Radical: Fighting to Put Students First
By Michelle Rhee
(HarperCollins, 286 pages, $27.99)
It’s been said that personnel systems are the lifeblood of a bureaucracy, a point made clear in “Radical: Fighting to Put Students First” by Michelle Rhee, founder of StudentsFirst, a political advocacy organization for education reform.
Teachers are the lifeblood of Rhee’s reform.
“It has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected.”
References
George Washington, “First Inaugural Address,” in Writings (New York: Library of America, 1997).
The economy is worse off now than when Barack Obama first took office in 2009
| First Inauguration | Second Inauguration | Change | |
| Long-Term Unemployed1 | 2.7 Million | 4.8 Million | +78% |
| Workforce Dropouts2 | 50.1 Million | 54.6 Million | +10% |
| Food Stamp Recipients3 | 22.8 Million | 46.6 Million | +104% |
| Price of Gas4 | $1.85 | $3.30 | +78% |
| “High Unemployment” States5 | 22 | 39 | +77% |
| Misery Index6 | 7.83 | 9.46 | +21% |
| “Typical” Monthly Family Food Cost7 | $974 | $1,023 | +5% |
| Median Value of Single-Family Home8 | $196,600 | $186,100 | -5% |
| Rate of Mortgage Delinquencies9 | 6.65% | 10.77% | +62% |
| U.S. National Debt10 | $10.6 Trillion | $16.4 Trillion | +55% |
(Image/The Keith Haring Foundation)
I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
