Bob Braun covered politics and education in New Jersey for the Star-Ledger for 50 years until his recent retirement. He now has his own blog, which is an invaluable source of information and insight into New Jersey political doings.
Here he writes about the ouster of five Newark principals by state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson. Four of them spoke at a public hearing about the pending closure of their public schools, which will be handed over to KIPP. The fifth was suspended because she supported the president of the school’s PTSA, who was banned from entering the school his children attended.
Here is how the story begins:
At Newark’s Hawthorne Avenue School, the test scores are up, higher than state-imposed goals—and certainly better than those of the highly touted “Renew” schools favored by the administration. The hallways are quiet. Teachers and administrators get along. And this was all done despite central office’s stripping away of faculty resources and shameful neglect of the building. So, in the crazy, bullying logic of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration of city schools, it was time to suspend the school’s successful principal, H. Grady James. He was just too good to be allowed to stay.
Time to suspend him—and to try to smear his reputation by saying he was involved in some sort of “incident” now under “investigation.” The “incident” was a community meeting at the Hopewell Baptist Church last Wednesday where he spoke, praising the efforts of his students, teachers and parents.
James was one of five principals indefinitely suspended in one day by Cami Anderson, Christie’s agent in Newark. The others were Tony Motley, Bragaw Avenue School; Dorothy Handfield, Belmont-Runyon School; Deneen Washington, Maple Avenue School, and Lisa Brown, Ivy Hill School.
Braun’s article is maddening. It all seems so unfair. These principals were ousted the way a corporation fires a dangerous or possibly criminal employee: They were called to central headquarters, where their keys were taken away, and their computer access blocked. They were told not to enter the schools until further notice.
Governor Christie and Commissioner Chris Cerf want to privatize the entire Newark school district, to make it like New Orleans. Cami Anderson is their agent. She bullied the principals the same way that Christie bullies teachers and mayors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We do have civil rights in this country. Unfortunately, there are many people in positions of power who forget this fact. The courts don’t forget. I think people who take away others’ civil rights should be removed from their position.
In other words we do NOT have Civil Rights!
“Four of them spoke at a public hearing about the pending closure of their public schools, which will be handed over to KIPP.”
To be specific, when they says that the “schools” will “be handed over to KIPP”, what they mean by “schools” is they’re taking “the real estate”—buildings and land—NOT THE STUDENTS.
Every time KIPP has taken over pre-existing schools along with the pre-existing student bodies—Chicago, Denver, etc.—and they have had to actually keep the same actual students, their efforts ended in disaster.
The KIPP model only “works” one way—and I put the word “works” in quotes as people have big problems with the militaristic discipline, dubious pedagogy, window-less, padded-wall “time out” rooms, kids sitting on the floor for a week where they have to earn the right to sit in a desk.
Anyway, KIPP’s model requires that they be able to cream a subset of easiest-to-educate kids with supportive, functional parents at the front end… and they can kick out kids they do accept for the slighest infraction (and not replace them… that is also key). That means no kids with behavior problems, no homeless, no foster care, no ESL kids where English is not the primary language in the home.
After their failure in Chicago, the words “F–K KIPP” were spray-painted on the school’s building—presumably by a disatisfied student. After their failure in Denver, one of the KIPP P.R. folks said that they were no longer taking over schools along with the pre-existing student bodies. He said something along the lines of, “We’re just going to do start-ups from scratch”… i.e. we get to pick our students.
Thus, you have the crickets-chirping silence when Dr. Ravitch challenged them to put up or shut up. If KIPP has all the answers like the claim, then take over an entire district. That would mean there would be no “traditional public schools” into which to dump the kids they don’t accept or kick out. Again… having a dumping ground is the only way their model works.
It’s not just that. Caroline Grannan once did an experiment and took her daughter to a KIPP school to try to enroll her. She was told that her daughter was required to take and entrance test, and that her daughter had to “test in” to KIPP.
