In one of the most powerful posts I have ever read, veteran journalist Bob Braun (retired after fifty years as an investigative reporter in New Jersey) bluntly declares that state policy in Newark is racist.
He writes:
“The eighth-grade graduation ceremonies at the Hawthorne Avenue School this morning–the last of their kind–provided an island of sanity and goodwill in the ocean of madness that is state educational policy in Newark. One of the best-achieving schools, not just in the city, but also in the state, has been stripped of its leadership, declared a failure, and is ready to be turned over to Chris Christie’s corporate wolves who devour the poor and what little they have. Parents and teachers and even some students shook their heads and wondered how this could happen. There is an explanation. It’s called racism.
“Racism.
“Racism. The implementation of policy based on race–implemented in such a way that members of a dominant race realize an advantage over members of a less powerful one. Just 12 hours before the graduation ceremony, Deborah Gregory Smith appeared at yet another useless school board meeting and used the word. Racism.
“I know I have been told not to use the race card,” said the head of the Newark NAACP. But she did. Giving Cami Anderson another contract, she said, was racist. Gov. Christie, who refuses to come to Newark to face the people his family ran from 30 years ago, is racist.
“That is racism,” she said. And she is right.
“What else do you call it when Lamont Thomas, the principal of one of the most spectacularly achieving high schools in the country (yes, I said country)–Science Park–gets a “partially effective” evaluation, probably because his students were the core of the Newark Student Union? What else do you call it when Regina Sharpe, the principal of the highly successful University High School, is fired?
“Racism. I call it racism. Anderson certainly hasn’t offered any alternative explanations.
“Racism. General and specific. Generally, not following the law to insist that New Jersey schools be integrated. Not following the law to insist that New Jersey schools be fully funded. Not following the law to provide decent jobs, housing, and health care in areas that are predominantly black and brown. Not following the law and allowing a return to local control. Not following the law and allowing Newark to become, in the words of Cory Booker, the “charter school capital of America.”
“And here are the specifics in Newark:
“Let’s face facts. Cami Anderson is a white woman living the life of white advantage thanks to her $300,000 salary and to her friends in Montclair and Glen Ridge like the Plofkers and the Cardens and the Cerfs. Her sponsors and bosses, Chris Cerf and Chris Christie and David Hespe, are white men, also well advantaged, enjoying the advantages provided by the politics of racism to help ensure their maintenance of power.”
Read it all.
And read about the resignation of Lamont Thomas. Cami Anderson insulted him by rating him “partially effective,”, and he resigned.
Braun writes:
“Anderson, who believes in the powers of disruption theory, had done things like this in the past. She is especially fond of humiliating strong black school leaders. She had just told the principal of Hawthorne Avenue School, the highest achieving neighborhood public school in the system, to reapply for his job–although all the teaching staff members were allowed to stay without reapplying. Earlier in the year, Anderson had suspended James and four other principals for raising questions about the “One Newark ” plan to replace neighborhood schools with charters and other privatized schools.”
Racism still reigns. Btw, and so does sexism, too. It’s also gotten worse than ever. I know from first-hand experiences.
I have the sense, and it’s only a sense because I’m a privileged white male (redundant, I know), that many embrace or are offended by claims of racism, aimed in whatever direction, at whatever target, because they have only an immediately self-serving or shallow understanding of its nature, but not its power. I’m in the midst of reading Tim Wise’s “White Like Me,” which lends depth and breadth to an understanding of racism’s nature, power, and insidious and destructive character.
These superintendents who idiotically embrace “disruption theory” which they borrowed from the business world (my own superintendent is one of them) overlook the most important factor in disrupting schools and school districts: children are HARMED by constant churn and disruption in their lives, especially if their personal lives are already subject to disruption and churn.
School used to be and still should be a safe haven where children can come and be free from disruption and churn. Instead these morons who have been promoted into positions of so-called leadership are causing until harm to the children whom they are supposed to be serving. It doesn’t surprise me, however, that they neglect the needs of the children when they consider the people who actually do the business of their districts and teach the children are minor players, easily replaced and often totally neglected as well.
It’s all about adult ego, power, money, and rising on the ladder of success while climbing on the backs of others. Disgusting!
Are you kidding? Children love chaos and conflict in their daily lives.
Their very favorite thing is when trusted adults disappear without a trace, never to be seen again.
Also! Let’s “transform” their schools every 9 months. There’s nothing a 9 year old likes better than ever-changing demands coupled with punishing, arbitrary sanctions. Keeps ’em on their toes.
Have any of the research associates at the NBER, published papers on the important point Chiara raised?
And, again I’ll ask, what is the NBER’s source of funding?
Thank you Chris for reminding us – it is the children who are harmed by this disruption. Asking children to toughen up when they are already in a tough situation is sinful and shameful. Christie needs to get on a bus at 6:00 in the morning and drive across town with a child after his neighborhood school has been closed. Cami needs to go in the classroom of the teacher she laid off and listen to her cry.
“What is done to the least of these, you do to me….”
