Superintendent Roger Leon of Newark proposed closing four Newark charter schools. He needs state approval. Suddenly anonymous posters appeared around the city criticizing his decision. Mayor Ras Baraka defended Leon.
Mayor Ras Baraka is defending the Newark schools chief after anonymous flyers and posters appeared across the city attacking the superintendent’s call to close four charter schools.
In an online message posted Monday evening, Baraka called the posters criticizing Superintendent Roger León “tasteless and sophomoric” and “based on ignorance.” He also defended León’s call for the state to shutter the four charter schools, echoing León’s argument that the charters divert funding from traditional schools and fail to adequately serve students with special needs.
Baraka’s message and the mysterious posters warning “Your school could be next!” are the latest flareup in an escalating dispute over the four charter schools: M.E.T.S., People’s Prep, Roseville Community, and University Heights. The schools are up for renewal, a routine process in which charter schools must apply for state approval to continue operating.
Why anonymous fliers and posters?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The chickens are coming home to roost. Charter school proliferation in Newark is one of Booker’s proudest accomplishments.
“Second, he suggested that the schools do not offer students a better education than they could receive in the district. He cited data showing that the district, on average, outperformed all the schools except People’s Prep on state tests in terms of the percentage of students who met grade-level expectations, students’ year-over-year improvement, or both.”
That seems like a problem. Wasn’t the pitch that they were better schools, measured using test scores?
Wouldn’t it be easier if the charters who are selective and acting as a magnet school just admit they’re like a magnet school?
Then we could have an actual discussion. If they continue to insist they’re not selective when they are, they can never be measured or described and talking about it is pretty useless. One first has to agree on a definition, I would think.
Then they could ask how many magnet schools they need or can sustain.As long as no one is admitting they’re selective they’re asking the wrong question.
essential De-former truth: controlling the conversation by making sure that the questions asked are not the right questions to be asking
Mayor Ras Baraka kind of did a triple flip flop on this. He campaigned on holding charters accountable but when he was elected mayor he became charter friendly and pulled back from his campaign rhetoric. Now it appears that he’s not beholden to the charter cheerleaders any more and is supporting Leon. This is quite an amazing development for Newark which has been ground zero for charterism, charter cheerleaders and the privatization movement.
Those posters look like they cost a pretty penny.
Wonder who paid for them? Follow the money.
“Attacks by anonymous posters”?
I resemble that remark.
I think that if the 4 schools on the poster were district schools, you’d have a post praising the people who posted them for defending their schools.
You are right. I believe that public funds should go to democratically governed public schools, not to private corporations or religious schools.
Of all of the things that parents may like or dislike about their child’s school, I think the governance model matters least to most of them, especially as compared to how their children are treated, what they are learning, etc. I would hope parents of any school would rally support for it if they don’t want it to close.
I just find that your arguments begin and end with governance model and frankly have nothing to do with the actual education of students. That just seems to be more about schools as employers than as educators and more about adults than about children.
Sorry, John, but parents do make terrible choices for their children. Think of the parents who send their children to charters that are essentially criminal enterprises. Or parents who send them to online schools where children learn nothing at all. Or parents who take a voucher to send their child to a religious school where they learn to hate blacks, gays, Catholics, and everyone else who is different from themselves.
In this case, “governance” is a synonym for theft of the public commons.
John,
“Governance model matters least to them”. Did you get that from the Republican talking points at the impeachment hearings?
In New Orleans, the parents are in charters because every single public school was eliminated, and now half the charters in the city are failing schools…and the parents have no choice.
Who will save their children from failing charters?
Wish you cared as much about failing district schools, where failure is apparently OK solely because they are controlled by publicly elected school board. That is making schools as employers more important than schools as educators. That’s not why public education exists.
I care passionately about every school that is struggling. When I look at so-called “failing” public schools, they are invariably schools that enroll a disproportionate number of children who have disabilities, students who are English learners, and students who need smaller classes. Closing their schools and handing them over to billionaire-funded vultures does not help the children. Their school needs more resources, not closing.
But it’s failing charter vs. “failing” district school.
The quotes are telling.
Charters fail for many reasons, including their reliance on cheap inexperienced “teachers.” Graft, fraud. Rapacious leaders.
Public schools are marked “failing” because they enroll the children excluded by the charters.
John, I think that you are right. The governance model typically doesn’t matter much to them UNTIL
they learn that their charter management organization has been siphoning off millions into private profits, payments to mistresses and golfing buddies and ne’er-do-well cousins. Then the governance model matters to them A LOT.
Public education supporters identify themselves on posters. They don’t create organizational names meant to confuse.They have nothing to hide and, nothing about which to be ashamed.
The opposition either anonymously posts or plays games with names, like the American Federation of Children.