Also, if you read the COMMENTS section of articles on KIPP, occasionally KIPP supporters or graduates will diverge from the party line and admit all this. One grad over at STUDENT MATTERS justified the harsh discipline as that was how they “weed out” the kids who aren’t good enough for KIPP. I recall a parent saying, “KIPP can’t be all things to all kids.” Another said, “KIPP doesn’t have have separate special ed classes because that’s not the mission of KIPP”. Another compared KIPP to college, “Yes, KIPP gets government money, but is selective, but so are colleges. KIPP isn’t for every student the way college isn’t for every student.”
Still waiting to see a state or city run by reformers where public schools do better than when the reformer arrived.
It’s always like this; New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago, Newark.
School closings, firings, angry and grieving residents, all this crazy, paranoid secrecy and lack of discussion, debate and transparency and it always ends the same: fewer and weaker public schools. Is there an example of an ed reformer who strengthened or improved an existing public school? It’s ALL loss.
Grim, grim, grim. There’s no joy in it.
If we want strong public schools we should probably stop hiring people who damage public schools.
I can’t imagine hiring an ed reformer in a stable or strong public school district at this point. Why would anyone do it?
It’s like “let the firings, weeping, mourning and grieving commence!”
Oh, yeah. Sign me right up for this misery. I want this in my community. Sure I do.
Rania Khalek @RaniaKhalek 18h
Last year I couldn’t get a single Newark teacher on the record about privatization and closings bc of the atmosphere of fear in that town.
Lovely. Please come to my town so I can pay you-all a bunch of money to work this reform magic everywhere! Who doesn’t love an “atmosphere of fear”?
“The process already has begun with the so-called ‘universal application’ that Newark families have been told to fill out to determine which school their children will attend in the fall.
“Sergio says parents will refuse to participate in the procedure.
“ ‘ This is our school, our neighborhood, our community,’ she says. ‘We are staying here. ‘ ’’
——————————————–
Actually, Sergio, the plan is for you and your kids—or at least the undesirable students and their families—NOT to stay.
Once a child is barred from attending the Brave New “One Newark” Charter-ized World, they will force that child to travel to attend school, and sometimes not provide transportation… in an effort to gentrify you out of the neighborhood, and perhaps out of the city.
This EXACTLY what happened in New Orleans, and it’s what’s coming to Newark.
Check out the following speech from Paul Vallas, the architect of an almost identical scheme in New Orleans. A politician, Dale Bayard, puts him on the spot about how the kids—both charter and non-charter—are forced to travel miles and miles to attend their new school to which they’ve been assigned.
Vallas won’t answer the question… and goes ballistic at being criticized. He brags about raising achievement at “every school” in “every grade”—lies—and how it’s all because of the poor conditions of school buildings… and how nothing will stop him from charter-izing, and privatizing as much of New Orleans as he can.
NOTE: this is what it looks like when the privatizer’s mask falls away—these people are vicious:
(the video starts—the first half—with Vallas answering the question… and the second half with what provoked this answer)
Once again, the above video is out of order. It’s starts with Vallas’ explosion at being called to task, this explosion provoked by the second half of the video, again where he is being called to task:
That provoking, second part is from 01:08 – 01:49
Here’s the transcript:
——————————————
DALE BAYARD: “Well how many of these folks have said, ‘You know, I want a school in my community, Mr. Vallas. I’d like to have one so my grandchildren and my children could walk to school.’ ?
“The busing numbers in RSD (New Orleans) are astronomical. It’s… it’s almost unheard of in an inner-city climate. Did.. did you not tell us… well… eighty… how many percentile of your children are being bused to school?”
PAUL VALLAS: “As I’ve told this board time and time again… and I apologize… because… but… I… to sit-…”
DALE BAYARD: “What’s the percentile?”
PAUL VALLAS: “To sit here and allow the misinformation that’s put out… ”
DALE BAYARD: “Okay, tell me. I mean- ”
PAUL VALLAS: “Let me tell you something. We are busing close to 90% of the students to school.”
DALE BAYARD: “End of discussion.”
PAUL VALLAS: “No, no, no… ”
DALE BAYARD: “No excuse for that.”
PAUL VALLAS: “No, no, no… ”
DALE BAYARD: “No excuse.”
