of enemies along the way trying to upgrade the educational system. you re right, candy. and there are other factors, one issue playing a significant role also carries significant national implications. education reform. a little back story. then known as the democratic dynamo, mayor adrian fenty came into office in 2006, quickly took complete control of d.c. s failing public sool system and handed it over to the new chancellor michelle rhee w then ushered in controversial change, including shutting down two dozen schools, firing hundreds of educators, including more than 100 teachers over the summer r po performance. also overhauling the teacher evaluation system, linking it to student performance. and doing awayth in large part with tenure, putting in its place teacher performance pay. but fenty, once a rising star, well, he s now in the fight for his life. we caught up with hi on the
then known as the democratic dynamo. mayor fenty took control of d.c. s failing public school system. he handed it over to the new chanllor and aggressive former, michelle rhee. she ushered in a wave of change. this included shutting down two dozen school, firing hundreds of educats, including more than 100 teachers. also overhauling the evaluation system linudking it to student performance for the first time and doing away in large part with the idea of tenure and putting in its place teacher performance pay. fenty, once a rising star as you said, he is now in the fight for his career. we caught up with him on the campaign trail. you asked me whether we would make the decisions we made arounded education reform now, knowing everything we did, i d say absolutely yes. 100 times out of 100. i was elected to do what s right
and doing away in large part with tenure, putting in its place teacher performance pay. but fenty wants a rising star, as you mentioned is now in the fight for his career. we caught up with him. you asked me whether we would make the decisions we made around education reform now knowing everything we did? i say absolutely, yes. 100 times out of 100. i was elected to do what s right for the city and not what s politically popular. and that s what we did fixing and the great thing is our t our schools. schools are better off for them. fenty acknowledged to me yesterday that the aggressive reforms have cost him in the polls, but he, as you heard there, isunapologetic saying d.c. students and schools have ffered for too long, candy. a and kate, just curious, why should the rest of the country care about what happens in this race?ou obviously the folks in d.c. care, the metropolitan area, what about the rest of the country? is it basically because of this