Veteran journalist Bob Braun is outraged by what is being done to the powerless Newark school district, now under state control for nearly 2 decades.
He says that Christie and his superintendent Cami Anderson are placing unqualified teachers in the classroom, assigning teachers to teach subjects for which they have neither experience nor certification.
Worse, “Anderson put more than 400 perfectly qualified and experienced teachers in rubber rooms while hiring almost as many new teachers from an organization she once led, Teach for America (TFA), a real waste of money in a district facing a $57 million deficit.”
Time for an investigation?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t think it’s time for an investigation. I think it’s a time for firing squads.
This is what happens when the inmates take over the asylum.
How did Cami Anderson get her job at the top rung of the NY ed ladder?
Is she a Broad Academy graduate?
Obviously a crazy Guv will appoint hench people who reflect his own policies.
Sorry…meant NJ ladder, not NY. But speaking of NY, the info that Moskowitz is thinking of running for Mayor, or Guv, is truly shocking.
Ellen,
Cory Booker brought Anderson to Newark. She worked on his campaign.
I am one of the 400 EWPS. I am not assigned to a rubber room. I am working very hard outside of my certification as are many others on the list.
The so called unions are enablers of the reformers julie.
hideously past time for investigation. I am shocked that unions haven’t brought these acts before a court before. From disbanding school districts, unions, firing teachers, giving public tax funds to private corporations with no state oversight. And endless list of anti democracy methods. A democracy isn’t convenient to an oligarchy and darn if they aren’t buying off the media and those who would fight it one by one. It’s a travesty of justice and a travesty of democracy that calls for a nationwide teacher demonstration just like Hong Kong did when their leaders became dictators. Then while we demonstrate we speak out about the rape of democracy by the rich via the public school system. We let people know the truth. We have programs and get on talk shows and rebut the reformers fake love of students in America Any hope of this happening?
They should start a lawsuit in the name of some parents that can’t be too happy that their children are being taught by teachers without certification.
As far as I can tell, parents are not aware.
There are a lot of Americans who are not aware. Most live in a fast food, instant gratification world where they are bombarded by hundreds or thousands of ads a day to buy this or that or think this or that, and they get their world education from a few minutes of cherry-picked news from a major media outlet that is 90% owned and controlled by one of six huge corporations.
80% of high school graduates who do not go to college never read a book again in their lives and less than half of college graduates never read a book again. Of about 240 million American adults, only 60 million are avid readers, and a third of eligible voters vote on a regular basis.
Not surprising. This is consistent with Christie’s actions.
Inept.
I think when perfection is a goal, you end up with messes like this.
NCLB brought in the notion that schools and people can reach perfection. And because we cannot and have not, the answer reformists have come up with is to blow it all to hell and let the chips fall where they may.
Perfection is a foolish goal.
“Perfectly Foolish”
Perfection is a foolish goal
Exception is a perfect fool
Maybe Christie will take a page from Cuomo’s playbook and form an “independent” Commission to investigate the Newark schools.
Republican supporters of public ed will be more important than ever since Democrats will be all all but irrelevant in more and more states re: public ed after the last election.
Arguably, supporters of public ed should concentrate exclusively on Republicans if you’re in one of the 31 states (now) run by Republicans.
Democratic and liberal ed reformers aren’t going to have a whole lot of influence in vast swathes of the country, so it may not be worthwhile lobbying them or engaging with them at all on public schools in the 31 GOP states. They pretty much abandoned public schools anyway. No great loss.
Regular public education done correctly will be a big loss for everyone as charters seek only to profit and grow with little accountability. I Am Fighting!
C Anderson was a campaign advisor to Cory Booker when he ran for mayor. She had never run a K-12 building or been a district curriculum person. She had supervised NYC’s alternate high school district, where she closed high schools for teen mothers that had child care on-site (forcing them back to regular schools without that service where the young moms have little in common w peers).
If you read “Persistence: Reflections …” she wrote for 3-17-14 Huffington Post, she was also an activist for Title IX equity while a crew team member at Berkeley. “After a thoroughly-researched, public letter threatening a lawsuit was distributed far and wide, dozens of meetings, and several news stories” according to CA, “Literally, overnight we bought three new boats” and got plane tickets to races.
But she didn’t consider bussing needs when launching One Newark plan last winter, and youngsters whose neighborhood schools were closed now contend with bus plans that students in affluent suburbs would never be assigned.
This was meant as reply to Ellen Lubic’s comment
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