reveals a great character flaw. I don't think anybody should be around children who is incapable of saying, "I made a mistake. I'm sorry."

In Rhee's case that should be "I made a terrible mistake, and I will do everything possible to rectify it."

This article says she's "hedging." Obviously, this is too little and too late. Just as obviously, hedging is not admitting error and apologizing.

A teacher loses her job if she does not report suspected sex abuse.

Rhee should reassure the public with proof that any cases involving alleged sex abuse were reported to the police, or she should resign.

The reputations of 266 teachers are at stake. Oh, since Rhee offered some detail on the bad behavior of 8 plus "several others," make that the reputations of 250+ teachers.

Rhee's "clarifying comments" don't clarify anything.

Time for a true "due process" hearing for Rhee, and not a kangaroo court-type bunch of nonsense like what I went through.

Here is another report of diaRHEEa's lies, this one from yesterday: