Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee on AEA protest outside town hall meeting: teachers should be inside taking part in discussion (VIDEO)
Author and principal Steve Perry, education reformer Michelle Rhee and former head of the Washington, D.C. teacher's union George Parker discuss education reform at a town hall meeting at WorkPlay in Birmingham on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013.
Rhee, the former chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools and founder of the StudentsFirst education reform organization, said the sea of red in front of WorkPlay - members of the Alabama Education Association teachers' organization who were all clad in red AEA T-shirts - represents a big part of the problem. Teachers unions and organizations, she said, don't want to be part of the discussion or the solution.
"Conversations around education reform have become incredibly polarized and divisive," she told the audience at WorkPlay tonight, where the town hall meeting was held. "Teachers have to be a part of the education reform discussion. Right now, it's a monolithic discussion because of teacher's unions."
Rhee made a name for herself while chancellor of Washington, D.C. schools when she closed nearly two dozen schools, changed the teacher pay scale and fired hundreds of teachers, principals and administrators.
Rhee was joined tonight by former Washington, D.C. teacher's union President George Parker, and author and principal/founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School Steve Perry, who answered audience questions. Rhee's husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, was the moderator.
One member of the audience questioned how Parker, a former union leader, could abandon his roots and join Michelle Rhee on her tour and on her payroll.
He told the story of a third-grader who, after hearing him speak one day about putting
| The Huntsville Times - al.com | - |
Alabama is undergoing a hostile takeover by outsiders led byMichelle Rhee. She is headlining a town hall meeting in Birmingham Thursday to spread the gospel of privatization.
