EDUWONK + School of Thought = Spokesman for the Charter School Industry

Andrew J. Rotherham writes a column for Time.com called School of Thought.  Each of his articles has a decidedly pro charter school, pro privatization slant. There is a disclosure at the bottom of each article that reads, "Andrew J. Rotherham... is a co-founder of and partner at Bellwether Education, a nonprofit working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students." But, is imporving educational outcomes Bellwether's only mission?

I decided to dig a little deeper in to Bellwether's finances to see if there was a connection to charter school operators or other entities which seek to privatize public education which Rotherham often praises. Not surprisingly privatization proponents make up a disproportionate share of Bellwether's revenue stream.

If we go a step further and look at Bellwether Education Tax filing 2009 we find that of the $1.8 million in operational expenses that Bellwether had in 2009, $585,654 went to the top two salaried employees and one contractor. Rotherham's share -$115,000. With over a 30 percent of Bellweather's revenue going to three people I think their mission statement should be clarified. They seek to improve educational outcomes for low income students and to enrich their executives. When we understand that personal financial gain is a major part of Bellwether's mission it is hard to view any of Rotherham's articles as anything other than a paid advertisements for his clients - the charter school industry.

One glaring inaccuracy came in a recent article Rotherham wrote in defense of Mayor Bloomberg (another charter school advocate.) Writing about the failed leadership of NYC public school chancellor Cathie Black. Rotherham wrote in his time.com column, “The Mayor of New York made a bad decision for the schools — and to his credit owned up to it, and addressed it.”. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. In reality Bloomberg refused to address any aspect of his appointment of Cathie Black or her tenure as chancellor. Here is what actually happened.

“At the press conference, Bloomberg emphasized that he would not answer questions about Black’s brief time as Chancellor, and repeatedly said that it was important to look forward.”

http://theforumnewsgroup.com/2...

Rotherham and his clients stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from Bloomberg's pro privatization and pro charter school agenda. His defense of the the mayor is an all too predictable example how Rotherham uses his position at Time.com to create financial gains for his clients, Bellwether education and ultimately himself.