MIchelle Rhee Will Not Be Newark's Next Superintendent

OK, I admit it, I was wrong. Michelle Rhee will not be coming to Newark as the new superintendent. She may, however, become the State's new Education Commissioner -- but probably not.

The unofficial "official" story is that Rhee does not want to come to New Jersey for family reasons -- her husband, Kevin Johnson, is the mayor of Sacramento, CA. Something else is in play here, clearly, as it is nonsensical to assert that D.C. was not too far from Sacramento but Newark and Trenton are. My gut tells me that Ms. Rhee wants to be the only superstar in town, and that sharing the stage with Chris Christie and Cory Booker is not optimal in her view.

So now we wait to see who Booker and Christie tap for the highest profile superintendent gig in the nation, and who Christie gets to sit on the Commissioner hotseat formerly belonging to Bret Schundler.

UPDATE -- The Wall Street Journal reports that Ms. Rhee is engaged to the mayor of Sacramento, not married -- so my dismissal of the "family time" discussion above doesn't actually hold water. The Journal also reports that Governor Christie says he never offered Ms. Rhee a job, despite reports to the contrary in the national press.

At this point, this whole story reminds me of 6 year olds playing soccer. You know there has to be a ball in there somewhere, because everyone's kicking at something, but clearly no one has a grasp on the game.

Michelle Rhee Officially Looking For A Job

As anticipated, Michelle Rhee has resigned as D.C. Chancellor of Schools. Rhee backed incumbent mayoral candidate Adrian Fenty in a Democratic primary largely seen as a referendum on Rhee's educational reforms. Fenty lost to Vincent Gray, who intends to pursue more incremental reforms than those adopted by Ms. Rhee -- e.g., no more mass teacher firings, no more mass school closures.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page cited Ms. Rhee's departure as an "Education Reform Setback," and noted the fact "[t]hat one of the nation's most talented school reformers was forced out does not bode well for students, or speak well of the man likely to become D.C.'s next mayor."

But I say, "Fear not, WSJ." Michelle Rhee is the most famous education reformer in all the land, and after Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million dollar gift to the Newark School System -- announced on the Obama-friendly Oprah Winfrey Show, no less -- Newark is the most famous school district in the world in need of reform. Surely, destiny will not keep these two apart, especially since Chris Christie and Cory Booker are ardent fans of Ms. Rhee's.

In the movie version, I want Meg Ryan to play Ms. Rhee and Tom Hanks to play Newark. And they can meet at the end of the movie on top of the Prudential Center.

It's Official: Change Is Coming To Newark

Governor Christie officially let Newark Superintendant of Schools Clifford Janey know that Janey's 3 year contract will not be renewed when it expires next year. In a surprising show of generosity, the Governor is not claiming that this is a termination for cause. Yet.

The Newark school system is directly under the control of the Governor, giving the Governor a unique chance to implement reform. His intention is to make Newark a test case for his education policies and priorities, as part of his on-going effort to build his national profile. And the writing is on the wall, as the Newark Teachers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (and not the NJEA), has already gone on record as being open to merit pay and to changes in tenure and seniority.

The next step will be to name Janey's replacement. And here the politics will get interesting. Christie will want the support of Newark mayor Cory Booker behind the next superintendant. But there may be some bad blood there, as Booker supported Christie's call for a property tax constitutional amendment just before Christie abandoned that plan. There is a difference between being a steamroller and being a dealmaker, and it may be that the Governor is about to get schooled

If nothing else, it should be educational to watch two local politicians with national reputations come together for the sake of the kids.