With help from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, longtime journalist-turned-education reform advocate Campbell Brown is launching a news website with a focus on education in the U.S.
The new site, The Seventy Four, “will tackle the most controversial issues inside America’s schools with a strong point-of-view,” according to a news release.
“The future of our country is predicated on a strong education system that serves all 74 million of America’s children,” said Brown, a former CNN and NBC News anchor, in a statement. “Unfortunately, for far too long, special interests have prioritized their own needs over the well-being of our students and have not been held accountable. We are long overdue for an honest conversation about what works and what doesn’t work.”
Brown left her own show at CNN in 2010. Since then she has been an outspoken critic of the education system and an advocate for school choice, a controversial policy that pits her against teachers’ unions and much of the Democratic Party, including President Obama.
The Seventy Four, is scheduled to launch on July 13 and a team of 13 journalists will be led by Steven Snyder, a former assistant managing editor at Time magazine.
The site will be funded entirely by philanthropy, according to the Wall Street Journal, and will receive an annual $4 million budget. Bloomberg, a school choice advocate, is one of the site’s main backers.
