Rick Scott, Michelle Rhee tour charter school in Opalocka together.

[madfloridian]

DC's loss is Florida's gain. A touch of sarcasm there.

She was on his transition team, and now she is already on the scene to "help" our schools.

Scott tours charter schools with 'Waiting for Superman' notable; touts merit pay


AP Photo/Alan Diaz Michelle Rhee, left, former D.C. public schools chief, and Gov. Rick Scott prepare to tour a South Florida charter school in in Opalocka, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. Rhee was on Scott's education transition team, and the new governor said she would continue to serve Florida as an informal education adviser.

Waiting for Superman notable? A dubious distinction.

OPA-LOCKA — With education reform lightning rod Michelle Rhee at his side, Gov. Rick Scott toured a charter school today and said he'll press for merit pay for teachers and more opportunities for parents to choose which schools their kids attend.

Rhee, featured in the recent documentary Waiting For Superman, was praised by many reform advocates but blasted by teachers unions during three stormy years as chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public school system. She resigned in October when her main political supporter, Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost his reelection bid. Rhee started an advocacy group called Students First and will serve as an unpaid adviser to the new governor on education policy. She said Florida is the first state her group has partnered with.

I think you have the perfect opportunity with your new governor to be at the forefront of the nation," Rhee told a group of students and parents from Florida International Academy middle school and Florida International Elementary School.

Here is more about the schools.

The charter schools, housed at a former church site that is undergoing renovations, are about 98 percent black, with nearly all the students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. The middle school got a grade of F from the Florida Department of Education in 2001-02 but improved to an A grade the last two years

There is speculation if one of the reasons for the charter school movement has to do with re-segregation of schools, but nobody really wants to talk about it. 98% is a very high figure.

Rhee has already been stirring things up here in our state. She was recently in Florida in the Tampa area....bragging about how unpopular she is. She's proud of it.

Rhee in Tampa boasts about unpopularity.


Michelle Rhee, the outgoing chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools, speaks to urban school administrators during a panel on teacher evaluations at the Council of Great City Schools conference in Tampa on Thursday. (SKIP O’ROURKE | TIMES)

"Be prepared to be Ms. or Mr. Unpopular," the outgoing chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools told an audience of urban school administrators here Thursday. "I am really good at this one right now."

Three years ago, Rhee launched a whirlwind of change: a tough evaluation system and teacher contract that resulted in 241 firings this spring, and ultimately may oust 25 percent of the district's teachers from their jobs. Those forces led to her resignation last week, following the election defeat of her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty. But they brought applause from her audience at the Council of Great City Schools conference.

In the first article there is a quote from the teachers' union leader in that county. He said "he's afraid Scott's education platform will lead to "the dismantling of the public schools and the chartering and vouchering out of everything."

He's right. That is the goal.

[Crazy Dave]

1. With Scott and Rubio

We Floridians are truly f**ked!

[madfloridian]

2. All the "reformers", including our Dem leaders...are PROUD to make teachers mad.

Some of the Democratic governors like Cuomo and Brown are as bad at Scott at talking down to teachers.

[madfloridian]

7. I am afraid you are right.

And don't forget Allen West who is going to bring "liberals" to their knees, and Adam Putnam who is now looking out for the big guys in agriculture and making sure nothing is done to stop any pollution runoff, etc.

[radhika]

3. I'm almost feeling sorry for Floridians

I have been ragging on Florida for electing these sociopathic pukes - Scott, Rubio and West. And yes, I've said in several post they are getting just what they deserved. Let them eat cake while their entire state is sold off, pillaged and starved of social services.

But with the pathetic addition of Rhee - and her boasting and wallowing in the distaste of the 'masses' - it's not funny anymore. There will be nothing left in 4 years. Stripped and shredded healthcare, no public education, no public employees, no public commons. Everyone in living on private graft, kickbacks and world-class fraud schemes.

[Riley18]

17. I got news for you - Florida is just their experiment. Once

it works out for them, they will spread like a plague throughout the land. Sorry for the melodrama, but it is true. For the record, I know of not one person who voted for that bastard. Jeb Bush is behind the whole thing.

