(Iris Harris—U.S. Department of Commerce)
Several months ago, Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst hired then-DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan to do communications in a blatant attempt to make the organization look bipartisan even as it worked with
the worst of the worst Republican governors. Mysteriously, that effort is
not working out, as Sam Stein reports:
Despite the skepticism that accompanied Sevugan's hiring, there were some early, encouraging results. Rhee formally came out in support of the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship -- either through military service or scholastic achievements -- for the children of undocumented immigrants. Rhee also offered stronger indications that she did in fact support collective bargaining rights. And StudentsFirst, often accused of working solely with Republicans, recently hired a Democrat, Michigan State Rep. Tim Melton, to work on legislative issues.
Several months into the experiment, however, union officials and progressive advocates have been unconvinced, noting that for all of the rhetorical support for teachers and collective bargaining, Rhee often associates herself with efforts that run counter to those groups and interests.
The most glaring moments have occurred in the states where StudentsFirst has been tied to legislative reforms that curb collective bargaining rights or tenure policies, or ones that involve major budget cuts that would affect school systems. Recently, however, the tiffs have grown a touch more personal. Rhee's appearance at a conference organized by Pastor Bill Hybels and the Willow Creek Leadership Summit became fodder for critics amid protests over Willow Creek's anti-gay marriage platform. So too did Brill's revelation that StudentsFirst had been funded by NewsCorp.'s Rupert Murdoch.
Given how many people I respect have appeared at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, that's an issue I didn't choose to slam Rhee for, though it certainly wasn't admirable. But that leaves the issues of the Murdoch funding (which Stein for some reason thinks is less of an issue because it was a personal, not corporate contribution), Rhee's continued dodging of questions about the cheating scandal and subsequent failure to investigate what happened under her, the fact that the educational miracle she has built her career on and continues to actively tout was a mirage, the work StudentsFirst did on a set of Michigan bills dismantling teacher protections, and her praise for school vouchers privatization and for a Tennessee bill eliminating collective bargaining. Those are all stories that have come out, continued, or happened since Sevugan joined StudentsFirst. Faced with criticism from the American Federation of Teachers, StudentsFirst yet again opposed the interests of students and teachers, showing their fundamental disregard for what actually goes on in classrooms.
So, while Hari Sevugan may want us to believe that he didn't do this for money—in Stein's article, Sevugan points to his aged car and canvas shoes to imply, but not directly state, that he did not get a substantial raise by joining StudentsFirst—in the end, that doesn't matter. He may well have done it because he has a crappy set of beliefs about education. That's perfectly plausible. Either way, if the organization for which he is a mouthpiece won't repudiate Ohio's SB 5, which cuts collective bargaining rights for public employees and which StudentsFirst was willing to link its own agenda to during passage, then Hari Sevugan can be earning minimum wage and voting a straight Democratic ticket without mitigating the damage his employer is doing one iota.
In other words, nice try, Hari. But as long as your communications strategy involves whitewashing shitty political actions and not crafting a message that moves education policy debates forward in a truthful, accountable manner, a lot of us will remain unconvinced.