Educating Rita, Along With Tyrone, Miguel, and Jing Wei

The force-out of Michelle Rhee from the Washington D.C. school system may turn out to be OK. Without debating her methods too much here, it was clear that she had begun some necessary tasks to upgrade the D.C school system.

As Chancellor, she fired teachers who were not performing to the highest level, but may have caught a few good ones in the purge. Regardless, she saw that something needed to be done with the U.S. education system and it could not be done in dribs and drabs; rather she saw the need to make wholesale changes to get the attention of not only the teachers (and their union), but to make parents take a look at the learning that their children were NOT getting.

Tests were terrible, the drop out rate was approaching the graduation rate, gangs are thriving, the buildings were crumbling, and the impact of all that would be felt many years out.

DCPS Chancellor Rhee has now set the tone so it is up to the new mayor, along with the new Chancellor to decide to keep up the pressure and moved toward excellence, or resume the status quo and let the education system continue to be an embarrassing national eyesore for the world to see and to comment on the eventual fall of the United States. We have already fallen too far in math and science, but let’s hope that the D.C. model can be finessed enough to be used across the country. Let’s hope that all Americans can see that education is the key – the great equalizer – that can propel us to the greatness and leadership we once knew. It is not too late.