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"A few days ago, CNN interviewed former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee about American education. Rhee, predictably, said that American education is terrible, that test scores are flat, and that we are way behind other nations on international tests. I disagree with Rhee. She constantly bashes American education, which is one of the pillars of our democratic society. Our public schools educate 90% of the population, and we should give the public schools some of the credit for our nation's accomplishments as the largest economy and the greatest engine of technological innovation in the world. It's time to set the record straight."

"I received the following description of the appearance of Michelle Rhee and her husband at the University of Hawaii, where they lectured on "Ethics and Education." Rhee paused briefly from her national campaign to raise $1 billion to remove teachers' collective bargaining rights, to strip them of tenure and seniority, and to promote vouchers and charters, to share her wisdom about American education."

Former District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee was a frequent target at a forum on education on Martha's Vineyard last night. Rhee, who resigned as head of district schools after Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his re-election bid last year, took shots from both education historian Diane Ravitch and Harvard sociologist Lawrence Bobo. The Massachusetts forum is an annual event organized by The Root's editor-in-chief, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. It took place just miles from where President Obama and his family were vacationing. 

Last year, Washington Post education reporter Bill Turque made clear what he thought of how his paper's editorial board covered then-Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. In a blog post, Turque wrote that the Post's editorial support for Rhee had been "steadfast, protective and, at times, adoring." The item was quickly removed from the Post's website, but Turque is hardly alone in his views.

It is an almost universal tribute offered about Michelle Rhee's 3 1/2 -year tenure of the Washington D.C. school district - that if she accomplished one thing, it was to instill a sense of urgency in the city about the need to fix broken schools that had failed children for decades. Actually, it was Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who hired Rhee and gave her carte blanche, who made school reform the city's top priority. Rhee got all the attention because Fenty wanted it that way.

Last Friday, Michelle Rhee was on Brian Lehrer's radio show. The segment, unsurprisingly, is a textbook example of the incoherence of the corporate reform movement. I'll have more to say about the rest of the interview later, but for now, I want to focus in on a remarkable passage, starting at 18:19. I have transcribed it in its entirety because I think it needs to go on Rhee's permanent record (all emphasis mine)

Bain helped develop the strategy and business plan for launching StudentsFirst, the new organization founded by Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. StudentsFirst is leading a national movement to advocate for common sense reforms that accelerate student achievement. The Bain team worked with Rhee and her team to build an indepth plan that has helped guide the initial launch and early success of the organization. We have committed to an ongoing partnership with StudentsFirst and are excited by the opportunity to support them in their mission of significantly improving the US educational system. That is one part of our launch of a new education practice in the US that will include pro bono teams in every office.

Back in March, USA Today broke the story about test score cheating in the Washington, DC school system under Michelle Rhee's watch. Since then, Rhee has been cozy with the DeVos family, Rick Scott, worked to undermine Tennessee schools, and continues her crusade with the assistance of former DNC official Hari Sevugan to bust unions in her quest "for the children." Yet, she is curiously circumspect when it comes to answering allegations on the cheating scandals, particularly the Washington, DC cheating scandal.

Gary Rubinstein analyzes panel discussion with Michelle Rhee and Diane Ravitch.

Michelle Rhee spent nearly $1M in ad buys to defeat  due process and collective bargaining rights for teachers in Michigan. Rhee's group outspent all other Michigan lobbyists in 2011.  She teamed up with ultra-right wing legislators, Gov. Rick Snyder, and  her billionaire funders,  launching a Madison Avenue-style advertising campaign that bought her results

Michelle Rhee, the former D.C. public schools chief, will speak to a full house at Kent State University's Stark campus tonight as part of its Featured Speakers Series. In response, the university's education faculty will hold their own event later this month to present "an insider's view of education as a profession."

The Pennsylvania legislature is working on a "school choice" bill-meaning school vouchers and expanded charter schools. Rachel Tabachnik has detailed the network of Betsy DeVos-funded think tanks and PACs that are pushing privatization. But no move to undermine public education that works for all kids would be complete without Michelle Rhee, and Karoli at Crooks and Liars details how Rhee's StudentsFirst has been involved. After a string of Rhee appearances with voucher supporters and at DeVos-funded events, StudentsFirst has hired a lobbyist with some hardcore Republican credentials

"Michelle Rhee continues her descent into parody. You might have thought that teaching students to read would be a good way to evaluate educational performance, but no. Rhee's StudentsFirst organization has released a report card grading states-on their education policies, not their educational results. In fact, not one of the states StudentsFirst ranks in the top five is in the top half of states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "the nation's report card," when it comes to eighth grade reading scores, and only one is in the top half when it comes to eighth grade math."

I am trying to understand Michelle Rhee. She has allied herself with the most right-wing governors in the nation, yet she claims to be a Democrat. She has worked with Republican Rick Scott in Florida, Republican John Kasich in Ohio, Republican Chris Christie in New Jersey, Republican Rick Snyder in Michigan, among others. Any governor who wants to cut teachers' rights and benefits can call on her to stand with him. Wherever there is a governor eager to dismantle and privatize public education, she is there at his side.

Michelle Rhee on improving mobility, the gap between the U.S. and other developed countries, and why she's optimistic.

Dear Michelle Rhee, former D.C. schools chancellor and current leader of StudentsFirst: I just wanted to dash off a quick note about that commentary you wrote in Education Week about the big value-added teacher evaluation study that made headlines this month.

The liberals of the education reform movement, often more surreptitiously than the overstated former Washington D.C. Chancellor of Schools during Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty's term in office Michelle Rhee, have for decades advanced negative assumptions about public school teachers that now power the attacks by Christie, Walker, Kasich and their ilk. This is particularly true of Teach for America (TFA), the prototypical liberal education reform organization, where Rhee first made her mark. The history of TFA reveals the ironies of contemporary education reform. In its mission to deliver justice to underprivileged children, TFA and the liberal education reform movement have advanced an agenda that advances conservative attempts to undercut teacher's unions. More broadly, TFA has been in the vanguard in forming a neoliberal consensus about the role of public education-and the role of public school teachers-in a deeply unequal society.

"In her most recent HuffPost piece, Michelle Rhee poses the rhetorical question, "How can I ask parents to accept less than I'd want for my kids?" She then goes on to make the same old tired arguments for school vouchers, most of which are simply different iterations of this shallow emotional ploy: "If public schools are lousy we must give the poor families the same opportunities that the rich folks in private schools have. It's only fair." And Ms. Rhee is not alone in this voucher resurgence; Indiana just passed what will arguably be the nation's most comprehensive voucher program."

Next week (August 11-12), Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker and Michelle Rhee will speak at the Global Leadership Summit. Started in 1996 by Bill Hybels-guru at Willow Creek Community Church, the chief branch of the multi-church Willow Creek Association -the summit takes place just outside of Chicago in a $75 million auditorium and will be beamed via satellite to hundreds of churches in the U.S. and seventy countries, with an expected audience of 165,000.

Why won't Michelle Rhee talk to USA Today?