Updated Forecast: In Excess of 8" of Snow, Plus Wind
D.C. Has 2nd Highest Snowfall of Any U.S. City This Season
Snowmaggedon 1.0 in Time Lapse
Federal Govt. Closed Tuesday
A congressional report issued yesterday by two ranking Republicans suggests that schools chancellor Michelle Rhee performed "damage control" for her now-fiance Kevin Johnson during investigations into Johnson's alleged sexual misconduct and misuse of Americorps funds at the St. Hope charter school he founded in Sacramento.
Johnson, an ex-NBA player, is currently mayor of Sacramento. Rhee confirmed that the couple got engaged earlier this month.
According to the New York Times, "The report does not accuse Ms. Rhee, who was on the board of the school, of any wrongdoing, and her spokeswoman, Jennifer Calloway, said it 'rehashes old allegations that have long since been dismissed and deemed meritless.' " Rhee resigned from the St. Hope board before beginning her work as schools chancellor in D.C. in 2007; reports of her romantic involvement with Johnson only began to surface last winter. However, given the contentious atmosphere around Rhee's reform efforts here in the District, it is likely this report, and the national attention it has received, will energize her opponents.
The report [PDF], released by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, and Rep. Darrell Issa, criticizes the Obama administration's firing of Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general, as being politically motivated, in part because of Walpin's investigations of Johnson, a former NBA player and prominent Obama supporter. The White House has countered that Walpin, 78, was "incompetent and had behaved bizarrely". The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Walpin, who was a Bush appointee, "is receiving free help from a conservative public relations firm associated with the Swift boat ads that opposed Democrat John F. Kerry in the 2004 presidential election."
Yesterday's congressional report was released along Walpin's orginal investigation on St. Hope, which includes interview notes suggesting that Rhee stepped in after an Americorp volunteer complained of unwanted sexual advances from Johnson. At least two other instances of inappropriate behavior by Johnson are also described, although it is unclear if Rhee was aware of them. (City Paper's Mike Debonis has all of those details. They're pretty gross.)
Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, a former St. Hope teacher (not the accuser), told federal investigators that Rhee contacted her after the allegations were first raised to find out what had happened, and told her "she was making this her number one priority and she would take care of the situation." Later, Wong-Hernandez heard that Johnson's lawyer had met with the accuser, and the complain had been dropped. According to the IG report, a week later, when the accuser decided to leave the program because of "financial and family reasons", Johnson confidentially offered her $1,000 a month until the end of the program, which was declined. Wong-Hernandez later quit St. Hope, she says in part because of the handling of the incident.
Earlier this year, the acting United States attorney for Sacramento found that Johnson had committed "no criminal wrongdoing", and the school agreed to pay $424,000 to settle accusations that it failed to follow terms of the AmeriCorps grants.
It's unclear as of yet just what the fallout will be from all of this, and how that will impact Rhee's reform efforts in the District, particularly as next year's mayoral election heats up. On the one hand, it's hard to just dismiss the complaints against Johnson, but the political backdrop to the whole thing suggests certain amount of posturing. Much of the coverage of the report has focused on Rhee, despite the fact that her actual involvement, beyond her personal connection to Johnson, is pretty slim. Her national celebrity may actually hurt her here. Jeff Smith, director of school advocacy group D.C. Voice, told the Examiner, “I think her detractors may use it as another part of their case for why she’s unfair, but I don’t see it as having relevance on her philosophy or approach or management of the school system.” But if the commenters on the Post's story about the scandal are any indication, Rhee's critics aren't going to let this go anytime soon.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Didja happen to notice that the same group of people who were braying "pleasure of the president" when Bush got rid of AGs who weren't sufficiently pro-GOP are the ones screaming loudest about Walpin's firing, which was supported unanimously by the board he worked with and was found to be merited? To wit:
This should have no bearing on Rhee's efforts for school "reform" in DC, which should be judged on their own merits. This "story" is utter crap, and I wish you'd call it out as such. Walpin was fired for cause and anyone who worked with him on that board has verified that.
Walpin may have been fired for cause but the IG report reveals an awful lot of damning information beyond the sex scandal aspect. The way in which Johnsons' St. Hope Academy misused Americorps funds and volunteers is egregious beyond belief. If you read that report, and that report was followed up by the congressional investigation which found THOSE allegations to have merit, you will find that KJ used the volunteers for every kind of activity from washing his car to performing "grunt work" (his own words)such as errands and cleaning chores. What the volunteers did not do was tutor or community service - the official duties given them by Americorps funding.
