Bob Braun has a fascinating blog where he writes about New Jersey politics and education, based on his 50 years of covering both as a reporter and columnist.
Here he tells the story of the current administration’s determination to sell off public buildings to KIPP and perhaps other charter operators.
Newark is under state control and has been since 1995. The state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson is a former Teach for America teacher who has been knee-deep or neck-deep in corporate reform, from TFA to New Leaders for New Schools to the Bloomberg administration, and now the Chris Christie administration. Her present assignment apparently is to turn public assets over to charter operators, in this case, a corporation named “the Pink Hula Hoop.”
The story begins like this:
Keeping public education public and out of the grasp of privatizers won’t be easy. The people behind it all make following the power and the money deliberately complicated. Consider the story of the Pink Hula Hoop, a convoluted tale of big money and insider contacts that could be the future of public education.

Pink Hula Hoop—more correctly “ Pinkhulahoop1, LLC”—is a profit-making company, one of four legal entities created to, among other things, raise money for the Team Academy Charter schools in Newark so it can buy and occupy public schools put on the auction block by the state-appointed school administration in New Jersey’s largest city. The Team Academy is considered a “region” of the better known KIPP charter schools.
The saddest part of the story is the inscription over the 18th Avenue School (photo):
“THE PUBLIC SCHOOL IS THE BEST DEFENSE OF A DEMOCRATIC NATION.”
Diane,
Is this the correct link?
________________________________
Lisa Haver,
You were right. I had the wrong link. Here is the right one for the Pink Hula Hoop, and is fixed in post: http://bobbraunsledger.com/the-pink-hula-hoop-part-1-is-this-the-future-of-public-schools/
I think we run into a problem with that last quote. There are too many people that don’t believe this is a democracy. And those people seem to think we are merely a capitalist society with unbridled free markets and opportunities to scoop up money as evidence of success and pride. Irality and conscience don’t enter the equation.
It is time for all the elected officials to be held accountable for what is going on in education in New Jersey. The vast majority of them are far to silent on such an universal concern.
The Christ/Cerf Axis has a lot of political muscle and a lot of allies on both sides of the aisle. The New Jersey Dixiecrats
led by the Sweeny/Norcross connection have their hand print all over Camden and no one cares about what is happening in Pleasantville (School Supt. Sandy expenditures) Up north Sen. Booker is not being held accountable for the educational purgatory he left in Newark.
I am not to smart, I always thought that
“Public Schools are the Best Defense for Democracy.”
So once Pink Hula Hoop takes all that public money and improves the school they’ll transfer title back to the people of Newark, right?
Yeah. Sure they will.
Wouldn’t it be great if people there had an advocate at the table? Say, an elected official or some other public employee who could negotiate these real estate terms on their behalf?
Barring that, since their elected representatives seem to be completely captured, can they hire private counsel to represent their interests? It may be sort of shocking to them when they find out all their publicly-owned assets have been transferred to private parties.
It’s been apparent for years that charters schools are a real estate play, involving either the “legal” expropriation of public facilities, or subsidies for new construction via the New Markets Tax credit.
Peel back the layers of so-called education reform and you reveal all sorts of systemic and self-reinforcing dynamics that push towards actual “facts on the ground,” a tiered, increasingly privatized education system.
It’s a form of looting, and it’s all legal.
Okay, Dr. Ravitch. More charter schools in Arizona. http://www.azcentral.com//community/phoenix/articles/20140130new-charter-school-push-phoenix-core.html?source=nletter-
Many other states are realizing that charters are not the answer but not here. Arizona is putting more into low income areas. We desperately need help in this state. I went to a neighborhood school event recently with two of my Sunday school girls (they asked me to take them since Mom had a college class–they are Sudanese). I looked around at all the parents and children and realized that they don’t have any idea what is happening to education. This is a partially Title I school in the neighborhood where I live. Most of them are probably just trying to survive life. I am constantly posting in our local paper about what is happening in education, but I don’t think most get it. We need to start having debates here and speakers such as you here. I have to figure out how to get this going.
Same here in Oklahoma! Keep me informed of any ideas you end up with. I’m trying to figure it out here, as well.