Campbell Brown has become the new darling of the wealthy elite who are trying to demonize teachers and undermine public education under the guise of "reform." A former cable television host, Brown has become the mouthpiece for the shadowy Partnership for Educational Justice (Brown refuses to say who her backers are) - a group believed to be connected to deep-pocketed privateers and profiteers who want to privatize public education and weaken unions. Its first mission? Eliminate tenure and your due process rights through the New York state courts. Brown is not an educator, has never attended public school nor is a parent of a public school student. Her statements about public education made on TV and quoted in print lack any semblance of legitimacy and are patently false. So who is she really speaking for? Here's a snaphot of Brown and her cronies.
Campbell Brown, former CNN host and founder of Partnership for Educational Justice, sits on the board of Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy Charter Schools. She is married to Dan Senor.
Dan Senor, hedge fund manager and a director of StudentsFirstNY, is married to Campbell Brown. His boss, billionaire Paul Singer, is a backer of Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy.
Carl Icahn, corporate raider and founder of four New York charter schools, is on the board of StudentsFirstNY.
Michelle Rhee, former CEO and founder of Students First, also founded The New Teacher Project that has ties to Campbell Brown.
High-profile lawyer David Boies is the board chairman of Brown's Partnership for Educational Justice and is guiding the group's legal strategy to bring lawsuits against states with strong tenure and seniority protections.
David Welch, Silicon Valley millionaire who bankrolled the California lawsuit to eliminate tenure in that state, is rumored to be backing Brown's New York lawsuit. At the very least he is giving her advice, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Joel Klein, former New York City schools chancellor, heads Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp's education division. He's on the boards of StudentsFirst and StudentsFirstNY. A massive email scandal in 2010 revealed that Klein, as chancellor, bestowed Moskowitz special support for her charter network.
Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones is on the board of StudentsFirstNY. The group's other Wall Street connections include Daniel Loeb and David Tepper. Jones wants to "save" public education by privatizing it, according to Forbes, and has financed Eva Moskowitz's ad campaigns.
Eva Moskowitz, a former New York City councilwoman, founded Success Academy Charter Schools in 2006 with backing from hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and John Petry, current members of the schools' board that is chaired by hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb. Moskowitz sits on the board of StudentsFirstNY.