“Racism. The implementation of policy based on race–implemented in such a way that members of a dominant race realize an advantage over members of a less powerful one.”
I’d say that covers about 99% of the state policies I’ve ever heard of.
Diane, what is your position on the educational crisis in Newwark
The problem there is it has been under state control for 20 years. The residents want their schools back, but the government won’t let go. The idea of privatization isn’t new; it was hatched long ago. The politicians and privatizers are patient. They have allowed the wheels to spin for the past 20 years, quietly, strategically anointing/appointing people into power. Cami Anderson doesn’t have a brain in her head; she is a puppet, with Christie’s hand up her ass moving her mouth like a wooden dummy. THEY will never let go; and they don’t care if this big experiment works or not, because even when it goes horribly wrong (New Orleans) they still make money. When the money runs out, they close up shop here, and open up there. Round and round.
Newark has its good sections and its bad sections; it depends on the level of poverty in the immediate neighborhood. Same goes for the schools. Y’all know that.
Christie’s just a fraud, though. Every single one of his selling points is a complete crock. He’s a terrible manager. His budget projections were a fantasy, and now he’s reduced to begging a court to let him weasel out of a contract he not only entered into, but a contract he traveled the country promoting as evidence of his managerial genius.
It was all smoke and mirrors. He just moved money around.
“It is not this court’s role to look under the seat cushions and determine what spare change can be paid into the pension fund,” said Jean Reilly, an assistant attorney general and the lead counsel for the state. “There is no money with five days left in the fiscal year.”
No one can enter into an agreement with this person. What he says means absolutely nothing, and this is a “rock star” in the ed reform movement?
http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-jersey-gov-chris-christies-decision-to-cut-more-than-2-billion-in-pension-payments-for-public-workers-faces-a-court-challenge-1403715293
Agreed. Christie is an a-hole windbag. He thinks he is above the law; and perhaps with all his bought politician friends, he may be. Presidential material? No. Way. He states right to your face that he doesn’t care about you. He runs this state; he’ll do as he pleases, and you, the people, will bend over and take it. I live here. i know. Most of us can’t stand him, and wonder how he got re-elected. He is a liar, and has done nothing in this state that benefits me.
They ARE patient. Very, very patient. So now we remind ourselves that there is nothing and no one they won’t destroy, disrupt, demean and diminish to get what they want. They go for the gold. It actually is a game to them that can be played anywhere, over and over, providing there is ill-gotten gain to be claimed.
Teachers are (wisely) rejecting the Obama Administration push to end worker job protections in return for unenforceable and unfunded “bonus” payments:
“Many South Florida teachers are greeting the upcoming era of merit pay with suspicion and confusion.
Districts must implement a teacher performance pay plan during the 2014-15 school year, under a 2011 law that also eliminated tenure for newer teachers.”
Don’t take it. It’s a lousy deal. Trading worker protections in the current anti-worker, anti-middle class governmental and economic climate for touchy-feely nonsense words like “empowerment” and “elevate” would be a big mistake. I’m glad to see they’re not falling for it.
You’d think after the economic crash these dopes would have realized “bonuses” are probably not the best system for producing quality work and ethical practice over the long haul, but the allure of bonuses as “incentives” can never be discredited, I guess.
It’s a disaster at the VA. Why would they put it in our public schools?
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/highered/fl-teachers-raises-20140620,0,7293034.story
Speaking of the VA, it seems that the problems there are fueled by the AMA-engineered physician shortage, among others. In parallel, our vanishing teaching profession, pushed out by business and scantily educated legislators who see money to gain, cannot recover in time to save us from the poor, outcast victims of the unfolding scandal. Unless, that is, our electorate discerns & reacts, soon.
Bob,
It pains me to say: “you are right.”
So many have given so much to make it otherwise: but yet, because these “are they children of Buono voters” and their parents are not “players”, the children of Newark must choose between bad alternatives.
Why does wealth and fortune so incline men to racism?
“Why does wealth and fortune so incline men to racism?”
Does it? I always felt the opposite was true, although as always with this topic it depends on the definition of “racism.”
Two words: GREED and CONTROL.
I had another thought as well. As the privatizers/profiteers infiltrate the education venue, they eliminate the extracurriculars. I wonder, do charter schools have sports programs? Music? Art? Even Home Ec? In the public schools they have eliminated art and music. Wouldn’t this elimination have an adverse impact on our future artists, musicians, singers, dancers, etc? How about eliminating sports? Wouldn’t that adversely affect future football, basketball, baseball “stars?” We are being cut off at the knees and the bleeding is far reaching. Even eliminating Home Ec might lose us a future chef, right?
If these talents aren’t cultivated, they are lost. Sports stars earn substantial salaries, and perhaps the likes of the Broads, Gates, Kochs can’t stand that, especially if these stars are people of color. I don’t know the facts on eliminating sports in public and/or charter schools, but I would be interested in hearing if there are indeed sports, arts, music and other extra curriculars in the charters. In the vein of the title of this post, is eliminating sports from schools racist?
When will parents and teachers reach the breaking point?
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
-JFK