Michelle Rhee: My Break With the Democrats

[HiPointDem]

16. they already are associated; koch = donor

After failing in Washington D.C., Rhee jumped statetostate, helping Republican governors dismantle public education. She gave many speeches, charging $50,000 per appearance, plus first-class expenses. In 2010, she founded StudentsFirst, which claims that it will “transform” public education. Judging from StudentsFirst’shistory and funding, they favor transformation that will benefit the one percent, not public school children. On its website, Bain & Company (where Mitt Romney was a venture capitalist) boasts that it helped Rhee build an “in-depth plan” to start her new playground. While Rhee tried hard to hide her donors’ identity, it was eventually discovered that the billionaire founder ofNews Corporation (which owns Fox News and was implicated in a large wiretapping scandal in Britain), Rupert Murdoch, spent part of his large fortune to prop up StudentsFirst. Charles and David Koch, who inherited billions from their father and have spent millions in an attempt to buythe 2012 elections, have also donated to Rhee’s group.

http://www.movechicagoschoolsforward.com/michelle-rhee-and-studentsfirst/


As it turns out, the “education empire” lawsuit was filed by StudentsFirst lobbyist Rich Thompson. When Thompson isn’t filing nonsense lawsuits, or regaling Tea Party ralliers with tales about how women lack business acumen, he’s out doing Michelle Rhee’s bidding. He lobbied for StudentsFirst in the Georgia legislature, and even turned up in Missouri to speak in favor of a StudentsFirst-backed bill (on the same day as several other StudentsFirst employees). Thompson was also featured in a video supporting the Georgia initiative, released by Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which partnered with StudentsFirst to push for the statewide charter authorizer law.

http://www.rheefirst.com/