Campbell Brown has a new project to keep her busy this summer and fall. As the new school year looms on the horizon, Campbell Brown 'tearfully' announced that she has no option but to file a lawsuit in New York that looks just like the recently-decided Vergara v. California.
For the children, right? No. Brown admits that she intends to use the cudgel of the courts as an entry point for other attacks on teacher unions in New York and other states.
Campbell Brown hopes her lawsuit challenging New York's teacher tenure laws will "force a new legislative process" around a broad swath of union-backed teacher protections across the state.
"This is an opportunity for lawmakers to do what they've failed to up until now, and for the teachers' union to be part of a conversation to figure out what makes sense in this day and age," Brown told Capital on Tuesday. "This could potentially be the pressure point that could force action."
What better audience could Brown hope to court than Colbert's? She got herself booked, and headed on over to the studio Thursday for her appearance. The first surprise was waiting for her at the studio entrance: Scores of protesters outside the gates.
Colbert does a terrific job of untangling her public relations spin and getting to the bottom of things, but even he couldn't get any answers to who her financial backers might be. While yelping about how the protesters at the gate were trying to shut down a conversation about the "crisis" state of public education -- hello, Shock Doctrine -- she demurred from answering any questions about her donors, saying they would be harassed.
One of the student-plaintiffs is affiliated with StudentsFirst New York. Dan Senor is a board member for StudentsFirst New York. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that if you know who funds StudentsFirst, you'll get an idea of who is funding the lawsuit.
With all of that out of the way, sit back and watch Colbert try like hell to get something besides PRspeak out of union-busting Brown.
