Change.org claims to empower activists and grassroots to form their own petitions.
Every day, across the world, people like you start campaigns on Change.org to fight for issues they care about — and the Change.org team works to mobilize people to help them win.
We believe that building momentum for social change globally means empowering citizen activists locally. That's why anyone, anywhere — from Chicago to Cape Town – can start their own grassroots campaign for change using our organizing platform.
Your campaign can be about anything. From supporting curbside recycling programs to fighting wrongful deportation to protecting against anti-gay bullying, Change.org members start campaigns around thousands of different issues.
The About page at change.orgThis petition which says it wants to save great teachers never does link to Rhee's site.
Here is the link to her site. Michelle Rhee has no groups which are grassroots or activist. She has been paid millions by billionaires, and she has the media in love with her projects.
Here is
the petition at Change.org.Those who sign the petition do not realize that LIFO (Last In First Out) actually means union-busting. It is her goal and the goal of Students First to end job security for teachers, to have teachers already on tenure let go to make room for new teachers.
Since the petition does not link directly back to her site, it is misleading. There is nothing grassroots about Michelle Rhee.
Education Weekly's blogger, Teacher in a Strange Land, points out how many have been misled into signing her petition.
Money Can't Buy Me LoveFor some reason I can not link to the article itself, so here is the link to the blogger. The post I refer to is the 2nd one down.
I have a large collection of favorite resources on teacher leadership--books, websites, articles, cartoons, blogs, even an iTunes playlist. This summer, I had to add a new artifact to view: the StudentsFirst.org website. An example of what hundreds of millions will buy you in media presence and influence, a place where compelling messages about teaching and learning go to be politically compromised, twisted to a kind of educational Newspeak.
..."Of course, there's a whole lot of education-related whitewash and baloney out there, packaged as glossy, interactive web-based media. The StudentsFirst site has a lot of what blogger Kathleen Kosobud calls "kittens and puppies" appeal. If you didn't know better--if you weren't carefully following education policy or reforms--you would swear that StudentsFirst was a progressive venture, aligned with full teacher professionalism, empowering ignored parents and advocating for great public schools for all kids.
If it's true that Rupert Murdoch gave Michelle Rhee $50 million toward the billion she was seeking to impose her vision of school reform on a weary nation, perhaps he also gave her some valuable tips on clever use of distorting media to steer public opinion. While working on the Save Our Schools campaign, I got a call from an enraged supporter who signed a Save Our Schools-endorsed petition at Change.Org and was immediately taken to the StudentsFirst site. Please tell me, she said through clenched teeth, that Save Our Schools is not affiliated in any way with Michelle Rhee.
So I spoke with Change.Org. It turns out that you can have a free petition at Change.Org. Or you can pay Change.Org to help build your initiative's client base by letting them serve as connection point for "related" causes. I asked why Change.Org thought StudentsFirst was a progressive cause--the kind of initiative that pushed real democracy forward. There was a pause. Then the nice young man I was speaking to said, "Well, there was actually a lot of talk around the office about that." Discreet.
Sounds like Change.org either got snookered or really has no idea of what Michelle Rhee's group is all about.
They are not the only group to either be fooled or perhaps not....maybe not really fooled. The ad for Students First and Saving Great Teachers has been up at the Mother Jones website for a while now.
Mother Jones website has Michelle Rhee's petition link posted.(On edit...odd. I checked the Mother Jones site earlier today, and the petition was there. Right now it is not. Maybe down? Maybe recycling?)
The non-grassroots Michelle Rhee is very very good at making groups like Change.org and Mother Jones draw attention to her anti-union, anti-tenure project called Students First.