In an astonishing piece of journalism, Jersey Jazzman nails the Star-Ledger of New Jersey for its arrogant editorial putdown of local residents and elected officials in Newark who dare to disagree with Cami Anderson, their Broad-trained and unelected education leader. Why, they are being “shrill and unreasonable” for resisting corporate-style reforms. The subtext: the locals are black, and the idea that they might actually govern their own schools is unthinkable.
In a tour de force, JJ quotes former Star-Ledger columnist Bob Braun, who takes his former employer to task.
He writes:
Luckily for us, Santa brought an early present: a response to this idiotic editorial in the form of a post from former S-L journalist Bob Braun:
Those who criticize the plan are “shrill” and they “shriek”–how is that for subtly racist comments? Not unlike calling ambitious women “pushy.” These were elected officials who spoke out Friday–members of the council, a member and the speaker of the New Jersey Assembly. That they were men and women of color, representing a predominantly minority community, doesn’t make their passion “shrill” or “shrieking.” It means they care about the city where few editorial employees live.
How dare a newspaper that has put its Newark property up for sale tell city residents how to live? When is the last time it told the residents of Millburn and Westfield they have enough income and should volunteer to pay higher income taxes? When is the last time it told communities in Somerset and Hunterdon counties that they should change their zoning practices to allow low- and middle-income residents? When is the last time it told Essex County and Union County that they have too many school districts and should consolidate into income-and racially–integrated unified systems?
Ooo, pick me, pick me! The answer: never.
Read Braun’s entire post, which is dead-on. The truth is that the “reforms” Anderson proposes have never worked and will not work. They are, in reality, an abdication of responsibility on the part of the state, which has utterly failed to do its job over the last two decades of state control and provide Newark’s beautiful, deserving children with schools that are worthy of them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You can stop reading anytime an editorial or blog piece or comment or any other opinion piece uses the word “shrill” to describe opponents or those who oppose their positions. It’s a word used solely to dismiss, marginalize and silence, never to advance a discussion. It’s used primarily against women, but also occasionally against gay men (or men being painted as gay or effeminate) and/or men of color in order to ‘feminize” them and thereby dismiss them. “Hysterical”, “histrionic” and other similar words are in the same category and are similar indications that the writer has nothing to say.
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How many people really trust the “news” media anymore? The number is shrinking fast. The corporate controlled media has lost credibility. Five corporations control 80% of the media and the FCC despite huge public opposition has allowed the media to own multi media groups. Just as William Randolf Hearst got us into the Spanish American war, so too did the media abdicate its responsibilities to keep us out of the Iraq debacle with just the monetary cost at least a trillion dollars, thousands of Iraqis homeless, Shiite and Sunnis who had intermarried before now at each other’s throat, safe streets gone, electricity and clean water at a minimum etc etc. The media has failed us, the one area which our Constitution gave especial attention because of the vital importance of its credibility and integrity.
Small wonder that they cannot get it straight too often regarding the importance of scholarship and integrity in our educational system.
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I think something is being missed here. All the state run districts are largely funded by state aid not by local taxes. Given the conditions in Newark schools one really wonders where that money is going. It isn’t racist to ask questions. I lived in Clifton from age 2 to age 53 and I still wonder why Clifton can spend 14.4k per student while Camden spends 23k (88% from state coffers). There is something wrong going on. I doubt the money is being well spent. I wish the students of Newark well, but I also think the state needs to monitor the spending better.
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Jerry, I’ve heard this line again and again. A few things:
1) Camden’s school system has been under a state fiscal monitor since 2006. Last year, it was taken over completely by the state, but no major decisions could have been made, fiscal or otherwise, without the state knowing for the last seven years. If the money isn’t being well-spent, ask Chris Christie and Jon Corzine – not the people of Camden.
2) The other district I hear people complain about (first and foremost, the Star-Ledger’s Paul Mulshine) is Asbury Park. Again, it is under a state fiscal monitor, and has been since 2007.
3) New Jersey law, SFRA, sets the aid amounts for districts. The weighting is based on expert opinion (there has been a lot of nonsense written about how the process got politicized, but that is way overblown). The premise is that children who have special needs, live in deep poverty, or don’t speak English at home need additional resources. Clifton High has about 38% of children at economic disadvantage; Camden High has 73%.
4) Among the many reasons the former Abbott districts, like Camden, can’t raise enough money by themselves for school funds:
– Intense segregation throughout the state, creating cities that are essentially apartheid zones where poor people are allowed to live, which leads to…
– Inadequate tax bases to fund schools that have more at-risk children.
– An over-reliance on property taxes, which is enshrined in the state constitution and makes it impossible for cities to impose other types of taxes that could raise more revenues.
– Small districts, which discourages regionalization of both resources and revenues.
To be clear: I am the last person on Earth to say large districts can’t be money pits. The state should be monitoring them – they should be monitoring ALL districts, and that includes the charters, some of which have engaged in absurd conduct (look at Camden’s for starters).
But let’s not get outraged at spending differentials without understanding what they really mean.
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I didn’t mean to single out Camden over other Abbott districts, I just had their statistics handy. Newark is just a bad an example. My point is that you chose to single out race without mentioning that all the districts in red were heavily subsidized by the state. I know for years Newark never re-evaluated property values in Ironbound so they were getting away with murder for quite sometime (while my hometown Clifton had been forced to revalue property several times).
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Wow, check out this exchange in the COMMENTS section.
First, Tom Moran jumps in and responds to Bob’s editorial:
———————————————————
TOM MORAN:
“Bob,
“Throwing out the charge of racism here is a lazy and cheap substitute for an argument.
” ‘Audacity to tell Newark people how to live their lives’? This is because I offer my opinion on local school reform? And you’re saying I don’t offer similar opinions in the rest of the state, I guess because I’m OK with anything white people do??? Do you even read the damn paper?
“Let me clear something up: I regard you are shrill and irrational, and this charge of racism is Exhibit A… And you’re a white guy. So I guess my judgment is not all based on race.
“As for the issue, to say Newark shouldn’t close schools is not rational. It has half the number of students in almost the same space it had a generation ago. What the hell sense does that make?
“And what is this nonsense about corporate raiders making profit? I mean, get over Woodstock. These are non-profits. The idea that hedge fund guys who donate money to the charter movement are somehow tapping public funds for their profit is sophomoric crap. I challenge you: Point to the hedge fund guy who is getting rich off Jersey’s charter movement. If you can’t do that, then please give it a rest.
“I could go on. But let’s just say we have a legitimate difference of opinion about school reform. For you to throw around cheap shots about racism is beneath even you.
“And with that, I sign off on this blog. Have had enough of your bloviation for a lifetime, and now you’ve crossed a line. Good riddance.
“TM”
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Then Jersey Jazzman responds to Tom:
—————————————————
JERSEY JAZZMAN:
“Stings a bit when someone’s got your number so well, eh, Tom?
“Bob doesn’t bring up ‘hedge fund guys’ – YOU do.
“Bob says: ‘… a transfer of assets to corporate-backed charters,’
and
” ‘…corporations and foundations that want the city to be the guinea pig for its so-called ‘reform ideas,’
and
“ ‘Cami Anderson isn’t solving the problems of the Newark schools, she is giving the schools away to the highest–fiscal or political–bidder.’
“If you want to debate Bob on those, go ahead: trust me, he’s on very solid ground here. But he’s never made the claim that David Tepper or Alan Fournier or any of the other guys backing ‘reform’ – guys you love to lionize in your pages – are personally gaining from charter expansion.
“Neither, BTW, have I. Instead, I’ve pointed out the obvious: corporate education ‘reform’ is a distraction to keep us from talking about an economic and political system that funnels obscene gobs of money to CEOs and ‘hedge fund guys,’ which creates the conditions for disgusting poverty to run rampant in places like Newark. Educational outcomes are not the cause of poverty – they are a symptom.
“(That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of vultures out there willing to make a buck off of ‘reform.’ Ask Cory Booker’s #1 backer, Andrew Tisch, former chair of K12 Inc. Oh, sorry, I guess it’s ‘shrill’ of me to bring that up…)
“As for the school closings: again, Bob’s got you dead to rights. The charter expansion plan occurred under an occupying government; the reason schools ‘have’ to be closed now is because policy decisions were made by the state and not be the elected representatives of Newark’s citizens. That you refuse to acknowledge this is a sign of your intransigence.
“As Bruce Baker has explained to you over and over again, the ‘successful’ charters you tout have high attrition rates and are segregated by poverty status – and North Star, a project of the reformy cabal up there in Montclair, is the worst. You have barely mentioned this in your writing, however, even though I know you read me and have interviewed Bruce. Why is that?
“As to the racism charge: was Ras Baraka ‘shrieking’ ? Was Antoinette Richardson-Baskerville ‘shrill’? Or were they, to paraphrase you right here: ‘… hav[ing] a legitimate difference of opinion about school reform’ ?
“In which case, why did YOU take the cheap shot?
“In case you hadn’t noticed, Tom, the meme of the ‘crazy angry black man’ is alive and well in America today. It’s a powerful tool for the elites of this state and this country to keep people scared. It’s the dog whistle Christie toots on again and again when he talks about ‘failure factories,’ just before he says he doesn’t care what his critics in Newark think about Anderson’s plans, or before he installs a 32-year-old with barely any experience to run Camden’s schools, or when he tries to shove merit pay, which has never worked, down the throats of Paterson’s teachers.
“Bob’s absolutely right: nobody would put up with this crap in Westfield or Haddonfield or Basking Ridge. The resistance over the last few years in Millburn and Princeton and South Brunswick and Highland Park and Montclair and other places is proof that communities that have retained their political autonomy do not want this junk coming into their schools.
“But it’s apparently fine in Newark and Jersey City and Camden and Paterson and Trenton and Asbury Park – at least, that’s the message I get from the op-ed pages of the S-L, particularly when you endorse a governor whose signature achievement, aside from screwing over public employees, has been to impose this nonsense on communities full of poor people of color without their consent while leaving the ‘burbs alone (for now…).
“Maybe, in your world, the loss of democracy in these communities is preferable to having a governor who might have made peace with the NJEA (shudder!). Whatever: the fact remains that you have consistently advocated for one system of education and governance for Newark and other cities full of the working poor, and another for the ‘burbs.”
“I’ll leave it to others to decide what name best fits that particular philosophy.”
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“These are non-profits”
This is deceptive, and a journalist should be ashamed to write it. Newark is contracting with K12, which is a for-profit company. That’s just one example of a non-profit organization (the legal entity that was created, ‘the charter school”) contracting all services out to a for-profit company.
“Non profit” isn’t some magical incantation that converts private to public, no matter how many times it’s repeated. Here, it’s used as a legal term of art with a specific meaning in the tax code.
It shouldn’t matter a hill of beans on the essential issue, which is if people ARE or are NOT making a profit off these schools. Why do I care how they set up the shell entity as far as the tax code? It doesn’t mean anything.
If he doesn’t know that, he shouldn’t be “reporting” on charter schools in New Jersey because he’s misleading his readers.
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The local media in Detroit did hit piece after hit piece about how corrupt and incompetent DPS board and admin were. Now, they do absolutely no reporting on the waste and corruption in charters. The charters have done nothing to improve education in Detroit. They have only created ways for people to exploit children and staff. All a sham. But, don’t expect anyone in the news media to actually stand up for the local people. Don’t we all need a profiteer who lives hundreds, if not, thousands of miles away to run our schools???
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Someone posted on Facebook: “Why are teachers told to differentiate instruction but standardize their tests?” So true.
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Ellen T Klock: comments like yours is why I keep coming back to view this blog.
Thank you.
😎
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