The Georgetown Dish reports that a graphic test about sex was administered to 7th grade youth at Hardy Middle School. As I have recently reported, Michelle Rhee kicked out the popular ULTRA Teen Choice abstinence centered HIV and pregnancy prevention program, which was being provided at no charge to several DC public schools. Instead, she has now paid Metro Teen Aids at least $95,000 to bring in graphic programs that do not promote abstinence but rather promote accepting all kinds of sexual behavior (gay, straight, transgender, etc) and using condoms. Unfortunately, programs like this do not increase the rate of consistent condom use, and they undermine the values that the great majority of parents want to communicate to their children: The Georgetown dish article says: [More]

I believed Ms.. Rhee should have resigned in December 2007 when I organized a rally in front of Stuart-Hobson Middle School (http://www.youtube.com/richardurban) protesting the deceitful way that she terminated the operation of the ULTRA Teen Choice abstinence education program in DC Public Schools. Based on a litmus test of my personal view on same sex marriage (see http://tinyurl.com/2g86cw5), the program was cut. It did not matter that 6 parents and 5 students in the program met with Richard Nyankori, then Ms. Rhee’s special assistant and now head of special education and expressed how the program was beneficial and how they wanted it to continue. What did matter is that Ms. Rhee did not want a program in DC Public schools run by a person who had testified against health standards that teach that same sex relationships are normal beginning in 6th grade (http://tinyurl.com/2brnygy, Page 9 Standard 6.1.6 and Page 10 Standard 8.1.5). Since then she has wrongfully terminated a lot of people and things, [More]

Schools are not just “businesses”. While testing has its place, it is by no means a complete or accurate measure of the progress of children’s education. Here is a comment from the Washington Post website regarding the firing on July 23 (again) of 226 teachers by Ms. Rhee deemed “ineffective”, with a whopping 737 more teachers rated “minimally effective”. [More]

Mary Cheh and the other co-sponsors of a bill to mandate what food DC School youth will eat are taking the wrong approach to health. In tight economic times, Cheh proposes a $6 million per year bill that mandates that kids in DC Public Schools eat more health, locally grown food. While eating more fruits and veggies is a great idea, I don’t thing that it should cost tax payers 6 million dollars. Ms. Cheh’s bill tries to mandate solutions for problems that are not the core problems that DC youth face. Ms. Cheh and the rest of the city council, who all voted for this bill, are out of touch with the real needs of DC youth and families. [More]

Michelle Rhee reported to the DC City Council on Tuesday that she knew in February that there were suprlus funds available. However, she did not report that information to the Council. This revelation comes on the heels of the contention that Ms. Rhee knew very well that teachers would have to be laid off (266 were laid off) to accomate her hiring of 900 new teachers. Michelle Rhee has shown contempt for honesty and transparency. [More]