Michele Rhee's own contract betrays her rhetoric

Earlier this month, discredited advocate of corporate education reform, Michele Rhee, was invited to speak at Kent State University. Her contract for participating in this event has now been leaked, and its quite the eye opener. It seems, rather than putting "StudentsFirst", Ms Rhee likes to put herself first.

On top of the $35,000 speaking fee, she also requested up to another $5,000 for a first class plane ticket, VIP hotel suite, coverage for all “incidentals” and a “town car” driven by a “professional”.

As one education blog notes, that's more money that a lot of teachers get for a whole years worth of work. But the story doesn't really end there

I’m not an attorney, just a simple education professor. But I will say that the proceeds, excessive as they are, are apparently going to something called Rhee Enterprises, LLC and care of a creative artists agency. So, like a talent agent? I mean, I get it: you make huge bank on the road as some hard-ass former education czar whose ideas have been debunked on numerous occasions. I guess you’re going to need someone to manage your “talent.” But, this whole LLC thing: it’s operated by her brother. So then Rhee Enterprises, which is really funny by the way, needs to pay her brother for managing the whole show. What’s his cut? Hey, wait, what are the students getting out of this? I thought they were first? I don’t know, reeks of nepotism to me, but I don’t know the family situation there.

Rhee would have everyone believe that merit pay is the way forward, and such systems would never lead to any kind of favoritism, nepotism or corrupt bargaining, yet as can been seen quite plainly, that's not how she operates her very own business, a business she claims puts "StudentsFrist".

Here's the Kent State Contract

Rhee Contract

The Columbus parent trigger profit motive

A smart and interesting post at Plunderbund, discusses which of the Columbus schools might be susceptible to a parental takeover, now that the Ohio house has reduced their statewide parent trigger provision to a trial in Columbus.

So how likely is that to take place? Consider some details:

As reported by ODE for 09-10, 21 percent of the students at Weinland Park are at the school for less than one year. That also means that the number of parents involved enough to sign the petition is around 80%, with the student population constantly changing. So if 50% of the parents need to sign, but only 80% are around, the parent(s) leading this effort must obtain the signatures of approximately 63% of the parents. And Weinland Park serves a population categorized as 93.7% “economically disadvantaged” in a building that already runs a non-standard year-round schedule. For additional perspective, the number of economically disadvantaged students is 43% statewide. I’m going to take a wild guess and project that these families have greater concerns than taking over a school. Just a guess.

This is a smart and reasonable observation, but as we pointed out in an article a while ago, it's not the only consideration to account for. Indeed, other provisions included in the budget bill could have a significant impact too.

The other question to be asked is this;

How much money could a for-profit charter make by sponsoring an effort to take over one of these Columbus schools?

With an empty promise to desperate parents to fix things, and a paid effort to garner the required parental support for the takeover, these schools might be easy marks, with easy profits to follow.