(YouTube video ends)
What would Vallas know about “staying here” or “community”?
He lives nowhere. He’s national, like all of the ed reform stars. He’s headed back to Illinois because there’s a political opportunity there, although, admittedly, not much of one. I think he’s going to lose that race.
He doesn’t have any long-term connection to any of these places he “reforms”.
Bennett in Chicago still had a residence in Ohio the last time I looked. Where was she before Ohio? Detroit?
Maybe she’ll return somewhere or other after “reforming” Chicago and run for office here.
Why not? She doesn’t really live anywhere either.
In most public schools in Illinois the number one poster type, in the halls and classrooms, is an ANTI-BULLYING one. Maybe we need to share a few of these posters with the government in NJ (not that IL is any shining example of kindness towards public ed.) but it seems like they could use a few in their hallways too.
One can only wonder where this will end. The monied interests seem to be in control of government including our schools in so very many places.
When politicians run our schools, and the politicians are run by monied interests, how long can it last until the country falls apart?
Again: “Why Nations Fail” details why throughout history when money is sequestered by a few at the top and the bottom become sublimated, history repeats itself over and over.
Public schools are just part of the arena where the powerful with money rule. Today, MLK day should emphasize it yet again. When those who are deemed less important and made subservient democracy does not live up to what it claims to be.
People have had to fight for their rights because those in power seek always to make others work for them in indentured servitude in one way or the other.
If education is not in control of scholars, educators, and child psychologists then schools will ultimately fail to educate. AND when the media is controlled likewise by a very few, which has already happened, and they can propagandize their myopic views can a democratic form of government be said to exist.
Personally I do not like the direction in which our nation is headed if this is the best we can do.
Just beginning to read this article and i already have this feeling in my gut that it has overtones of what happened in San Diego when Alan Bersin became Superintendent of our City Schools! Oh my goodness, the memories start to flood my consciousness and it is still as bizarre and surreal to me as it was then.
Ernestine, it’s funny how people try to revise history.
In Diane Ravitch’s second-to-last book, she devotes an entire chapter to what a total disaster Bersin was, documenting it all in great detail.
In response, the propagandists put out a different story:
http://laschoolreport.com/lessons-from-san-dieog/
Richard Lee Colvin wrote a book portraying Bersin as the embattled hero going up against the evil teachers’ union. Though he left in defeat, Colvin claims, he left the district better off:
“Bersin resigned in 2005, soon after a board election wiped out his majority on the board. By the time he left, most of the principals and the majority of teachers had embraced the culture of adult accountability for student learning that he had tried to create from his first day on the job.”
Two words: Parochial Schools. Best investment I made for my children, and I didn’t have to deal with the nonsense of school boards, local parents being upset over things like Christmas trees, religion was taught in a world view kind of way (as opposed to those who think it’s indoctrination), and discipline is handed out equally and fairly (no stupid policies about arresting first grader for using a plastic butter knife). We also had a high buy-in to our children’s community through forced service to the school (I had to work bingos every other weekend). It was a hardship, sure, but I did it because we were united for a common purpose. I’ve tried my hand at helping public schools improve by serving on my local school board right before my kids entered, but the special interests (i.e., the unions and education organizations, not to mention the local politicians of both persuasions) drown out any voices of logic or even simply suggestions of change. We’re so afraid to offend anyone that nothing gets done. I respect the profession, but it gives me pause when a person volunteering their time (me) is told to “Shut up and sit down because you’re not an educator” by a tenured teacher, while opposing views are not welcomed. Any school board that is continued to run that way deserves what they get; it’s just too bad that thousands of children’s educations hang in the balance over keeping power. Someone mentioned bullies–I think there’s plenty of bullying blame to go around.
Typical Catholic response. I hear it all the time from most of my friends with whom I went to a “parochial” school-they’re Catholic. I’ve got so many stories that would curl/straighten your hair of what happened in parochial school that “it ain’t funny”. And still knowing many of them that did send their kids (who are adults now and I have spoken with) through those schools, not much has changed.
