New at Reason: David Harsanyi on Fixing Our Broken Public Schools

July 28, 2010

In 2006, 8 percent of eighth-graders in Washington, D.C., could perform minimal math, yet not a single teacher was fired for stinking up the place. In fact, as D.C.'s chancellor, Michelle Rhee, points out, for years, more than 90 percent of teachers in her district were evaluated as having "exceeded expectations." All of this makes Rhee's decision to fire 241 Washington teachers—after they failed a new (real) evaluation system—a precedent-setting moment. As David Harsanyi writes, Rhee is a radical in the best sense of the word.

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