What Is Behind the Discrediting of Michelle Rhee?

By Richard Whitmire

There’s one issue you won’t find in the 270 pages I wrote in my new book about Michelle A. Rhee, who spent 3½ turbulent and controversial years upending the District of Columbia public schools. Why, I kept asking myself during months of research, does Rhee draw such virulent responses from a select group of extreme detractors?

At the time I was writing, I wasn’t sure I had a good answer. But now is the time to take a shot at that question, given that the copycat criticism from her tenure in Washington is following Rhee to her new organization, StudentsFirst , as it spreads to other states.

While researching my book, The Bee Eater , I often shook my head in amazement after reading some of the online comments posted after a Washington Post story about Rhee. Wow, I would say to myself, some people...