Hundreds of teachers, parents and students turned out in Fresno Thursday night for a town hall meeting on education. They gathered to hear guest speaker Michelle Rhee, who is an educational reformist.Rhee is the former chancellor of Washington D.C.'s public school system. The 2010 film, "Waiting for Superman," documents Rhee’s work of turning around struggling districts by closing ineffective schools and firing unproductive principals and teachers. Rhee resigned after the mayor who appointed her was defeated in the 2010 election.
Not long after her departure, she started a group called "Students First". It's a bipartisan movement to improve America’s schools. Thursday night, Rhee brought her message to Yokomi Elementary.
After entering to the applause of approximately 400 people, Michelle Rhee shared astonishing details of being chancellor in Washington D.C.
“Of all of the 8th graders in city schools only 8% were operating on grade level in mathematics,” said Michelle Ree.
Rhee was in Fresno representing the group she founded called “Students First". She sat down with us to explain its purpose.
“Our goal is to transform public education in this country and to make America’s schools the best in the world again,” explained Rhee.
In just over a year, the group has picked up one million members.
“California has the most members of any state across the nation,” said Rhee.
After seeing that, she scheduled tours across our state. She's teamed up with the the California Mayors Education Roundtable, which is headed by Kevin Johnson who is both Sacramento’s mayor and her husband.
“What we really want to do is gauge the priorities people have in this state and get a sense of how ready they are to activate or mobilize around some of these changes,” said Rhee.
Johnson too is committed to fighting for the rights of children.
“We need an educated and highly skilled workforce. There's no way a city's economic vitality and the health of that community will be realized unless we have really good schools for our children,” said Kevin Johnson.
Although no magic solution to our educational problems was revealed during this town hall meeting, Phil Skei says it proved to be a great start.
“It’s the beginning of a dialogue involving an entire community in a conversation that affects the entire community,” said Skei.
Joining "Students First" is free. For more information on becoming a member, click the link above.
