Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

School Privatization Fraud: Michelle Rhee May Yet Join Beverly Hall in the Dock
10 Apr 2013
🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“Michelle Rhee may yet pay for her the damage she has inflicted on society and its children.” The former DC schools superintendent and privatization poster girl has been exposed to charges of fraud, along with her sister in crime, former Atlanta superintendent Beverly Hall. The real criminal enterprise is codified in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, headed up by the Bush and Obama gangs.

School Privatization Fraud: Michelle Rhee May Yet Join Beverly Hall in the Dock

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“Rhee hid money that the school system actually had on hand, to claim that teachers had to be fired en masse.”

Michelle Rhee, the former Washington, DC, schools chief and poster woman for public school privatization, richly deserves to join former Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall, who was recently indicted for her role in that city’s massive cheating scandal. Michelle Rhee may yet pay for the damage she has inflicted on society and its children, whom she has harmed even more grievously than her comrade in crime in Georgia. But first, the case of Beverly Hall.

Hall was a high-rolling player in the nationwide criminal enterprise to destroy public education and replace it with a privately managed, but publicly financed, system. She wound up being hoisted on her own petard, her career wrecked by the same high stakes testing regime that she supported to the hilt, and on whose altar she had sacrificed – fired – 90 school principals and countless rank and file teachers. Hall was caught in the minefield of No Child Left Behind and President Obama’s Race to the Top, trapped in a web of deceit.

A key purpose of high stakes testing is to “prove” that conventional public schools are inferior to the charter model, and that incompetent or uncaring teachers and their unions are the heart of the problem. The testing regimen is designed to fail large numbers of schools, so that they can be replaced with charter operations. Beverly Hall carried out a reign of terror in her overwhelmingly Black Atlanta district. Every public school teacher understood the rules: if your students get a low score, you are out the door. In return for torturing her teachers, superintendent Hall was awarded accolades and goo-gobs of bonus money and lucrative speaking engagements. She was a kingpin of the privatization gang, not too many notches below Michelle Rhee.

“Hall had to rely on the lowly, terrified teachers to work her scam.”

But Beverly Hall was trapped in a contradiction. In order to fulfill her commitment to the corporate charter school mob, she had to use her powers as superintendent to disrupt the educational process and make teaching a living hell. However, if she was to further her personal reputation as a school administrator, Hall needed the students in her district to register ever higher scores on the tests. She had to prove, by the numbers, that Race to the Top worked – when clearly it does not – or wind up in the same trash heap into which she was so eagerly throwing her teachers. Since the students could not facilitate her crime by actually achieving the impossible scores, Beverly Hall had to rely on the lowly, terrified teachers to work her scam. Thus, she became the Superintendent of Cheating, and is now free on $200,000 bail.

Michelle Rhee was even more criminally ambitious, during her tenure as Chancellor of DC’s public schools. It turns out that Rhee hid money that the school system actually had on hand, to claim that teachers had to be fired en masse, for budgetary reasons. After the massacre of teachers was over, Rhee magically found the money she had hidden, and hired a whole new crop of younger, whiter, non-union-friendly teachers.

One of those caught in the Michelle Rhee massacre was Willie Brewer, a 53-year-old music teacher who sued. A federal judge has allowed his case to proceed in court, and Brewer is now amending it to include charges of concealment and fraud, that could conceivably wind up putting Michelle Rhee in prison.

Let the perp-walk begin.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20130410_gf_Rhee_Hall.mp3
public education

Related Podcasts

Former Teacher Shani Robinson Tells Her Story of Prosecution By Fani Willis
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Former Teacher Shani Robinson Tells Her Story of Prosecution By Fani Willis
01 September 2023
Shani Robinsontaught in the Atlanta, Georgia public school system.
Black Agenda Radio May 5, 2023
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio May 5, 2023
05 May 2023
In this segment we discuss opposition to a proposed NBA arena in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, and the challenges of creating safe spaces for Black chi
School Safety for Black Students
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
School Safety for Black Students
05 May 2023
Dr. Gregory C.

More Stories


  • Jesús Chucho García , Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    AfroDescendientes En Acción 7 Aug '24
    11 Sep 2024
    While the far-right attacks in Venezuela backed by imperialist forces may have died down, the threat the opposition poses still is very present. Despite this, Venezuelan people will continue to push…
  • Carrie Zaremba
    U.S. Universities Spent the Summer Strategizing to Suppress Student Activism. Here is their Plan.
    11 Sep 2024
    Schools across the U.S. have altered policies and even landscapes in an attempt to make a repeat of last spring’s Palestine protests impossible. The result is a far-reaching war on free expression…
  • South Africa at the ICJ
    Palestine Chronicle Staff
    Israel Lobbying US Congress to Pressure South Africa to Drop ICJ Genocide Case – Report
    11 Sep 2024
    Israel once again is attempting to circumvent international law by appealing to the U.S.
  • Willow Naomi Curry
    Testifying at the Democratic National Convention
    11 Sep 2024
    60 years ago, the Mississippi Freedom Democrats took a stand at the Democratic National Convention, bodily challenging the racist party and the violent voter repression of Black people. Years…
  • CurbFest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Curbfest for Political Prisoners
    06 Sep 2024
    We are joined by Jasiri Fahali Kiyamaa, an organizer of Curbfest, an event advocating for political prisoners. New York City's Curbfest will take place on Saturday, September 7, 2024 in Brooklyn.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us