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Via the Examiner, someone has posted a video of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to YouTube where she openly discusses the obstacles she’s come across in trying to overhaul our troubled public school system. The 12-minute clip shows Rhee speaking to the Democrats for Education Reform about a week ago. She describes the school system as running “counter to the way any good organization operates,” and insists that "the only way" to get to the bottom of its serious problems is for the D.C. Council to give her the authority to fire people.
It's pretty interesting to see Rhee speak so forthrightly about her hopes to fire hundreds of central office employees -- a topic that ought to continue to earn her the respect of people who are serious about school reform, and the ire of those who would cry that that's not how things are done in D.C. government.
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Fire away!!!! After she's done with the school system, I'd like to suggest a few other D.C. government agencies that could also use a good house cleaning.
go, michelle, go!!!
Significant numbers of employees need to be fired and a large number of schools need to be closed...that's the bottom line. Anything less will be status quo...the Council should give her what she wants and the good people of DC should be supportive of her decisions...
Why stop at the administrators? I'm sure there are plenty of disruptive kids who have no business being in a classroom as well. How about "promoting" them to a remedial narcotics refinement and distribution curriculum? It's a chemistry, mathematics, and finance education all wrapped in one.
One wonders what these kids are actually learning in schools besides the increasingly simple art of seduction.
She is great! Does anyone know what/if anything individuals can do to support the changes that are needed at DCPS?
Monkey, what does this have to do with the students?? It seems what she would like to do is get ineffectual people of the public payroll so that the school system can better serve its charges.
DC schools have their problems, but the 2007 "Nation's Report Card" data released today showed DC's students performing better in reading and math at both the 4th and 8th grades. The data for the analysis of only public school students are due out later this year...
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/
#5 You can support Rhee by contacting your ward's council member as well as all of the at-large council members and letting them know that you want them to support Rhee by giving her the authority to fire DCPS employees. The link below provides council member contact information.
http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/members.html
Hiring Michelle Rhee is one of the few really intelligent decisions that Mayor Fenty has made, so far. Unfortunately, she probably won't ever have the power to carry out her plan.
can the school in which my sister teaches just get a working copier, for starters? i'm all for mass firings, but can we start with the basic infrastructure, too?
I'm a graduate of DC Public Schools, and a lifelong resident of this city. I am not thrilled with Rhee's anti-union vibe, but I am
praying for her success. We need real reform, and badly...
Monkey, what does this have to do with the students??
Gee, I dunno. I thought improving student performance was what this was all about. Kinda hard when teacher is spending all his/her time with troublesome students or the worst of the worst underperformers. Dumbing down the curriculum to the lowest possible level, so as not to lower Moronica and Ignatz's self-esteem doesn't help either.
It seems what she would like to do is get ineffectual people of the public payroll so that the school system can better serve its charges.
And what about the ineffectual students? You have kids who want to learn but can't because Thugee Fresh and his brain-damaged crew are eating up the teachers minutes. Or they crack wise because the kids who are trying to read are "acting white." As satisfying as a central admin pogrom would be, it's just the first step. DCPS needs to clean house, top to bottom, including kids who have no intention of learning and make it impossible for others to do so.
She is great! Does anyone know what/if anything individuals can do to support the changes that are needed at DCPS?
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One thing is that local elementary schools do need volunteers to do things like check in library books and repaint walls and other tasks. The main day for this is School Beautification Day in August, but every school PTA should have some events coming up. I volunteered at Bancroft Elementary in Mt Pleasant and Ross Elementary in Dupont Circle because they're very active.
As a parent of a dc school child let her rip. I have been a union steward in my previous place of employment and the DCPS Unions are total bastardizations of what unions are supposed to be about. They are meant to protect workers not keep unqualified, incompetent moochers on the pay role doing nothing and robbing our children of their proper educations at premium salaries. I for one am watching my Council member and the at large members very carefully. If they vote to deny her firing ability then I will vote to fire their respective a@#es come election time.
guest 10: its the same problem. that school probably doesn't have a working copier because of all the broken bureaucracy involved with getting one and the layers of broken bureacracy just eating resources.
I thought the speech was lame. Repeatedly she has said she wants the authority to fire people. I decided to check the contract (it's online) and it says that employees can be fired - for just cause. Clearly, incompetence is a "just cause" for termination; that's well-settled law of employment arbitration. So does she want to make the staff "at-will" employees? Would this standard apply to teachers as well as to central office staffers?
I wouldn't have a problem with getting her increased power to get rid of incompetent employees, but here's the thing: if she wants it to be easier to fire employees, she should bargain for this with the union. DC schoolteachers are among the lowest paid in the area, and now their job security could be at risk because Rhee wants to change the laws.
This is exactly how employers, even well-meaning ones, lose good employees. As a citizen of DC, I hope she does well, but I would prefer to see more details from her about what she's asking.
By the way, I'm not associated with the school system at all.
monkey:
I was about to fire away with some pablum about opportunity and causation, but in my gut I agree. I don't think academically ambitious kids have a chance in these schools. And part of the reason is the midget monsters that broken, unsafe, toxic neighborhoods have created. But what do you do with lil' hoodlum if not school him? Apprenticeships? Vocational training? Or maybe we can solve the problem with sarcasm. Heh.
They'd be better off firing lots of the folks downtown and doing a crash-modernization program. DCPS HQ is where a pretty big percentage of the problems lie in terms of bureaucracy and wastage of money.