Michelle Rhee Moves on From Education - Looks for What's Next

Whether you agree with her or can't stand her, there's little doubt that former Teach-for-America alum and head of D.C. public schools Michelle Rhee has been a significant force in public education for the last decade or so. She has been called the "most polarizing figure" in public education, and she has been a lightening rod for heated policy debate on education wherever she goes. And, she has ridden this popularity and controversy to greater power and significance as she promotes education reform policies that her critics have called "horrible choices" that have intentionally "made the country a worse place." And now, rather surprisingly, she is walking away from the mess. It sort of reminds me of one of the most powerful quotes in one of America's greatest works of literature, The Great Gatsby.

"I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made."