Former top White House aides Robert Gibbs and Ben LaBolt broke with their Democratic firm and are supporting a lawsuit to eliminate teacher tenure in public schools. The Huffington Post,
Through their firm, The Incite Agency, Labolt and Gibbs are supporting former CNN anchor Campbell Brown’s fight against teacher tenure. Brown is wading into education politics through a group she calls the Partnership for Education Justice, which aims to tackle teachers’ work protections by taking the fight to court…
When he [Gibbs] signed on with Brown, he was working with the Democratic firm New Partners. His liberal colleagues reacted angrily when news of the marriage surfaced, and the American Federation of Teachers made its displeasure known.
Boies, Gibbs and Labolt join a long list of Republicans who have come out in support of Brown’s suit. Perhaps most prominent is former Florida governor and likely 2016 presidential contender Jeb Bush….
The presence of Democrats in the reform movement has led to a deepening rift within the party over the role of unions in education and teacher protections, particularly as the reform movement has so far failed to deliver on its promised outcomes. Putting so much emphasis on standardized testing as a way to evaluate teachers coincided with a cheating epidemic, which ensnared some of the education reform movement’s brightest stars.
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