Michelle Rhee: Unconventional, Bee-Swallowing Reformer
Michelle Rhee got a reality check in her first year of teaching, in 1993. The second graders at Harlem Park Elementary in a tough neighborhood in Baltimore were hard enough to keep in their seats, let alone teach anything. One day a bumblebee got into the classroom and the students were more out of control than ever. The daughter of Korean immigrants wasn't about to let a bunch of rowdy 8-year-olds trample her aspirations to get them to learn. When the bee landed on Rhee's desk, she swatted it, popped it in her mouth and gulped it down. For the first time, it seemed, her students were quiet. After that day they paid more attention, even if they were just waiting to see what she'd do next. "The kids were, like, 'Oh, my God, she's crazy! Who is this woman?' " Rhee says.
That's precisely the question being asked in Washington, D.C. Rhee, 37, has taken on the city's most unruly job: reforming the D.C. public schools. When the city's new mayor, Adrian Fenty, asked her to be his schools chancellor last summer, she refused at first. "Absolutely not. That's an impossible job," she recalls saying. D.C.'s public schools spend more per student than almost every other major school district but have some of the worst test scores in the country. Fenty said he'd risk his popularity to fix them, so Rhee accepted his challenge. She has already piqued unions and parents by announcing plans to fire more than 100 administrative workers and close down 23 schools. "If the rules don't make sense for kids, I'm not going to follow them. I don't care how much trouble we get in," she warned Fenty.
No one is more aware than Rhee that she is an unconventional fit for D.C. She has never run a school district. Then there is the issue of a Korean-American running predominantly African-American schools. Rhee has tried to defuse racial tension with her blunt talk. "I bet you are wondering what this Korean lady is doing here," she told one all-black audience.
A compulsive e-mailer, she has been involved in minutiae like repairing broken water fountains. She told the lawyers to stay away while she tries to renegotiate a new teacher contract herself. She has met with every school principal, telling those at failing schools they could lose their jobs if they don't raise test scores. Her imperial style has irked some. "Good. I don't want them to be comfortable," Rhee says. Just as in Harlem Park, everyone is waiting to see what she does next.
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After two years covering the White House, Martha Brant enlisted to cover the war against Iraq from the Middle East. Based at Central Command in Doha, Qatar, she obtained exclusive reporting for the cover story "The Secret War" (04/21/03) as well as the first post-war interview with Gen. Tommy Franks (05/19/03). She now covers national issues for the magazine and writes a Web column every Wednesday for Newsweek and MSNBC, where she is a frequent guest.
Brant was named White House correspondent in January 2001 after covering George W. Bush's presidential campaign. Her recent work includes several exclusives such as "Where We Get Our Strength" (12/03/01), the first interview with the president and his wife after September 11th. Her profiles of political figures Condoleezza Rice, "A Steely Southerner" (08/06/01), and Barbara Bush, "The Queen Mother" (05/13/02), also broke new ground.
She was national correspondent from January 1999 until December 2000, during which time she covered breaking news such as "Seizing Elián" (5/1/00), the behind-the-scenes account of the early morning raid to snatch Elián Gonzalez. She also covered the Sydney, Australia Olympics, writing features such as "The Grannies of the Games," why women athletes are staying in sports longer (08/14/00).
Brant served abroad as Newsweek's Mexico City bureau chief from December 1996 through December 1998. She wrote several Latin American edition cover stories including "No Place Like Home" (6/15/98) about the tremendous financial and ideological impact of Mexican immigrants on their native country. Other covers from Latin American include "Mayan Chic," (11/3/97), the modern revival of Mayan culture, and "The Importance of Being Ernesto" (5/5/97), the political education of President Ernesto Zedillo.
She served as a Washington correspondent from February 1995 to December 1996, reporting a number of exclusive stories on Hillary Clinton such as the cover "Saint or Sinner?" (01/15/96). She joined Newsweek as a summer intern in June 1993 and was promoted to reporter in 1994. She was part of the Newsweek team reporting on the Oklahoma City bombing.
Brant came to Newsweek after receiving an M.A. in Latin American studies from Stanford University. She worked as a reporter at the Daily Republic in Fairfield, Ca. and the Tico Times in San Jose, Costa Rica. She was an intern at CNN (Spanish) in Los Angeles and the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Ca. A native of Laguna Beach, Ca., Brant holds a B.A. in history from Yale University and is fluent in Spanish.
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