Where do Michelle Rhee's children go to school? Glad you asked.... [View all]

[HiPointDem]

HARPETH HALL, Nashville TN.



http://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/14/14051/


What? Not a charter school staffed by Teach for America temps? TFA temps = the best teachers in the country, according to Rhee.

Harpeth Hall

Harpeth Hall School is an all-girls private college preparatory school for grades 5-12 in Nashville, Tennessee. Tuition = $21K. Students: 650

Our Mission: To teach girls to think critically, to lead confidently, and to live honorably.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpeth_Hall_School

Look what Harpeth Hall's got:

Lots of technology, a 40-acre campus, an 8:1 student/teacher ratio, full arts, drama, music and sports programs, lots of student clubs, a highly experienced teaching staff, most with Masters Degrees --

http://www.harpethhall.org/podium/default.aspx?t=151749

One thing Harpeth doesn't have, though, is many black girls. Judging from the photos, even though Nashville public schools are half black:

http://www.harpethhall.org/


And, astonishingly, not a single mention of the all the reformy stuff Michelle thinks is so very very important for other people's children -- you know, important stuff like continual standardized testing, teacher evaluations, 'no excuses' discipline, accountability, humiliating teachers in the newspapers by falsely calling them perverts, duct tape --

All the stuff Michelle pushed in DC while she decimated the experienced teaching staff, broke up schools and cut programs. What gives?

It's almost like -- correct me if I'm wrong, but it's almost like her actions say OUR KIDS need one thing, but HERS need another.

Almost like she thinks OUR KIDS are different from hers. Stupider, or more criminal, or less creative, or less deserving or something.

It's almost like she doesn't want our kids to have all the nice arts and drama and music and sports programs and small classrooms and experienced teachers hers have.

I mean, really, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what it kinda looks like...


And I wonder why Rhee is so vague about where, exactly, her girls go to school in this interview with Nashville's "City Paper"?:

You mention your kids, are they attending public school?

What I will say is that I am a public school parent, and, you know, because of that I think that all of these things, again, have a different impact.


I’m just wondering do your kids go to a traditional public school or a charter school?

I would rather … I keep my comments to I’m a public school parent.

http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/michelle-rhee-talks-charters-vouchers-and-getting-reprieve-school-boards

What Michelle is trying to say is that when she lived in DC, her girls went to a top-rated public elementary school in DC with other sons & daughters of DC's elites. So, she's a 'public school parent'.

Just not in Nashville. Which happens to be where her girls attend school now. But once a public school parent, always a public school parent, I guess.


Rhee's girls are in Nashville to be near their father, Kevin Huffman, from whom Rhee is divorced. Huffman is (surprise, surprise) the Commissioner of the Tennessee State Department of Education, an education deformer and former TFA-er!

From TFA, he jumped into law school, then became a lawyer for -- wait for it -- TEACH FOR AMERICA!!! And now he's Tennessee's state Education Commissioner!! How do these people do it??? They must be really really fucking fucking smart. No wonder they need different kinds of schools for their kids, because their kids are probably really really fucking fucking smart too.

Tell me, how do I get a gig like that? I mean, where I graduate from college with an English degree, teach for -- what was it Kevin, 3 months or 6 months or something like that? -- get a law degree & jump into senior management at the place where you were formerly a mere peon teacher temp -- and from there go on to run an entire state education department?

Is it the Swathmore English degree that assures this kind of career trajectory, do you have to grease some palms, or does somebody else do the greasing? You & your ex Michelle, same quick rise from temping to running the show.

How does that work? Do you have a connected relative? Or is it just that you were better at brown-nosing and back-stabbing than the rest of your TFA class and so caught the attention of the sociopath billionaires funding education deform?

Tell me the secret, Kev. How did a Whitey McWhitebread Swathmore English grad whose only experience in education is working as a TFA temp & litigating for Teach for America come to be running the mostly black & minority Tennessee public schools without some palms getting greased somewhere?





Kev is currently pushing through a raft of reformy, "cutting edge" (he calls it) stuff in Tennessee, like --

Teacher evaluations!
Teacher report cards!!!
New teacher accreditation organizations!!
A state-level version of Teach for America!!!
A teacher 'supply & demand' study!!!
Online schooling!!!
The largest student-and teacher-level database ever assembled!!!!

http://www.tn.gov/firsttothetop/programs.html

Woohoo, can you feel the excitement?


More cutting edge -- they're taking over all the 'bad' schools statewide!!

Parents in the Binghampton district in Tennessee are furious that the state took over their school, changed the name and colors, brought in an inexperienced staff, and no one thought to consult them.

Tennessee created the “Achievement School District” and put charter founder Chris Barbic in charge. Barbic, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, has promised to take the schools scoring in the bottom 5% and put them in the state’s top 25% in five years. He has the authority to take control of low-performing schools to turn them around.

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/14/memphis-families-outraged-by-school-takeover/

Other cool 'cutting edge' stuff Kev's got going:

- Withholding state education funding from Nashville because they voted against (4 times) the McCharter school (Arizona corporation)/segregation academy Kev wanted to bring into the city:

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/27/kevin-huffman-knows-exactly-what-hes-doing/

“Over the weekend, we discovered that not only was the state board of education encouraging Great Hearts to appeal, they were driving the bus,” board member Anna Shepherd fired off before voting to deny the West Nashville charter school that a throng of affluent parents have pushed as a remedy for their wariness of public schools.

http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/great-hearts-how-charter-operator-lost-political-fallout-and-what-happens-now

Well, I guess that's enough about this divorced power couple.


So to close, please join me in the Harpeth Hall Alma Mater:

O Harpeth Hall, O place beloved,
Our voices ring with happiness,
Our hearts are filled with pride,
As here each girl finds for herself
The joys that will abide.

So light of heart and free, we pledge
Allegiance through the years.
And of thy destiny so fair
Proud privilege to sing!