Murdoch, Klein & Amplify: courting ed officials in search of sweetheart deals?
This week, after news broke that New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf would be leaving his position for an executive role at Amplify, we were immediately reminded of the scandal that erupted when Amplify’s CEO, former NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein, first came on board.Amplify owner Rupert Murdoch’s decision to appoint Klein as CEO raised a lot of eyebrows late in 2010, given the lucrative no-bid contracts the company, known then as Wireless Generation, had pending with the New York City Department of Education and New York State. That company, prior to being purchased by Murdoch and News Corporation, produced the ARIS data management system, which many local teachers and principals hated. Some complained at the time this deal was proposed that the system was both more expensive and less useful than others on the market.
As we’ve looked more closely at Amplify this week, we’ve noticed a pattern: this company seems to have a “thing” for government officials. In addition to Cerf, eight other top Amplify executives come from large district and state departments of education, as well as the US Department of Education. Each of these executives