Ronnie Greco, who is leader of the Jersey City Education Association, joins our honor roll of heroes of public education.
Ronnie refused to sign Jersey City’s application for a Race to the Top grant for $40 million.
Ronnie quickly figured out that not a penny of the $40 million would solve any problem that Jersey City public schools have.
It would not be used to improve teaching and learning conditions.
It would not be available to reduce class size.
It would be used to impose merit pay, which has never worked anywhere.
It would be used to find and fire “ineffective” teachers, based on unproven test-based measures.
It would be used to implement top-down mandates devised in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Department of Education.
The issues in Jersey City are no different from the issues that led to a strike in Chicago.
It is tough for a union leader to say no to a big federal grant because the media will blame him (or her) for turning down “free” money.
But Ronnie figured out the trap.
The money comes with strings that get fashioned into a noose for teachers.
The money will not reform the schools of Jersey City.
The money will not help the children of Jersey City.
The schools of Jersey City have been under state control for 23 years.
For 23 years, the state of New Jersey has failed the children of New Jersey.
The teachers of Jersey City work under difficult conditions.
They are heroes.
And their leader, Ronnie Greco, joins our honor roll for his courage, insight, wisdom, and conviction–all qualities in short supply today in our public life.
Thank you, Diane, for recognizing our struggles here in Jersey City and for bringing recognition to our bold new union leader. Ronnie is a breath of fresh air for us. We’ve been moving uphill for far too long. Perhaps now we will achieve the solidarity that we need to remake our schools into what we know they can be. They (i.e., the administration) never ask us, so it seems like we need to take matters into our own hands! Thank you for helping us do that by sharing our story.
23 years of state control tells a powerful story.
Thank you Ronnie for helping the children of Jersey City and us teacher, u are so great that keep up the good work, God help us all, amen
… not a penny of the $40 million would solve any problem that Jersey City public schools have …
Does the Obama cabinet have a grasp on its legal responsibilities to American schoolchildren? Apparently not:
… how Ed has addressed the Koh memos on CERD … Randi Weingarten (2012): We know what works to strengthen teaching and learning. We should scale up effective programs used in the top-performing U.S. school districts and nations, not ignore them.
At what point does cluelessness become an impeachable offense? Are we there yet?
What will work in Jersey City? More supplies and books, smaller class size, improved conditions are physical fixes. Good teachers have bent over backwards to reach students. Where is the attitude change in parents, students. What regulations need to be changed from administrations, not only at school level but County, State and Federal level. Yes, there are bad teachers, there are also bad doctors, cops, politicians, etc. Evaluation procedures are already in place in all schools, they just need to be carried through in a positive manner.
What I want to hear is what exactly needs to be done in schools to improve them?
I live in Jersey City. My child goes to a Jersey City public school. I’m laughing at your contention that “more supplies” will help. There’s a book room full of discarded books in the basement of my son’s school. When I went through it, I found many books that were new, including three unopened boxes of new dictionaries. There were at least four “Reader’s Theater” treasure boxes. There were children’s books still in their wrappers. After seeing this in the spring, I went back when school started to pull some books for my son’s class. But I couldn’t find any, because a new layer of discarded books had been added.
There’s also a former swimming pool in the basement of his school. What’s it used for now? Storage. It’s full of boxes. At the end of the school year, there was literally a 20-foot wall stacked with boxes of copy paper. Please don’t send us more supplies. When the head of facilities was asked how he handles purchasing in a district where enrollment is thousands of pupils lower than a decade ago, he said he orders the same thing he did last year. How long that’s been going on, I can’t say.
Yes, there are some great teachers. There are also teachers who hightail it out of their buildings every day at 2:30, when class ends. The word among parents is that the contract stipulates they can’t stay past three. Some seem to take that quite seriously. In any event, a six-hour day is a short day in a district where 70 percent of children are so poor they qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Many of these children could benefit from an extended day, especially because the after-care program consists of …. nothing. No structure. Nothing. Teachers who work after care make $40 an hour. I wouldn’t begrudge them a penny of that money, if our children had anything to show for it. They don’t.
Jersey City has not been under full state control for about a decade. The district has control of curriculum for instance, and has, in the past, changed the curriculum every four years. So teachers get a new set of books and have to make new lesson plans. Sometimes the books arrive before school starts, but usually they don’t. There’s usually no training for teachers.
The state is not the problem in Jersey City. The district is. And its long cozy relationship with the union hasn’t helped,
“Where is the attitude change in parents and students?” you ask. Our new superintendent just gave a presentation about what she’s seen in her first 60 days on the job. One of her findings: A school with 970 students, almost all of whom are African-American, has exactly four who are in AP classes. Where are the teachers pushing children to push themselves? Not at that school.
I, and other parents, would love to see the union work with new leadership to remedy the long-term problems that have festered in this district, under both state and our current partially local control. The answer isn’t more bravado from the union. The answer is a willingness, on the part of everyone, to spend money wisely and to be open to anything that would benefit children.
My child goes to public school in Jersey City and I am not cheering for Ronnie Greco.
Jersey City has not had control for a decade. In 2007 it received control over governance and finance. Curriculum is still under state control.
I send my children to the public schools as well, and am pleased with them. I also appreciate Greco’s decision not to sign off on dubious reform efforts for a one time cash infusion. Perhaps if the new leadership had actually worked with the union, rather than presenting a new “vision” without their input, we could have had an application worthy of RTTT funding.
RTTT does not give the district money to do what the district needs or wants.
RTTT money gets district to comply with rxpensivefederalmandatesthat cost more the RTTT supplies and that don’t work.