You heard it here first: Michelle Mhee, DC Chancellor of Schools, will appear on next month's cover of Good Housekeeping magazine. Sporting an "I ♥ teachers" apron, sundress, and Bissell Versus, she simply glows against the bright kitchen backdrop. "I want teachers to know that I love them just as much as these adorable kittens I'm pictured with," Mhee explains in the accompanying article. It's all part of a new offensive that some aides refer to as Operation Kumbayah. And it's not for show; flip to the next page and you'll find a handful of new contract proposals up for union vote: Bring Your Teacher Candy Day; Hug a Teacher Day; shorter school days and years; and double the amount of sick leave. "Basically my message is: give teachers a break," Mhee says. "And I always keep freshly baked cookies on my desk," she gushed ("chocolate chip, Mandi's favorite," says Mhee); the article includes the soon-to-be-famous recipe. But this Hillary Clintonesque stunt isn't fooling the old birds who make the up the core of D.C.'s tenured faculty. Mhee faced opposition over her proposed contract revision to dismiss all teachers over the age of 31. "Just because she can bake up a batch of Scotcheroos isn't going to make me think she isn't after my job," explained Tenuretta Paster Prime, a 58-year veteran of McHenry High School in Northeast. Maybe gingersnaps would be more convincing.
"Michelle Mhee, chancellor, mother, daughter, friend," by Sissy Chipper, Good Housekeeping, March 23, 2009