It's hard not to root for Michelle Rhee, the butt-kicking, straight-talking, no-nonsense Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. (Consider this piece of straight talk, from a related article on the incoming Administration, regarding her reluctance to vote for Obama: "It was a very hard decision. I'm somewhat terrified of what the Democrats are going to do on education.") 
So I can't help but say hooray for her making the cover of TIME this week. (The story, by Amanda Ripley, is very good too.) According to our intern Charlotte's quick research, the last time TIME put an education official on its cover was September 1991; it's nice to see the issue getting some national attention. Call this the last great success of the Ed in 08 campaign.
Still, let's admit that Rhee's tenure in DC is just in the very early stages, and as such she can't claim much by way of results yet. Furthermore, her most farsighted reforms are being stymied by the teachers union, and they don't appear to be letting up anytime soon. Consider this quote from the article from Randi Weingarten: "Michelle Rhee believes in scorched earth. I am not saying that D.C.'s school system doesn't need a lot of help. But I have been part of a lot of reforms, and the one thing I have never seen work is a hierarchical, top-down model."
Um, Randi, I guess working to fire bad teachers would be considered "hierarchical" and "top-down," but scorched earth? And how would you characterize her bid to pay great teachers a lot more money? To me that sounds very empowering, even bottom-up.
The coming years in Washington are going to be very entertaining, and not just because the Obama administration is going to have to pull some magic out of a hat to reauthorize No Child Left Behind and otherwise find consensus on k-12 education policy. No, the best theater is going to be Rhee vs. Randi; I imagine the AFT press office is working double time to make sure that Weingarten gets a TIME cover of her own.
