Those famous "educators", Campbell Brown and Dan Senor, on attack against NY teachers. [View all]

[madfloridian]

This is a perfect example of why education "reformers" have so much influence, though they know little about education. There is money and power behind them, and the media loves them. Teachers have little money and influence, and there are only a few bloggers telling their side of it.

How in the world did a former CNN anchor and an Iraq war architect get the credibility to move into New York public education? Who gave them the authority to try and force teachers to lose due process and collective bargaining rights?

There's a important graph at Muckety. Also an article about them.

Brown and Senor take on New York teachers

TV journalist Campbell Brown and Republican strategist Dan Senor are becoming the first couple of school reform.

Brown, a former CNN anchor, is the founder of Partnership for Educational Justice, which wants to abolish teacher tenure in New York.

Her husband, Senor, is a former adviser to the Romney campaign and spokesman for the Bush administration’s Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Senor is on the board of StudentsFirstNY, another group that has faced off against the teachers unions. The organization is an affiliate of StudentsFirst, founded by former DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee.

The couple’s school connections overlap in many ways, as illustrated in the interactive Muckety map above. StudentsFirst and Success Academy share funders and board members, including billionaire hedge funder Daniel Loeb.

Don't miss Salon's article today by very capable education writer, Jeff Bryant. Love its digs at Michelle Rhee.

A reeling Michelle Rhee passes the lead to Campbell Brown

For years, Michelle Rhee, the former District of Columbia schools chancellor, has been upheld in the media as someone with the formula and fight required to “fix” public schools.

...Supported by shadowy money and shaky science, these wealthy folks have created a “blame teachers first” campaign that seeks to address education problems rooted in inequality and low investment by attacking teachers’ job protections and professional status. Their efforts are, of course, “for the children.”

...But recent developments in the career trajectory of Rhee may have prompted the Blame Teachers First crowd to pick a new front person to lead their campaign: former CNN anchor Campbell Brown.

..Rhee’s Sullied Reputation

However you feel about Rhee and her campaign to label “ineffective” teachers as the cause of just about everything wrong with public education, her luster certainly seems to be waning.

I wonder how New York teachers feel right now while waiting the same shenanigans that led up to the teachers of California losing their due process rights in court?