Dale Russakoff’s book “The Prize” described how everyone—consultants, entrepreneurs, reformers—fattened off Mark Zuckerberg’s gift of $100 Million, which was intended to make Newark the New Orleans of the North. Things didn’t work out so well for the students, who were treated like pawns on a chess board, shuttled from school to school.
The game goes on. The current superintendent of Newark is Chris Cerf, who previously served as New Jersey State Commissioner, chosen by Governor Chris Christie.
As veteran journalist Bob Braun reports, Cerf has given a consulting job to another former New Jersey Commissioner of Education, David Hespe, Another Christie appointee.
Braun writes:
“David Hespe, the former New Jersey education commissioner responsible for many of the worst excesses of state control of the Newark public school district, has a new source of employment–the Newark public school district….
“Hespe’s work for Cerf is the latest in a dizzying exchange of jobs between top state educators. Hespe appointed Cerf to run the district which has been under state control since 1995. Cerf had preceded Hespe as state education commissioner–and Cerf himself had worked for the school district before he was appointed state education commissioner. Jobs among pals of outgoing Gov. Chris Christie spread like a highly contagious stomach virus among preschoolers.
“Contagious. Nauseating. But profitable.
“Both Cerf and Hespe as state education commissioner supported the so-called “reforms” imposed by Cami Anderson, Christie’s first choice to run the state-operated district–wrenching changes in district enrollment patterns, the closing down and sale of public schools and their assets, the misuse of new teacher tenure rules to dismiss veteran teachers and union activists, and the vast expansion of privately-operated charter schools.
“That charter expansion came at the expense of traditional public schools. Tens of millions of dollars were transferred annually by Hespe and friends to privately-operated charter schools to ensure they are “saved harmless” from state aid cuts–cuts that devastated regular public schools. Hespe supported the transfer of public funds away from Newark public schools to the charters.”
New Jerseyans pay very high taxes. Watch the carnival in Newark to see how that money is squandered.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From Blue Jersey, 1-3-2011, a post by Jersey Jazzman:
• Cerf ran Edison Education, a schools management firm started by Chris Whittle, at a time when school privatization was considered a serious option for urban school districts. Edison’s results, however, were less than stellar; still, that didn’t prevent Whittle or Cerf from claiming successes where none existed.
• Cerf was president of Edison when the company’s stock tanked and Edison was on the verge of collapse. He and Whittle found a white knight, however, that used money from one source to buy out the firm: the Florida teachers pension. There is ample evidence that the deal was structured solely to placate then-Governor Jeb Bush, a staunch “school choice” proponent.
• Cerf reportedly received stock worth several millions of dollars in the deal; however, he has never, to my knowledge, given a complete accounting of his personal gains.
• Cerf held on to his investment in Edison while serving as a Deputy Commissioner in the New York City schools – even as Edison was a contractor with the district. He gave up his interest only when he was about to be publicly embarrassed about it by a group of NYC parents.
• Cerf was later investigated for seeking a donation for a favored cause from the investment firm that had put together the Edison buyout. While the investigators found he had acted improperly, no action against him was taken; when the report was released later, it was heavily redacted – by Cerf’s own department.
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Link to my posting above;
http://www.bluejersey.com/2011/01/who-is-chris-cerf-an-investigation/
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The Florida teachers pension fund bailed out a sinking Edison. The decision was made by a Jeb Bush and his cronies. Jeb must have gotten a good laugh.
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Right! I forgot that he was involved in Edison, the firm that in 2001 the newly-created Philadelphia SRC thought might eventually run the whole district. Well, Edison is no longer in Philly, and the SRC just dissolved itself in favor of local control.
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Its a carousel for the reformers; they never lose a dollar. They always land on their feet. They create havoc and chaos wherever they go, all the while lining their pockets, and smiling at the horrors they have caused. It takes a special person to take a job knowing they’ll be hurting people, and not only not caring, but actually relishing their own evil deeds.
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We have the best government MONEY CAN BUY.
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