Michelle Rhee to step down as StudentsFirst chief, take ‘next step in life’

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

Michelle Rhee has been the most visible star in the nation’s galaxy of school reformers since she became D.C. schools chancellor in 2007, abruptly quit in 2010, and started an advocacy organization called StudentsFirst in 2011. Now, she is preparing to step down soon from her role as head of StudentsFirst at a time when the organization is facing questions about its effectiveness, and when she is ready, she said, to focus “on my family and supporting my husband.”

She is not, however, disappearing entirely from the reform world even as she takes up a new position as board member of the Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., a company that makes lawn, garden and home protection products. (Yes, Scotts Miracle-Gro.)

Rhee’s plans, first reported by Joy Resmovits of the Huffington Post,, call for her to vacate her post by the end of this year. She will remain active on the StudentsFirst Board of Directors, which is headed by Connie Chung and whose members include Bill Cosby and Joel Klein. Rhee has been quietly telling friends of her plans, Resmovits reported. Rhee, who is married to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, apparently has changed her last name to Johnson. The Scotts Miracle-Gro announcement of her appointment says her name is Michelle A. Johnson.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/08/13/michelle-rhee-reported-to-be-stepping-down-as-studentsfirst-chief/

[merrily]

1. Her next steps in life should be repentance and atonement.

[riversedge]

5. Which she could do well in a quiet pasture!

[6000eliot]

2. Peddling another kind of fertilizer now.

[merrily]

3. Same shit, different day?

[SoapBox]

6. Exactly.

[bullwinkle428]

13. Miracle-Gro is synthetic fertilizer. This move is almost Dickensian in

its appropriate-ness!

[6000eliot]

19. +1 Meeellion!

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Ugh.

[KG]

7. soulless opportunist

[Plucketeer]

9. Yup!

Yet one more. Excellent riddance.

[olddad56]

27. then she married the guy who is right for her.

[rpannier]

8. Couldn't stand the heat

The grifter moves on

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Something bad about her is about to come out

Otherwise they'd probably want Rhee on the announcement, not Johnson.

[weaselbit]

23. I agree

Last time her scam started to catch up to her she bailed and left town. Good call on the name change thing. Usually, public figures retain the name that they had when became famous in order to stay in the public eye.

She doesn't want to stay in the public eye.

[Paladin]

11. Make that "next step" a long hike, Ms. Rhee. (nt)

[blackspade]

12. Hopefully her next step is over a theoretical cliff.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

[PoutrageFatigue]

14. Lobbying for whom i wonder?

[JackRiddler]

16. As a lobbyist she may be radioactive for a while yet.

Drawing a pension for a job well done as a change agent in fulfilling the beautiful visions of Gates, Broad, the Waltons, or whatever neoliberal Christianists were backing her the most.

[Orsino]

15. To spend more time selling out her family. n/t

[Blue Idaho]

17. Stepping down? Name change?

WTF is she running from?

[Blue_Tires]

18. Probably exposure from some yet-to-be-named scandal

Rhee has a habit of "getting out" at just the right times and laying low (or in PR-speak, "Spending more time with her family&quot

So a month or two from now when the story hits the papers Rhee will have new, unlisted address, phone number, and a new last name...And once the shitstorm passes, she will re-emerge in the limelight with some new hustle to sell to the public...

[Blue Idaho]

21. She is a nasty piece of work...

And a shameless opportunist and so are the rest of her "fellow travelers" in the movement.

[LeftyMom]

25. Her new name is generic enough to render google useless.

[olddad56]

20. I believe she is stepping down to run her husband's charity.

When her husband does favors for businesses, in his role as mayor, the businesses then donate money to his charity, the St. Hope Academy. She has recently taken over running that entity.

[sendero]

22. Another doofus..

.... deludinally believing they could solve an intractable problem (and probably get paid paid paid in doing so) who found out that their tremendous ideas were not so tremendous after all.

And, being a pretty serious gardener, I quit using Scotts/Miracle Grow products after accidentally discovering they are another right wing company.

Obviously they deserve each other.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

24. Next step should be off a short pier n/m

[LeftyMom]

26. StudentsFirst never made much money. She's moving to new, better grifts

Right now Mayor Johnson's dubious charities are getting a lot of suspicious donations from people (property developers, the NBA) who benefit from city policies, so if her notoriety is bad for business she needs to lay low.

This isn't about her: he's gearing up to run for higher office.

[olddad56]

28. whatever gets him out of Sacramento.

Why can't they just make him the commissioner of the NBA and take hm off of our hands.

[olddad56]

29. lets not forget the $50,000 donation to his favorite charity (his own charity) by Nestles

for selling them water at approx. $1 per 750 gallons.

[LeftyMom]

31. You heard he has a new one?

In afdition to St Hope, it's the Black Mayors Assn or something like that. A new excuse to take corporate donations for favors and distribute jobs to allies.

[kwassa]

30. The big point of all this: Michelle Rhee has failed. And, will continue to fail.

Her bankrupt philosophy of educational "reform" will continue to fail, as well.