Michelle Rhee knew all this because she was listed as St. Hope's COO, as a board member, as the consultant for the New Teacher Project, the consultant for the restructuring of the Human Resource Department and as a consultant on the reconstruction of the bridge span project - ALL AT THE SAME TIME! This story has so much that is wrong with it that it's hard to know where to begin.
Rachael, if you read Turque's stuff with any regularity, you'll see the commenters are the same 5 or 6 people every...single...time. They use DC Wire posts to spread their fanatical rhetoric and attack not just anyone pro-Rhee or pro-reform but also anyone attempting to remain open-minded. I stopped reading their rantings a long time ago; they are by no means a barometer for the community at large.
If you read Turque's stuff with any regularity, you'll see the commenters are the same 5 or 6 people every...single...time. They use DC Wire posts to spread their fanatical rhetoric and attack not just anyone pro-Rhee or pro-reform but also anyone attempting to remain open-minded. I stopped reading their rantings a long time ago; they are by no means a barometer for the community at large.
I agree 100% about the posters to Bill Turque's columns and posters to the Post in general. Activists right and left use and abuse the Post's comment section.
They're on the CP site, too. Moreover, they don't articulate any competitive vision- for DC's schools or anything else, really.
Luckily, the DCist "Brute Squad" keeps that from happening 'round these parts.
Meanwhile, the DCist "Brut squad" never goes home alone after a night at Rumors.
Hi, Kitty literal, I just checked Bill Turque's recent print article, about Hardy Middle school http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111210961.html
And in a random count of two pages (page one and page 5)of 6 pages, containing a total of 107 comments, I found 22 different commenters and 40 comments. This is very different from the number you so confidently gave. I understand that you may not want to take the time to actually do the math, so I just ask you to refrain from making statements about numbers that can't be backed up with the facts.
..Rhee stepped in after an Americorp volunteer complained of unwanted sexual advances from Johnson. At least two other instances of inappropriate behavior by Johnson..
That sounds like the last three pointer of Kevin Johnson's career. But seriously though, are they going to have Americorp volunteers cater their wedding?
If you watched any of Kevin Johnson's career with the Suns you would know that he had a terrible 3 pt jumpshot...
if you're going to rely on the commenters of any wapo article (or wtop article) for how things are going to go in the future, you might as well lock your doors, stay inside, and prepare to die.
because those people are generally nothing more than the reanimated zombie detritus of every racist, stupid, ignorant screed you've ever heard in your life.
crazypants.
I'm one of those frequent commenters at the Post, particularly on pieces about Rhee, and I've never heard this kind of language: "...reanimated zombie detritus of every racist, stupid, ignorant screed you've ever heard in your life" even from people who are adamant about Rhee's poor management of the schools.
You need to read the WP crime story threads. Although, after about the fiftieth post that uses the words "illegal immigrants," "Marion Barry," and "hellhole" it gets kinda repetitive.
.......don't forget about George W!
I don't pay a lot of attention to rabid commentators (other than here, of course), but the allegations are pretty disturbing.
given the contentious atmosphere around Rhee's reform efforts here in the District, it is likely this report, and the national attention it has received, will energize her opponents.
Most of Rhee's opponents are utterly deranged monomaniacs. These guys will grasp at the thinnest reed if it means protecting the status quo: the worst school system in the developed world.
That they're now going to cast their lot in with the likes of Chuck Grassley and Darrell (are you serious?) Issa is not exactly going to increase their credibility.
Hello from a Rhee Opponent who is not a deranged monomaniac. I also have no interest in maintaining the status quo and would never cast my lot with Grassley and Issa. I was once a strong Rhee supporter until I learned that she is dishonest and, although she is an excellent speaker, she is not a competent manager. Now I just want to get her out so DC can stop the damage and start rebuilding.
Please visit thatsrightnate and read though his 4 part series on Rhee's Education Miracle. http://thatsrightnate.com/2009/10/21/michelle-rhee-and-the-washington-education-miracle-part-i/#comment-6239.
It is written as satire but is filled with facts.