Michelle Rhee--Her Snakeoil Remedy for Education

This article written in the Huffington Post about Michelle Rhee misses the point entirely. The fact that it is an article about her personality just shows that corporate America is trying to boost her image, as a number of critical article have been written about her and her record lately.  The real point is that it doesn't matter that Michelle Rhee is a nice person or that she is fun to be with. The question that we should be addressing is: is she REALLY advocating for children (or as she claims and has coined "Students First"). Her proposed policy changes don't do anything to really address the problems that affect children in poor, urban schools, the very ones that she directed in DC. In fact, because she touts testing and making tests the panacea for helping children and improving teaching, policymake­rs, neoconserv­atives, and corporate America LOVE what she offers. She makes their lives easy and give them a scapegoat instead of looking at the part they play in the state of our educationa­l system today and why children really fail to score well on THEIR tests. The fact is, is that Corporate America, who owns the media that influences about what and who gets written, doesn't have to look at their own part in creating, sustaining­, and increasing poverty in this country. And it is poverty and the issues that surround it that keep and prevent children from doing well in school. What Michelle Rhee offers as the remedy for education is really just snakeoil and those that invest in her have nothing to lose and everything to win if her message succeeds.