Keoni Wright, plaintiff in Campbell Brown's lawsuit, is a member of Michelle Rhee's Students First.

[madfloridian]

Also Campbell's hubby, Dan Senor, is on the board of Rhee's NY Students First. I guess Michelle Rhee is wearing another big smile right about now.

Seems her Students First is playing some big roles in attacking teachers' right to due process before being fired.

I did not realize Keoni Wright, who is suing on behalf of his twin daughters, was a member of that group also.

Teachers Too Hard to Fire, Lawsuit

Kaylah and Kyler Wright are New Yorkers, first-graders, and twins. But while Kaylah excelled in reading last year, Kyler lagged behind. Their father, John Keoni Wright, blames Kyler’s teacher and he’s suing, but not the teacher—the state of New York. The lawsuit alleges the state’s teacher job protection laws shield incompetence.

Wright is a member of the StudentFirstNY, a non-profit supporting charter schools and opposing teacher tenure. He was joined Monday by six more parents filing a lawsuit spearheaded by a former TV personality Campbell Brown and her new organization Partnership for Educational Justice.

....The lawsuit cites a 2009 survey saying almost half of the state’s school districts, excluding New York City, wanted to launch a disciplinary action against a teacher, but didn’t.

Yet it fails to mention that the majority of such districts refrained from taking disciplinary action because the teacher in question resigned or retired. One in three reported the process was too expensive or cumbersome.

In the past two years over 800 city teachers faced disciplinary action—about 500 were solved with the rest still pending. Only 40 teachers were terminated, but about half of the 500 resolved cases were settled, often with the teacher leaving or retiring, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Keoni Wright is the plaintiff speaking in this video:

He seems to equate giving homework and providing textbooks out of the teacher's own pocket as being an effective teachers. There is so much more to it than that.

This WP column seemed to have the same understanding of the video as I did.

A strange definition of a ‘bad’ teacher

During the interview with Louis, Wright discussed the education his young twin daughters are receiving at a New York public school, saying that one of them had a really good teacher and the other wasn’t so lucky. How did the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit explain this dichotomy? vWell, it turns out, he said, that one daughter received homework packets from her teacher while the other daughter didn’t. Why? After talking to the offending teacher, he said he discovered the following:

She didn’t have the supply, you know they were waiting for stuff to come. Meanwhile this other teacher was using her own money to buy these books to have supplies for her regular kids and an extra set for me.

Translation: The good teacher was spending her own money to buy supplies the school system should have provided to teachers in a timely fashion. The bad teacher didn’t.

Translation: The good teacher was giving homework to young kids. The bad teacher wasn’t.

[madfloridian]

1. In fact Keoni Wright is a paid organizer with Rhee's Student First.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/236244419/The-Real-Campbell-Brown-Right-Wing-Elitist-Wrong-About-Public-Schools

MYTH:

Campbell Brown’s lawsuit was brought by regular families from across the state.

REALITY:

Campbell Brown’s plaintiffs include a healthy helping of conservative activists and paid employees of Brown’s partner organizations. Of the seven plaintiffs in Campbell Brown’s lawsuit, at least two are on the payroll of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst. Keoni Wright, the lead plaintiff, is a paid organizer with StudentsFirst New York, as is Nina Doster.

[Starry Messenger]

2. K&R!!

[madfloridian]

3. Thx for k&r. Just realized full moon keeping me awake.

Wide awake, trying to figure out why...saw the post about the full moon. Does it every time.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Makes sense, I was wide awake at 2 am last night!

[madfloridian]

4. Ha! Another great Fred Klonsky cartoon. Campbell's idea of bad teacher.

http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/tmd-campbell-brown-defines-a-bad-teacher/

[Mc Mike]

6. Important info, that the plaintiff being interviewed has a financial stake in Rhee's Students First.

I'm not surprised, but I never would have known this info if you hadn't posted it, Mad. Thanks. Recced.