Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Hypocrisy Of Campbell Brown

Eduwonk interviewed Campbell Brown post-WSJ op-ed.

Brown continues to say over and over that teachers unions are "protecting sexually predatory teachers" in the interview.

She agrees that she should have disclosed that her husband, Dan Senor, former Iraq war spokesman for the Bush administration and current Romney adviser, is a board member of the New York chapter of Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst, but says that is immaterial to her argument - teachers unions protect sexual predators:

Critics have seized on your husband’s [Dan Senor] affiliation with the New York chapter of Students First to discredit you. In retrospect, should you have disclosed his role as a board member in the op-ed?

Yes. Absolutely. But tell me why this matters? This is just an attempt to distract people from the problem. The teachers union is protecting these teachers and they have to stop.


Neither Brown nor Eduwonk bring up the supreme irony in all of this - Brown's husband Dan sits on the board of a group run by Michelle Rhee who was accused by a federal inspector general of helping to "fix" sexual misconduct allegations made against her then boyfriend and now husband, former NBA star and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, when he was running a Sacramento charter school, including using Americorps funds to cover up Johnson's alleged sexual misconduct.

Here is the Congressional committee report detailing those allegations and the NY Times coverage of that report.

Is the allegation in the Congressional report that Rhee helped cover up her husband's sexual misconduct when he headed a charter school "relevant" to the discussion we're having over whether teachers unions, by insisting upon due process for teachers accused of sexual misconduct, are "protecting" sexual predators?

Absolutely.

If Brown is going to accuse a group of protecting sexual predators and her husband sits on the board of a group run by a woman who has been accused by a Congressional committee of protecting a sexual predator, then that surely is relevant to not only the issue being discussed but the credibility of Brown to discuss it.

But apparently neither Brown nor Eduwonk think this is the case.

The hypocrisy these people in the education reform movement exhibit knows no bounds.

That Campbell Brown was given one of the top slots at Andy Cuomo's education reform committee forum to attack teachers unions for protecting sexual predators when she herself has a connection to a group run by a woman who has been accused of protecting a sexual predator says all you need to know about Andy Cuomo's education reform committee and says all you need to know about Campbell Brown.

Neither Campbell nor the Cuomo education reform committee are looking to protect children or put students first.

They're looking to attack unions and use any method or argument at their disposal to destroy them.

That the argument they've chosen this time happens to apply to one of their own (the infamous Michelle Rhee) doesn't seem to bother them in the least.

6 comments:

  1. Spin it all you want- We all know the teacher's union focus is to protect their members. There are sexual perverts in the classrooms and they need to go. Every profession has these monsters and you are ignorant to believe they do not exist in the classrooms! Do not believe for one minute the school districts in the suburbs are squeaky clean because they are most corrupt in every way!

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    1. Where do you see me defend teachers unions fo0r protecting sexual predators? I have simply pointed out how Campbell Brown is using an argument that applies to Michelle Rhee and her husband, Kevin Johnson and Brown's husband, Dan Senor, sits on the board of an education reform group run by Rhee.

      If Brown wants to take on powerful groups that protect sexual predators, she can start with StudentsFirst and Michelle Rhee.

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  4. They don't "protect" sexual predators. What you have in education is something called "due process" because public education is a part of the government, and a teaching job is considered a property right. An accused teacher will typically be on paid administrative leave until an investigation is completed. You know "innocent until proven guilty" applies here. That isn't the same thing as "protecting sexual predators." You don't care about the truth or you simply don't know what you are talking about.


    By the way, the vast majority of teachers fired have committed no real misconduct at all but were victims of railroad jobs by administrators. You will find the unions don't do squat to protect THEIR rights.

    Nice try at spin propaganda, anon.

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  5. Add to that hypocrisy the editor of Eduwonk, Andrew Rotherham, believer of Michelle Rhee's Baltimore Miracle.
    He got upset that CarolineSF made a money charge against Campbell and her StudentFirst husband.
    However, Andrew has been challenged and refuses to meet the challenge of backing up Campbell's libel.

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