Don’t buy the indoctrination (I reserve propaganda for the political realm) exhibited in the above post.
I guess I failed to mention that I’m Jewish. Either way, your response is typical of what I heard while serving on the board. Sometimes one is so entrenched that he can’t see anything else. Good luck to you.
Didn’t know that other religious schools were considered “parochial”. Maybe because in St. Louis growing up (not as much today) the “parochial” schools were all Catholic. I assumed you meant Catholic when you said parochial, my bad. But it still holds true for my experiences (lot’s of good things too but way too many idiocies-we learned a “hidden” curriculum quite well) with them.
I am proud of these administrators and believe this brave action will serve them and us well because the news is out there about Christie . We are are weary from this long battle, so perhaps we naturally see things in a less than optimistic light and frankly, it is probably better to brace ourselves for more worse before better given the tenacity and resources of our enemies. However, I feel compelled to point out that this sort of thing has gone on in schools for awhile now. I guess when it happens to teachers on a smaller scale it is easier to accept there was an “incident” and it will be “investigated” because that is safer than speaking out for someone who may be a child molester or a drug addled freak.
There may be a few of these in teacher jails and rubber rooms but they are not likely to draw attention to themselves. Neither are the innocent because they don’t want to be unemployed and they know the districts and BOE are punitive, petty and impervious to legal consequences . Yet some teachers do reach out to the media, knowing the district has broken the law and is targeting tenured teachers for removal. Those who do this are often in trouble because they did something like these administrators in NJ did . They tell parents about special education law; report non compliance at their schools; question an unwise policy or poor campus conditions; defend gay students; refuse to be bullied or discriminated against; get hip to corruption; stand up against police brutality towards students on campus, write letters to the editor that criticize the leadership of their districts, fail too many students, are aggressive as union chairs, or report child abuse as I did. Actually,I also questioned everything, reported noncompliance and clued parents and teachers in about the laws . I also went to the OIG about money being siphoned out of a grant meant to control class size. he was as dirty as they get, which is disconcerting.
But there are worse things.
I sat in teacher jail two years, lost my house, and a job I loved and was very good at. I can still teach, but not sure I am or ever will be up to it again. Almost everyone assumed the worse about me except my studenrs, whose opinion mattered the most anyway.
This is the same for all the innocent teachers. Even their spouses and children doubt them. Not all of them are out spoken or prone to blowing whistles. You would not call them heroes either. Most are just too Close to vested, thus their predicament which one teachers said emerged because the unions put a target on our backs.
All I know is that Diane Ravitch, Randi Weingarten, and Valerie Strauss ( and many others) are not confronting the plight of “housed” teachers, who are belittled as casualties. They are called broken toys and emotionally ragged. Well, who wouldn’t be?
Thousands in LA are attending these shifts in six teacher jails. 1000s have been grinded down in NYC rubber rooms where Francisco Portelos is sitting because he happened across hard evidence that an administrator was stealing money from the school. Of course, no one, not even teachers’ self-proclaimed advocates are interested in looking at that. It is preety compelling. Is Portelos any less a hero than the principal’s in New Jersy? No, he is not. I am not saying these principals do not deserve recognition. But this blog’s refusal to address the matter of “housed teachers” , wrongful termination and union betrayal of rank and file teachers is troubling.
Rene…your phrase..”We are are weary from this long battle”….is Spot On…….
I am confused about Teacher Jails and Housed Teachers…
Could you explain?
THX
I gueSS they have been around awhile. In NYC they are called rubber rooms, a phrase coined by advocate and “NYC RUBBER ROOM Reporter” Betsy Combier; she says it is not a place, it’s a process. But they are not what they used to be though the history is pretty sketchy just like the present.
At some point these jails were offices that teachers were sent to when accused of misconduct, and no one really knew about them unless they got in trouble. Certainly there were never hundreds housed until recently in LA., though the rubber room boon apparently goes back at least as far as Mayor Bloomberg . I know a lot of teachers who are older and went through the earliest purges in Chicago, NYC and small towns in the Midwest. They tend to be well respected often outstanding educators too and their careers are ruined because someone accuses them of something and no effort is made to clear that up because the teacher is highly paid, perhaps outspoken or a whistleblower.
