Teachers, students, and parents protested the decision by Superintendent Cami Anderson to lay off about a third of the teachers in Newark, NJ, more than 1,000.
Anderson plans to close many public schools and replace them with charter schools.
Anderson did not attend the meeting of the elected advisory board –and has announced that she will no longer attend such meetings–because she did not like the tone of the last meeting, where residents vented their rage against her and her plan for greater privatization.
Newark has been under state control since 1995. Anderson was appointed by the Chris Christie administration, which favors privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Have any parents considered a class action lawsuit?
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This, I suspect, will result in law suits from the community. It may take years before this is sorted out.
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I personally am afraid of rioting. I hope this does not happen.
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Going to court isn’t the same as a riot.
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Court is absolutely is the opposite of rioting. I just hope people don’t lose patience. There comes a breaking point. It goes without saying that legal redress is the only way to go, but that does not always reflect the reality and sentiment.
I anticipate many types of law suits: districts against state, districts against federal government, parents against regulatory agencies, school boards against Duncan, teachers against state and feds, and even against unions.
The most popular courtroom scenes I predict are the teacher class action lawsuit against state education departments, against the DOE in Washington D.C., and the NGA and the parent class action lawsuits against the same institutions.
I can’t see how many perfectly good teachers will not become casualties in the still unrefined APPR. I don’t see hoe children will not be an even bigger casualty . . . . .
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RR
I with you 100% on the idea of court challenges. What’s taking so long? harm has already been done here in NY.
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Could it be that this is precisely what Segarra and the rest of the Hartford BOE (excepting, of course, Robert) have up their sleeves and are seeking in a new “faster-moving” supt! Nothing like moving all these kids off the city’s funding responsibilities and leaving it to the state’s General Fund to pay for them. Fewer teachers to hassle with, too. And they’ll have the audacity to argue that the kids will be getting a better education. Betcha this is Hartord’s future….
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And maybe Bridgeport’s, too, if Pryor and Finch get to call the shots!
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Lots of support for Newark Public Schools. A Rally in Albany really did raise awareness. So maybe some sort of action?
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When you elect people into office, turn your back on them and let them do what they want this is the result you get. Where’s Randi and her letter to the corrupt Governor ? As if he was going to read the letter and stop this out of control train. She was part of this conspiracy by keeping quiet all these years. Not supporting anything but what gave her positive exposure. She has kept quiet for so long on issues that matter to communities and families, that letter was just another way to get her name in the newspaper a farce.
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Do the teachers and parents of Newark have contact numbers for the the teachers and parents of Chicago?
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That’s one way to get your employees to support you: fire them (er, lay them off). Then hire new compliant, scared folks that will follow your nonsense.
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this is so unbelievably disguating; where’s the massive outcry; Christie’s another one who has no money to spend on public schools, but will come up with plenty for charters. Why isn’t anyone screaming about whom these charters are hiring, what’s their qualifications, how much are administrators/CEO’s getting paid with tax dollars, what’s the curriculum, how are kids admitted, how are they tested, and on and on. It’s shameful.
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And where are the colleges of education? They are complicit in this disaster as well. How can they continue to accept enrollments from bright young would-be teachers when they know what is in store for their students upon graduation – demoralizing, cookie-cutter jobs the antithesis of real, creative teaching, not to mention that the positions will be low-paying without security or hope of advancement.
The student teachers now in my building, the young substitutes who have been with us for several years now as substitutes – they know the score now but found out too late, kind of like the young hero of All Quiet on the Western Front who was also sold a bill of goods by his professors.
The silence of the Deans and Professors who surely know what is happening to public education, in NJ and around the country, is deafening.
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There is no massive outcry, no outrage because its Newark. Until this shit hits Ridgewood, Tenafly, and Alpine the deafening silence will not surprise me. That’s what it took here in NY. Under NCLB Title 1 districts were pounded annually for failing to meet AYP. Until CCSS showed even “the white soccer moms that their kids were not as bright as they thought”, nothing happened here either.
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I am with you on this, and I wonder what the reluctance is. I hope Diane will address this, as she is in the university trench.
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Cami is a coward. Also, why would charter schools be allowed to open in there is a declining population of students? Now, Newark will have what Detroit and other cities have- a bunch of junky charter schools with high staff turnover and narrow curriculum. But, who cares, they are just poor children. I wonder if Arne Duncan will come in to save the schools of Newark and help the teaching profession. Of course not.
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Just look at Chicago…they closed tons of schools and now a year later the charters begin in ernest. The reformers are learning, people really don’t fight back with court or riots…courts are too expensive and jail time is too real (and expensive).The reformers are actually just perfecting the smash and grab (schools/tax dollars) technique that I’m sure we are only going to see more of now that Obama has recommended another charter school cronie for the Ed assistant job.
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He hasn’t saved anyone, anywhere, yet…
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He’s gonna have to save himself first, otherwise his plutocrat friends will disown him.
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Disgusting. How can Anderson sleep at night?
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To quote the title of a Akira Kurasawa film in answer your question, “The Bad Sleep Well.”
Now, it’s up to the rest of us to make their waking hours a nightmare.
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It is about to happen in the mostly affluent, but integrated, NJ suburb of Montclair which now has a Broad trained Supe (who btw was hired without appropriate credentials). Watch this one closely.
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This was the contract that was announced with great fanfare by cable television stars, was it not? Evidence of Chris Christie’s and ed reformers’ good faith, fair dealing and trustworthiness?
Now she’s violating the agreement? Reneging? Wow.
If she won’t keep her promise on a written contract that was unbelievably hyped in media, I think I’d take that as meaning none of her other promises are worth anything either. A contract is a promise. If she’ll break this one, she’ll break any of the others.
Did they ever intend to honor this agreement with teachers, or was it just more bs and slick marketing by the Christie political/media team?
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I’ll bet she honors the terms of the contracts she enters into with charter companies and contractors. Somehow I doubt she’ll be asking for “waivers” on commitments she makes to her pals in the ed reform industry. K-12 or the rest of the contractors she’ll be hiring to replace publicly-run schools would certainly sue if a member of the Christie Administration violated the terms of an agreement with them. So should teachers.
I love how these folks keep using the word “waiver”, too. Everyone from the Department of Education on down in ed reform seems to think they’re immune from obligations they enter into, special snowflakes who all need a “waiver” from the terms that apply to other people. Christie made a deal. He should have to abide by it.
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Where is Randi now? It sounds like it is time for the union step up and start a class action suit. She is beginning to talk the talk; now it is time to walk the walk.
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Newark teachers and public school supporters would do well to study Chicago – we’re a step ahead of you on this road. Not that we’ve been able to do much to stop it – even a major teacher’s strike didn’t do much. But maybe you can improve on what we’ve done (and haven’t done).
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Another grim, joyless, fear-driven ed reform scheme- closings and firings and acrimony and grief.
I laughed out loud when I read that they say they are “right-sizing” Newark’s workforce. Do ed reformers not know that everyone in the world laughs at the word “right-sizing” because it’s a relic of the corporate lay-offs that began in the 1990’s?
What do they teach at the Broad Academy? Stale business buzzwords?
If she’s getting ready to lay off 1000 people and replace them with cheaper, younger, more malleable hires, she should have the decency to use plain language.
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…plain and transparent…meh, too much to ask from crooks.
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LOL
You think?
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Imagine this firing scenario in any other profession.
1,000 policemen fired and replaced with anyone who knows how to shoot a gun.
1,000 RN’s fired and replaced with Candy Stripers who complete 2 weeks of training.
The list could go on and on and of course, the list is a bad joke. But the firing is not funny for career educators. I agree. Where is the outrage? Where is NPR? Obama? anyone??? left or right that cares about education?
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The United States reform community has just acquired another colony: Newark. So sad. I hope the people there will fight back with every peaceful strategy they’ve got.
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Privatization is not the way to move forward.
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A relevant blog. http://simoneryals.blogspot.com/2014/02/im-one-of-worst-teachers-in-my-state.html?m=1
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