GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Michelle Rhee’s media blitz continued this week at Time, where the firebrand chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools scored a cover profile.

Time’s story rehashes much of the same ground that other recent profiles of Rhee have covered: it describes her controversial, take-no-prisoners attitude, nimbly Blackberrying fingers, and unwavering commitment to results. (There is at least one new tidbit: Rhee, a darling of the group Democrats for Education Reform, had to be convinced to vote for Barack Obama.)

Responses to the article in the education blogosphere reflect an ongoing tension within the education policy world between those who back radical change and those who take a more cautious approach to reform. Blogging at Flypaper, Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Institute writes that he thinks “it’s hard not to root for Michelle Rhee.” NYC Educator, on the other hand, scathingly outlines the reasons why she’s a danger to teachers. In a post titled “Michelle Rhee is Scaring Me,” Robert Pondiscio takes a middle path, saying that Rhee’s tactics might not be the best means to an end desired by many, including Pondiscio himself.

One of the most interesting responses I’ve seen doesn’t address Rhee’s controversial tactics at all. (more…)

Mayor Bloomberg and his administration are often portrayed as pragmatists, as anti-politicians who simply want to get things done. But the mayor and his team are not perfectly apolitical.

This fact is highlighted in this week’s New York Observer, where Eliot Brown profiles Mark Page, the city’s budget director. Page, by Brown’s account, is so apolitical that he puts the rest of the administration to shame. (This is perhaps a result of his background: Unlike many Bloomberg officials, who left self-made corporate careers to enter politics, Page, the grandson of J.P. Morgan, was raised in wealth but has always been a bureaucrat.)

Brown:

The mayor approaches budgetary decisions weighing a set of competing needs including approval ratings, the feelings of the Council and his legacy as a fiscal steward. Not so Mr. Page.

“He’s clearly not on an ego trip-he doesn’t want to get out there and be the darling of the press,” said John Cape, the state budget director under Governor Pataki who dealt with Mr. Page in city and state budget skirmishes (with almost always no hard feelings at their conclusion, he noted). “He really is a practitioner. He’s a scholar of New York City history, finances and politics, and he just wants to have people sort of leave him alone and do his job.”