In the past teachers were paid to do paperwork and so on while they were being investigated. As I understand it, most teachers went back to school more often than not thanks to state codes that afford teachers due process. Even guilty teachers were often sent back unless cops charged them with a crime which can be difficult with youngsters making the claims. Now teachers sit for years unoccupied, no gadgets permitted in sine housing options. They can read or write lessons, that was 6 hours until there were so many teachers they put them in shifts. In LA these local districts were supposedly closed to save $ but in reality they were made into warehouses with warden administrators as LAUSD antivpcioated the end of hundred if not thousands of careers in2011.
In NYC the tabloids were busting open with rubber room stories that put teachers in a terrible light. They were called creepy, sleepy, druggy, violent, dopey, drunk, crazy, etc. All adjectives modifying people you would not trust your child with for three minutes.
It took LA awhile to get the teacher jails going the way NYCs did. I mean NYC has been the subject of a film and a play , though I cannot be sure what the attitudes about rubber rooms are, I think they are more moderate than the newspapers. but they are ironically not nearly as sensationalized yet in LA Deasy does turn all of it out in his favor like he’s DIRTY Harry of public education.
LA teacher jails hit an Apex about two years ago, but they were escalating before this major sex scandal erputed at Miramonte ES involving a teacher who was never housed Yet none of the Pervs that got arrested in the hysteria were housed though all but a few were accused of sexual misconduct before. One exception is a fellow namedBob Pimental who was breifly housed then fired. It soo came out that district officials hid his antics–a very common thing at LAUSD, so common Jerry Brown passed a bill that made officials criminally culpable for doing it. He even alluded to the superintendent who hid the terrible crimes committed at MES. Like Supt. Deasy the officials who hid Pimentals alleged transgressions were not punished .
But there are teachers in teacher jails who are losing their careers after being cleared of wrong doing because Deasy says so. Some have been fired after being suspended, removed from their site and written up. It is like 5 punishments and no due pricess. They want teachers ti resign. It works, too. Some of the so called crimes are: having antibacterial soap in class, grabbing an errant child by the hand to pull him back in line, striking the principal as odd and being labeled crazy by this principal who does a lot of crazy things to prove the teacher is crazy, disarming a gun toting gang banger, getting hit in the face by an angry teenager,posting a negative remark about the class ( no names) on Facebook, cussing, referring to a student as a black boy ( teacher is black and Nigerian), asking for a transfer, teaching a lesson on the creation myth — which is in the grade level standards, taking notes in a special Ed class for students, going to the rest room during passing and being a minute late to class because the line is so long, demonstrating how to check blood sugar in class using student with diabetes and her own supplies… In some cases students accused teachers of physical or verbal abuse but even when parents insist their child lies or the child admits to the lie
( a lot of this after MES story broke and YouTube videos about how to get a teacher fired) teachers still fired. Several local mommy blogs document this in LA.
Many teachers who report child abuse get mobbed as I was. There is a code of silence about this which to me, is so sick , I am not sure I can face another school. Anyway it would be best to look into it yourself —google these things if you want to Lear more
DANCE OF THE LEMONS LAWEEKLY
PASSING FAILURE LA TIMES ( part of series that signaled war upon LA teachers)
NYCRUBBERROOMREPORTER@blogger.com
Hemlockontherocks.com
FRANCESCO PORTELOS
PERDAILY.COM
ASSAILED TEACHER
ENDTEACHERABUSE.ORG
NAPTA.ORG
HOPE MOFFIAT PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
THANKS for being interested
The Broad Foundation is deeply involved in the attempted privatization of Newark schools through NJ Education Secretary Christopher Cerf, a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy. Add this to the Bridgegate scandal: The Broad Foundation tried to influence the reelection of Governor Christie with $430,000 grant to NJ education that was contingent on Christie being reelected.
http://tinyurl.com/ltq9ezn
For more detail about the terms of the grant see:
http://tinyurl.com/loau33h