Millot on Andy Rotherham. Part III: “Every bully is a coward in disguise.”

Marc Dean Millot, an expert in the field of business and education, wrote a piece for Alexander Russo’s This Week in Education blog. The article raised questions about the transparency of the process of awarding Race to the Top grants.

Andy Rotherham, lover of all things chartered and vouchered, privatized and standardized, contacted a friend at Scholastic Inc., which publishes Russo’s TWIE blog. Scholastic pulled the Millot post. Russo made no comment and caved to his patron.

Millot first discussed the issue in a post at Schools Matter. Last week he discussed Alexander Russo’s role in all this. Today he discusses the cowardly Andrew Rotherham on the blog, Tuttle SVC.

…in late November I started a series on This Week in Education accusing EdSector with academic fraud (starting here) – and Rotherham with complicity – regarding a report on CMOs drafted by Thomas Toch, but appropriated, edited and released by the think tank with vastly different findings and conclusions. To my direct charges the normally voluble Rotherham has remained silent – no reply, no explanation, no comment. Nada.

If Rotherham had contacted me or Russo, we would have asked why he had not responded to my TWIE series. Rotherham would be forced to give an explanation or be on the record of refusing to answer a direct question from his accusers. If he really wanted to get my post pulled, he had to call his colleague at Scholastic. Alternatively, given this history, Rotherham flew into rage and/or thought he “had us” and called his contact to deny us the opportunity to respond or edit the post.

Either way, it seems pausible that he wrote his post on Eduwonk to note his “victory” – at least to Russo and me, and “lock in” Scholastic’s decision. Unfortunately, the post was already circulating the web. Once again, amid the modest hubbub Rotherham is uncharacteristically silent on his role, and I expect no response to this.

Now, my view is that “every bully is a coward in disguise”. But that’s for readers to decide.

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