[sulphurdunn]

4. Rhee and Scott are grifters.

If there weren't suckers to fleece in education and politics they'd be running a different scam. Rhee is just a shameless self-promoter. Scott is actually a criminal.

[theaocp]

5. They have not invented a word in the English language

to express my contempt for these two "human beings." Hey, Michelle, you want something to be hated for? Keep flappin' your lips.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Is anyone paying attention to who they are hiring?

Is there any effort to hire teachers with Christian backgrounds?

[madfloridian]

8. I know vouchers are going to private religious schools.

I know many of the charters were religious schools that turned charter to get the public money.

There is almost no wall of separation between church and state in Florida now.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. I predict that things will change when parents begin to complain.

There is no way to measure accountability in the private schools. We are not comparing apples to apples.

[radhika]

10. I am not aware of that happening...

I hear in the news of parents protesting and suing poorly-functioning public schools.

I am not aware of those same protests and law suits being filed against religious charter schools. That ol' devil religion seems to reduce parents to passive compliers with whatever their clerical masters dictate. Example? catholic schools, fundamentalist creationists and evangelical serve-yer-jeesus.

[madfloridian]

11. Here.

Florida vouchers

"Still, two other voucher programs remain: the McKay Scholarship program for disabled children and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program for poor children. The latter is primarily funded with corporate tax credits as well as credits for taxes on insurance. In return for providing the scholarship money, corporations receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits. The program sends more than 30,000 students to more than 1,000 private Florida schools, of which about 80 percent are religious."

And at least 8 Catholic schools and one evangelical school became charters for the financial benefits

[radhika]

12. Are the religious parents Holding Schools Accoutntable?

I know charter religious schools get mucho funding; sometimes they change their corporate structure to qualify for funding.

My point was that parents who send their kids to religious charter schools are less likely to be activist parents that hold the schools accountable for delivering good outcomes. The fact that one of the schools worked with disabled children may be admirable and excellent - but that school also has the right (at least out here in CA) to bounce a kid out for any number or reasons. A non-charter public school can't do that.

And of course religious parents usually subscribe to the practices and views of the religion. No matter how bizarre, archaic or limiting they appear to secular folks.

[Roy Rolling]

13. Now I know

I was wondering what a picture looked like of "the blind leading the blind"

[chervilant]

14. hmm...

Let's see: do you think the author(s) of this article received a good education?

Consider:

"She said Florida is the first state her group has partnered with."

Corrected:

"She said Florida is the first state with which her group has partnered."

Consider:

"But they brought applause from her audience at the Council of Great City Schools conference."

Corrected:

"Rhee's assertions brought applause from her audience at the Council of Great City Schools conference."

(Actually, I have problems with that entire paragraph...)

Our nation has an incredibly high rate of adult illiteracy, which suggests to me that our system of public education has had serious problems for several decades. And, now that our entire species is facing the consequences of our escalating hedonism, people like Rhee and Scott are scrambling to find something ('public' education) or someone (teachers) to blame. Furthermore, if my worst fears are realized--and all of this is just smoke and mirrors to hide the Corporate Megalomaniacs' takeover of our system of public education--the fear-mongering, hate-mongering, 'Christian in name only' crowd will have all of us goose-stepping to the beat of their bizarre fanaticism.

[Jakes Progress]

15. Rhee and Scott - Doing Obama's job.

It's a wonder we didn't have Obama's b-ball buddy down there to grin with these ghouls.

From our administration: Teacher's, go to hell. Children, tough shit.

[Riley18]

16. It makes me sick to look at them. I have to avert my eyes.

Teachers need to address their students' families at each and every school to explain what those grifters are going to do to their kids. We need to stand up to them for the sake of our students. I would not want my own children to be subjected to their scheme to dismantle education for the "regular" folks. Already we are barely allowed to really teach the kids. All we do is one silly test after the other until the kids are already burned out by 5th grade.

Teachers have already allowed the politicians too much leeway in the lives of our students. All they want is the money that is allocated for education in this country. Why can't we expose them as the grifters they have always been?

[LWolf]

18. I wish they'd get an icy reception. nt