Michelle Rhee, in Indianapolis this week, spoke with reporters from that city's paper, the Star, and answered questions about her education-related positions and philosophy. On vouchers, she said that when she first came to Washington she opposed them, mostly because she is a Democrat and believed, as many Democrats do, that vouchers?pointlessly took money away from public schools. But she changed her mind after meeting parents who, from her perspective, were ?doing exactly the right thing??i.e., trying to attain for their children the best education possible. But . . . Rhee is no closet libertarian. ?I don't believe in a sort of free market approach? to education, she said, in which, the theory goes, the K-12 market will correct itself as demand for great schools rises and for bad schools plunges. ?Education has to be a very heavily regulated industry, like the airline industry,? she said. ?We don't let every crazy person with a propeller run an airline because people's lives are at risk. The same is true with children and their educations.? Not sure I totally get the analogy, but okay. Rhee reiterated her obsession with teacher quality: If she could focus on just one area of education, improving teacher quality would be it. ?The research shows the most important school factor in student achievement is the teacher in front of the classroom,? she said.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow