Learning From the Rise and Fall of Michelle Rhee

Texas Senators Were For Immigration Reform Before They Were Against It
By Jason Stanford on Monday, June 17th, 2013
By a 82-15 vote, the Senate has taken up comprehensive immigration reform. Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised an “open as possible process” for amendments, which means creating a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants still hasn’t cleared two formidable roadblocks in Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, who respectively are insisting upon a totally secure border and no path to citizenship. Like the Texas Republican Party, Cornyn and Cruz have ...
Dreams of Superman’s Fathers
By Jason Stanford on Monday, June 10th, 2013
It is no accident that Man of Steel, the latest Superman movie, is opening on Father’s Day weekend. Television shows and movies based on Superman have always reflected America’s zeitgeist, but Man of Steel goes deeper into questioning America’s identify by examining the values that Superman—and thus, America—was raised with. As an inwardly directed memoir that illuminates our political conflicts, Man of Steel might as well have been called Dreams of Superman’s Fathers. Hollywood directors ...
Bachmann is Dead, Long Live Ted Cruz!
By Jason Stanford on Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s retirement is a blow to the late-night comedians who laughed at her confusing actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy or her insisting that HPV vaccine caused mental retardation. Her absence also leaves a leadership void among the radical Tea Party faction that turned the House of Representatives into an ungovernable mob and her briefly to frontrunner status in the 2012 Republican presidential primary. Now Bachmann’s decision not to seek ...
Cheating on Standardized Tests Commonplace
By Jason Stanford on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
Atlanta wasn’t an isolated incident. Neither was El Paso, or Washington, DC, or Columbus. A new General Accounting Office report demonstrates that cheating by school officials on standardized tests has become commonplace despite the use of security measures the report recommends. The only solution is one that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has so far refused—removing the high stakes attached to standardized testing. The latest embarrassment is in Columbus, where this month Ohio State Auditor Dave ...
Learning From the Rise and Fall of Michelle Rhee
By Jason Stanford on Monday, May 20th, 2013
At some point, we need to stop believing in miracles, at least in education. While we’re still getting over the RICO indictments handed down in the Atlanta cheating scandal comes the revelation that the success Michelle Rhee achieved as the “no excuses” superintendent of Washington, D.C.’s public schools was the product of massive cheating. Those asking why Rhee isn’t under indictment just like her former colleague in Atlanta are missing the bigger question: If she’s ...