Sara Stevenson explained how NCLB is still ruining public schools in Texas.
This reader in New Jersey says that getting the waiver has given unprecedented power to the state, which is now intervening in districts across the state to impose Governor Christie’s will on everyone. Bear in mind that on national tests, New Jersey is typically #2 in the nation (behind Massachusetts) and the governor is acting as if the entire system were a disaster.
Wouldn’t it be great if the politicians stuck to what they know?
| I still cannot figure out which is worse. I hear nightmares of the impact of NCLB in states that did not apply for the waiver, but here in NJ the waiver is being used to intervene in massive ways by the state in local school districts, threatening them with take overs, instituting Regional Achievement Centers (RACs) which are really ‘the state is here to tell you how to run your district centers’ funded by Broad money (so read, ‘dismantle your public school system’), focus and priority schools are being made to jump through hoops for crazy reasons, and ‘failing’ charter schools are being doled out to CMOs. Is this better? Maybe the grass is always greener, but right now it is looking brown all over. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here’s hoping Jerseyans can push back. This would be a tragedy if he’s successful. What’s also disturbing is the state just taking over local districts willy-nilly without regard to local governance and authority even more troubling – the fact that the state has been running the schools of Jersey City for 25 years and Newark for close to 17 years with no noticeable change. Now the people are asked to trust these guys? Seriously. He’ll be lucky if someone doesn’t go after him or Cerf Jersey style.
Chris has more important things to do then dismantle and screw up Jersey’s fine educational system. He won’t- this is low hanging fruit. Wait until everyone wakes up. Private schools and home-schooling will take off after this stunt. What he should be addressing but opts not to, since this is Jersey and corruption is key; is all those exceptionally safe and well-run half-way houses (run by major donor to Christie) where inmates WANT TO TRANSFER BACK TO JAIL. In addition, there are those lingering job and unemployment numbers that seem to be creeping up. Infrastructure issues. Backing off the Rowan- Rutgers-Camden merger. He could also cut down on those helicopter rides that have tripled since he was elected (or in his mind- crowned). Well there’s just so much. I just wish he would attend to those and not run around with a solution in search of a problem.
Anyway, let’s hope America’s infatuation/love affair with Christie ends soon. His election was a miracle. His own party kneecapped him when he was a county freeholder. How he recovered from that defies explanation and boggles the mind. That should have finished him off but it didn’t. Oh well. Voters can retire him in 2013. Let’s hope they do.
For your reading pleasure, I’ve linked an editorial from The Star-Ledger whose just loves Chris Christie:
Moran: Five things the rest of America doesn’t know about Chris Christie. A couple of unexpected observations.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_tom_moran/2012/08/five_things_the_rest_of_americ.html
Future plans: http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0812/2329/
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Here’s a link to the Edweek story about Christie’s plan.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/08/15/01takeover.h32.html?tkn=SRTFYH6HNNB2BUATkY67Y%2BrNmDEgffWI9qdW&cmp=clp-edweek
The Education Law Center has a better explanation, though. I cited it in the comment I made on Edweek, which I’m now cross-posting here:
First of all, congratulations to David G. Sciarra, of the Education Law Center, for “following the money”, and publishing these documents showing the self-dealing and dishonesty of Christie’s turnaround take over.
http://www.edlawcenter.org/news/archives/other-issues/elc-obtains-confidential-njdoe-school-turnaround-plan.html
This conspiracy is illegal. The NCLB legislation, while disastrous, was passed by congress, and therefore has the force of law. It specifies conditions which must be uniformly applied before local schools can be taken over by outside interests. If that law isn’t in force, then no preemptive takover authority exists.
Bureaucrats now conspire with profiteers to make their own law, seize public property, countermand elected bodies, privatize schools and award corrupt contracts at their own whim, accountable to nobody.
Arne Duncan, Eli Broad, the Council of Chief State School Officers, Commissioner Cerf and Governor Christie should be called before a congressional committee and questioned under oath about their conspiracy to defraud public schools under the false authority of Duncan’s illegal waiver.
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I would love to see this:
“Arne Duncan, Eli Broad, the Council of Chief State School Officers, Commissioner Cerf and Governor Christie should be called before a congressional committee and questioned under oath about their conspiracy to defraud public schools under the false authority of Duncan’s illegal waiver.”
I will write my representatives in both houses to complain and see if they can move on this- doubtful since everyone seems complicit in this. There is strength in numbers, so others need to write also. Most representatives provide easy to fill out contact forms. A tweet, call, and fax are also helpful.
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Sorry to be discouraging but this is from politico.com, 6-12-12: “For the first time since Christie took office in 2010, 50 percent of registered New Jersey voters have a favorable view of the Republican governor, a 4-point increase since late March, a Rutgers-Eagleton poll found. About four in 10 voters in the Garden State, 39 percent, have a negative view of their governor, while 11 percent say they don’t have an opinion.” I hope New Jerseyans come to their senses because I shudder to think what might happen if Christie gets a 2nd term to further batter and demolish the traditional public schools. If the Democrats can offer a better candidate against Christie it might help. Christie’s rhetoric against the teachers’ unions, public schools and even teachers is absolutley vicious, toxic and unrelenting. He was a paid lobbyist for Edison schools when Cerf was an Edison top executive. From nj.com: “From 1999 to 2001, Christie was a registered lobbyist at a law firm that lobbied New Jersey government on behalf of Edison Schools, according to filings with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. While the firm was representing the multinational education company, Chris Cerf was its general counsel.
The firm, Dughi, Hewit and Palatucci, also represented Mosaica Education, a for-profit charter school operator, and the University of Phoenix, a for-profit online university. At the time, the firm listed two lobbyists, Christie and William Palatucci, a longtime political ally of the governor who is a named partner in the firm.”
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The Garden State is fast becoming the Charter State. I’m guessing that after Chris is finished with the public schools he’ll go after New Jersey’s public colleges and universities. He already tried with Rowan and Rutgers-Camden takeover, that at the moment has failed.
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