The Washington Post Picks Up On Michelle Rhee’s $35K Kent State Speech
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Former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee speaks at a 2010 press conference.
The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss picked up on our Oct. 10 story on former D.C. public schools chief Michelle Rhee’s $35,000 speaking fee for a talk she gave at Kent State University’s Stark Campus earlier this month:
How much money do you think Michelle Rhee, former Washington D.C. schools superintendent who now runs an organization called StudentsFirst, charged a regional 11,000-student campus in the Kent State University public system to speak about school reform?
Did you guess a few thousand dollars? Wrong. Ten thousand? Wrong….
(Scroll down to read the actual contract.)
Rhee’s speech at Kent was reportedly well-attended and engaging.
The other education event that you might not have about was held earlier this week, also at Kent State’s Stark campus: A group of education faculty month held a panel discussion as a response to Rhee’s speech and presented “an insider’s view of education as a profession.”
At the panel discussion, about 40 people — mostly teachers, education faculty and education students — heard seventh grade language arts teacher Jake Schwendiman talk about “tricking” some of his male students into getting excited about reading by offering them the chance to read on Nook e-readers.
They heard teacher Jacki Cain explain how she found her “dream job” teaching seventh graders language arts and math.
And they heard Associate Dean Joanne Arhar talk about the interviews the college does with principals every year to learn what else Kent State should be teaching its future teachers. (On the list last year: more about how to tailor lessons to a room full of kids at different levels.)
None of the speakers, professor and event organizer Claudia Khourey-Bowers said, was paid.
Here’s Michelle Rhee’s speaking contract with the university:
