Jersey Jazzman reports on the annual meeting between State Commissioner Chris Cerf and the New Jersey superintendents. Unlike previous meetings, there were few questions, few signs of life.
Have they given up, JJ wondered. He unites a news story, which says:
“Compared with previous convocations at which tensions were high and questions were plentiful, the more than 300 school leaders gathered yesterday at Jackson Liberty High School appeared to be getting used to the new world order under Cerf and his boss.
Gary McCartney, the South Brunswick superintendent and president of the state’s superintendents group, which hosted the event, said he saw the three years of convocations with Cerf as a period of evolution.
“I think people are beginning to assimilate,” he said. “In the first year, it was kicking and screaming, hoping (the initiatives) would go away. The second was wringing your hands and whining, thinking they would go away. Now you say, I don’t have any more tantrums, I think we’re going to do this.”
JJ points out that any one of the three superintendents in the room knew more about education than Cerf and his Broadie fellows.
He writes:
“The primary function of this blog over the past three years has been to catalog the many sins Christie and Cerf have committed against New Jersey’s public schools, including:
*A failure of state control in Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, and now Camden.
*Cerf’s insistence on bringing unqualified, poorly-trained staff into the NJDOE and the large urban districts.
*A despicable retreat from funding equity in our schools.
*The imposition of an innumerate teacher evaluation system that has never been properly field tested.
*The imposition of bizarre schemes that have never worked, like merit pay.
*The imposition of curricular and testing changes that have never been properly vetted.
*A rampant expansion of privatization that both undermines democratic control of our schools and rewards poor educational and fiscal practices.
*The lowest morale of the NJ teaching corps seen in a generation, precipitated by Christie’s blatant lies to educators about their compensation, his truly reprehensible behavior in public appearances, and his personal hypocrisy regarding his own children’s education.
As JJ says, “They only win when you give up.”
Help is on the way.
I am speaking to the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors on October 17. They will hear you, JJ. They will hear you loud and clear. They will not give up. And they will win, despite the efforts of Cerf and Christie to break their spirit.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And New Jersey can’t wait to see you again, Dr. R.!
I also believe Diane is speaking at Princeton on November 4. We’ll spread the word as we get closer to that event.
As always, Diane, thanks for all you do. On behalf of Mother Crusader, Blue Jersey, and the other blogs/sites in NJ speaking out for public education, thanks for all you’ve done in support of our efforts.
Looking forward to November 4. Hope I can get a ticket to see my hero. The next day will be very important in the history of NJ public education. If Christie gets another term and a specific party takes over the state legislature, say good-bye to even more school funding, fair employment practices, unions and public education as we know it. This is a crucial time–many eyes are on the NJ voters this November.
any chance of you speaking with NYC principals and supervisors? Like the ones who placidly accept their medicine without question?
Claude, I will, on November 12.
You are astounding, Diane. You’re going to be in New York on the 12th and Chicago on the 13th? Wow. If you need a place to rest up, I have a cozy spare bedroom.
You remind me of an old airline commercial. A guy is on the phone with, presumably, his boss and he’s saying, “Dallas on Monday? I can do that. Chicago on Tuesday? I can do that. New York on Wednesday? I can do that. Boston on Thursday? I can do that. Atlanta on Friday? I can do that.” Then he hangs up the phone, looking rather haggard, then he picks up the phone again and says, “How am I going to do that?”
Dienne, since you like to share the occasional joke and funny anecdote, I will share that (off topic completely) when I read “help is on the way” all I could think of was Mrs. Doubtfire running across the crowded restaurant in that movie to save the choking man his ex-wife was dating. “Help is on the way!”
We need these moments to laugh during the frustrations of figuring out public education.
(Not a slam on Diane, btw. . .she looks nothing like Mrs. Doubtfire).
And when Dr. Ravitch is finally ready to come back to NC (mountains this time) I insist on offering southern hospitality in some way.
This brought tears to my eyes -we need to be heard. My colleagues are being crushed by the pressure imposed on them and fantastic teachers are leaving in droves. I am sad but want to keep fighting this!
Why should the superintendents fall on their swords? Most of them just want to hang on another year or two and retire. They get it. They have no power to do anything anyway. It’s all about personal survival now for everyone involved in education. Everyone over the age of 50 just talks about retirement constantly. Teaching is a nightmare that most teachers just want to escape. Teachers have been demonized and betrayed by the government and media. Most of us just want to retire with whatever pension we have left. Let the TFA and rest of the know nothings take over now.
So many of us find ourselves in the same position, John, and we are the lucky one’s, who hopefully have enough years to qualify for a pension we can subsist on. I shudder thinking about mid-career teachers, people with young families and mortgages, who’ve committed to teaching as a career, don’t have enough years to retire, but are in despair about surviving in the current environment.
There’s a huge karmic debt, hopefully to be repaid with compound interest, for the so-called reformers, for putting dedicated, hard-working people through such needless intimidation and stress, and all for such venal ends.
Two other points for consideration, though: experienced teachers leaving is precisely what the so-called reformers want, and this is a class of people who desperately need to be told “no” more often.
Petty person that I am, aside from loving my students and respecting my colleagues, I hope to last longer just to make these people chew their livers.
Second, and more importantly, the same people who are bleeding the life out of public education also have their sights set on our pensions. What’s happening in Detroit, where thousands of retirees are facing steep pension cuts so that bondholders can be made whole, is just a prelude to what they seek from the rest of us.
Matt Taibbi has an excellent article in the current Rolling Stone, based on research by David Sirota, on how Wall Street, having treated the pension funds like rubes and ATM machines, now want to loot them dry.
Everywhere you look, it’s a ruling class riot, with them and their servants smashing and grabbing everything sight.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926
Question about “accept their medicine without question.”
What is one to think of a leader (administrator) who is convinced that without some of the new measures like in RttT that mediocrity inevitably sets in?
This is the line of thinking I tend to hear; that these measures of accountability will ensure a lack of racial bias, higher standards, etc. ?