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The Answer Sheet
By Valerie Strauss

Why 'Waiting for Superman' premiere was chilling

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee used the occasion of the D.C. premiere of the “Waiting for Superman” documentary -- which portrays her as the educational Joan of Arc -- to blast D.C. voters yet again for daring to reject her style of school reform.

In front of a star-studded audience -- Washington D.C. stars, that is: legislators, government policy makers, journalists, political movers and shakers, etc. -- Rhee trashed the majority view of the electorate, which tossed out her patron, Mayor Adrian Fenty. Disagreeing with the vote is one thing; accusing voters of doing something stupid is something else.

“Let me not mince words, and say that yesterday’s election results were devastating – devastating. Not for me, because I’ll be fine. And not even for Fenty, because he’ll be fine, too. It was devastating for the children of Washington, D.C.”

This was the equivalent of saying that there is no use for anybody to hope that she and presumptive mayor Vincent Gray can come to some compromise to keep her here. The only question is when she’ll leave.

The problem is that she said it to an audience who watched a one-sided film that adores public charter schools and demonizes traditional public schools, (which still and always will educate the vast majority of the country’s kids).

The audience was packed with people who affect millions of kids and teachers and parents by passing laws, advising the president, shaping public opinion. And those people gave her an ovation.

Ignored was the fact that there is no scientific basis for her reforms, and some evidence to suggest that some of her key initiatives, such as tying teacher pay to standardized test scores, is counterproductive.

Forget the fact that the film’s assault on teachers unions is unfair; even Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a true believer in Rhee, has noted that it is silly to blame unions, pointing out that the problems exist in states without teachers unions.

According to Politico’s Mike Allen, these were some of the people spotted on the red carpet:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), David Axelrod, Roland Martin, Michelle Rhee, Davis Guggenheim and Elisabeth Shue, Jeff Skoll, Jim Berk, Kristin Gore, Melody Barnes, Bill Sessions, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Alma Powell, Savannah Guthrie, Jake Tapper, Ed Henry, Luke Russert, Chris Matthews, Mark Halperin, Guy Cecil, Rep. Mazie Hirono, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Daniella Gibbs Leger, Dag Vega, Heather Higginbottom, Rob Nabors, Christine Varney, Julianna Smoot, Ebs Burnough, Raj Shah, Geoff Garin and Juleanna Glover.

Axelrod is senior adviser to President Obama.

Barnes is the director of the president’s Domestic Policy Council.

Miller is the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, making him the most powerful person in the House when it comes to education.

Dodd is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor.

Let's hope these people don't decide to let a tendentious movie influence their policy making. Demonizing teachers and traditional public schools, and showing charter schools as a solution to urban public education may make for great theater but it is a bad reflection of reality. Charters by their very design can never be a broad solution to urban education troubles, and besides, the biggest study ever of their effectiveness shows that only 17 percent provide a better education than the nearby public schools.

What we need in education reform are people who understand that there are complexities to fixing schools, that there is no one right way but plenty of wrong ways.

Critics of Rhee's style of reform are often accused of preferring the status quo but in most cases that's just nonsense. What they want are reforms that will take into account the many causes of school and student failure and not pretend that one or two sweeping reforms will turn the corner.

And it is a phony accusation that critics of Rhee in the District only want to protect teachers jobs and have a schools boss that will do everything by consensus. Committed parents and the best teachers know that some teachers ought to go; the question is how.

Anybody who thinks that the divided city or school system can be run entirely by consensus is a fool; good leaders try to bring along their constituencies -- something Rhee never did -- but move ahead even if they can't. Rhee's failure to even try, and then sometimes prevaricate when questioned, was what turned people against her.