Rhee’s “Gravy Train" of Hypocrisy

"Former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee had trouble recalling the names of South Carolina’s 'key players' after a quick visit to the State House on Wednesday. But state lawmakers may want to take note of hers," reports The State (Columbia, SC). But in a rare moment of candor and even more unusual modesty, when asked to estimate the size of her hypocrisy and dishonesty, Rhee merely gestured:



Jeff Chiu — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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 However, Rhee soon returned to her usual routine—bashing teachers:

Educators make excuses for failing schools, Rhee said. But, she added, “The bottom line is: The system did not become the way that it is by accident. It operates exactly the way it was designed to operate, which is in a wholly unaccountable, dysfunctional manner. “So when you seek to change that dynamic” – including going after “low-performing” teachers – “you’re gonna have a whole lot of unhappy people on your hands. When you stop that gravy train, somebody is going to be unhappy.”

What does the gravy train in SC look like?

• SC teachers work in a right-to-work state, no unionization, no real power of any kind.
• SC teachers work in a state in the bottom quartile of states by poverty rates.
• SC teachers work within a state scarred by pockets of poverty, a "Corridor of Shame" in which many elementary schools have a poverty index of 100%.

At the Perdido Street School blog, however, just who is riding the gravy train is exposed:

Yeah, there are so many teachers in South Carolina, where the average teaching salary is $46,306.67 a year, who are on the "gravy train." And Rhee, who charges $50,000 speaking fee plus first class expenses, is just the person to get those lazy, greedy teachers off that gravy train and of course, she's doing it for the kids. Oh, and herself, since she pays herself somewhere between $125,000-$200,000 a year for running her corporate education reform PAC, Students First.

While I have recently re-labeled the current education reform movement Voodoo Education Reform, it appears yet another term seems just as if not more so relevant: Rhee's "gravy train" of hypocrisy. Look for it at a state house near you.

"I'm not calling you a liar/ Just don't lie to me."