Founder and CEO, Student’s First, Former Chancellor, D.C. School District, Founder, The New Teacher Project
Oprah called her “Warrior Woman” for children. Colbert called her “King of the School Reform Mountain.” Michelle Rhee, the nation’s first celebrity school chief, brought glamour, fame and unfamiliar power to a local political role that in the past was uncelebrated. As the Chancellor of the D.C. School District, appointed by the mayor, she made the cover of Time magazine. In the documentary Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, Oscar winner for An Inconvenient Truth, she is prominently featured. Education reformers consider her a heroine because of her aggressive, business-minded, blow-up-the bureaucracy, incrementalism-be-dammed style of leadership. But, in October 2010, she had to resign the Chancellor position because the D.C. Mayor who appointed her, Adrian Fenty, was voted out of office, in no small part due to controversial actions taken by Rhee in firing hundreds of teachers and principals and in closing down schools.
She is now taking her school reform cause in a new direction--founding a political action organization called Students First. The problem, she says, is not the teacher’s union, but that there is no balance to their political power. With the goal to raise $1 billion for Students First, she promises, “We will be very aggressive in the political landscape,” lobbying congress and supporting pro reform candidates in local and national races. For Michelle Rhee, it’s about putting the children first.
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