Michelle A. Rhee butted heads frequently during her three-year tenure as schools chancellor of Washington with the president of the local teachers’ union, George Parker, and eventually a voter backlash over the city’s school reform wars cost both of them their jobs.  Now, in a strange-bedfellows twist, Ms. Rhee has named Mr. Parker as the first senior fellow of Students First, the national group she formed after stepping down as chancellor last fall. She says she hopes Mr. Parker can be a compelling voice for change, especially in speaking to teachers’ union members around the country. He says Ms. Rhee hates teachers’ unions less than most people think.  “We had our fair share of shouting matches, but over all we get along well,” Ms. Rhee said. “I see tremendous potential in having somebody who was president of a local teachers’ union advocating on behalf of policies that other unions are fighting against bitterly.”  As a senior fellow, Mr. Parker will travel the country speaking to state legislators, teachers and union members about the need to overhaul American public schooling. Neither Ms. Rhee nor Mr. Parker would disclose the stipend he will receive for the part-time position. “I can tell you this, I’m not doing it for the money,” said Mr. Parker, who is a math teacher with 25 years of experience.  Ms. Rhee, one of the most polarizing figures in public education, resigned as chancellor after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty lost Washington’s 2010 Democratic primary, a defeat that political analysts said was, in part, fallout from the draconian school policies that Mr. Fenty and Ms. Rhee carried out from 2007 through 2010.  After Ms. Rhee announced her intention to resign, without setting a specific date, Mr. Parker said, “I think leaving sooner is better than later.”  About a month later, Mr. Parker was out too, defeated in a re-election bid by a union challenger who accused him of giving up too much to Ms. Rhee, especially in the contract the two signed in the spring of 2010. That agreement, which took two and a half years and a mediator’s help to negotiate, gave teachers a 21 percent raise over five years while weakening seniority and other job protections.  Ms. Rhee also inaugurated a new teacher evaluation system during Mr. Parker’s tenure that holds teachers accountable for student test scores and has led to the dismissal of more than 100 teachers who got poor ratings.  Weeks after her resignation, Ms. Rhee began Students First, with the ambitious goal of raising $1 billion to lobby legislatures and back political candidates. She has said that the group’s “ultimate goal is to shift the power dynamic of education in this country, which I think for far too long has been dominated by special interests, whether the teachers’ unions or textbook manufacturers.”  Ms. Rhee said this week that she had called Mr. Parker shortly after his defeat in the union election, beginning a dialogue over several months about the role of unions in changing schools.  “My mind-set has been that we’re not going to change the unions; their purpose is just to protect their members and that’s it,” Ms. Rhee said. But in their conversations, she said, Mr. Parker told her, “We in the unions have to change or we’re not going to be relevant.”  “I thought that was compelling — not that I bought into it 100 percent,” she said, speaking from her car as she drove on Thursday to Cleveland from Lansing, Mich., where she had spoken with state legislators.  Mr. Parker said he did “serious thinking” before accepting Ms. Rhee’s offer, knowing that some of his fellow union leaders would find it suspicious, but decided to join up because he believes it is important for all educators to seek common ground. “There’s not much I can do to change the minds of those who think this is some kind of a sellout,” he acknowledged.  Mr. Parker informed Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, in a text message on Wednesday, just moments before he and Ms. Rhee announced publicly that he would join Students First.  “I had to read the message a couple of times,” Ms. Weingarten said. “I thought it was a joke. I texted him back, ‘REALLY?’ ”  Then Ms. Weingarten watched the odd couple make their televised announcement on MSNBC’s program “Morning Joe.”  “I wish George well,” Ms. Weingarten said. “He’s a good man.”
The former head of Washington, D.C., schools and the former teachersâ union leader there are both part of Students First, a group seeking to influence educators and lawmakers across the country.