Jersey Jazzman, also known as teacher Mark Weber, is completing his doctoral dissertation and has become a master at analyzing scjpp; data. He also incorporates multi-color graphics into his posts, using official state data to support his statements.

He recently completed a four-part series on Hoboken, New Jersey. Rather than post them one at a time, I am posting them all in the same day so you can wrap your head around the developments in Hoboken. The story is instructive about what is happening in urban districts, large and small, across the nation, which is why I believe it has relevance for the people of every state.

In part 1, JJ explains that charter schools in Hoboken serve a different population from the public schools. The mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, sends her children to charter schools.

He writes:

When powerful, politically connected people send their kids to the same school, they will inevitably exercise their social and political capital to get what they want. This is the way America works in the 21st Century; it’s silly to deny it.

I’ll say again what I’ve said before: I’m sure HoLa is a fine school, with dedicated educators and families and wonderful, deserving children. All of the stakeholders in Hoboken’s charters should, like all school families, be proud of their school and their students.

Further: there is a very good case to be made that the segregation between suburban and urban schools is a far greater blight on our education system than anything urban charter schools may be doing. I don’t point out these issues in Hoboken as a way of avoiding the more serious problem of racial and economic apartheid that plagues New Jersey and the rest of the nation.

No, my point here is that the denial of the realties of Hoboken’s charters — like so much of the rhetoric surrounding the charter school debate — is keeping us from having a real discussion about what ails our urban schools. When Hoboken’s charter cheerleaders deny the obvious, they do a great disservice to students across their city and across this nation.

The charter sector in Hoboken thrives largely because it serves different families than the public schools.

What if charter schools served the neediest children? Then they could justly boast about the lives they turned around, instead of boasting about test scores.

Bob Braun, the top investigative reporter in Néw Jersey, delves into the attack on Professor Julia Sass Rubin and graduate student (veteran teacher and blogger known as Jersey Jazzman) Mark Weber.

He calls it a “war against critics of charter schools” and an effort to silence them.

He writes:

“The NJCSA, which has notoriously failed to police ethical lapses among its own member organizations, invoked state power to silence critics of charter schools while, at the same time, it sought to shame Rubin and Weber by using clueless media outlets to spread the smear against critics whose work is backed by hard, empirical evidence.

“Because charter schools cannot refute the evidence on its merits, they have chosen to try to intimidate those who make the facts available to the public. To ruin their reputations and future job prospects.”

The NJCSA charges, he says, are “utter and complete rot and nonsense.”

Our beloved commenter KrazyTA offered this response to the post about the ethics complaint filed by the Néw Jersey Charter Schools Association against Professor Julia Sass Rubin for identifying herself as a Rutgers professor when speaking or publishing research about charters.

#je suis julia

The Néw Jersey Charter School Association filed an ethics complaint against Rutgers professor Julia Sass Rubin, because she identified herself as a Rutgers professor when speaking and writing critically about charter schools. She and doctoral student Mark Weber published a research paper about the demographics and test scores of charters. She has been an active member of Save Our Schools Néw Jersey. The charter association claims that she should not acknowledge her professional identity when writing or speaking. This would be laughable were it not an effort to intimidate her.

Here are the remedies the NJCSA seeks from the NJ State Ethics Commission:

“• In the event of any further installments of her study with Mr. Weber, or any future Rutgers work product concerning issues of education policy, that she be ordered to include appropriate disclaimers upon its release, and secure review and approval of the appropriate Rutgers officials prior to releasing same publicly;

• When making public appearances, Dr. Rubin be ordered to not use her Rutgers title in any capacity, and if her title is raised that she clearly state that her positions are hers alone and not those of Rutgers or any of its academic units;

• Direction to either adhere to Rutgers policies regarding outside activities or withdraw from her involvement in outside organizations including SOSNJ.”

Just for the record, I usually identify myself as a Research Professor of Education at Néw York University when I write opinion pieces, blog, give testimony before legislative bodies, or lecture in public. No one has ever said it was unethical to do so.

Here is Peter Greene on the subject.

He writes:

“NJCSA has tried to attack Rubin professionally by bringing ethics charges against her. Her alleged unethical behavior is, as near as I can tell:

1) Saying things that the NJCSA doesn’t like

2) Telling people what her job is when she speaks.

“The complaint seriously seeks the remedy of having Rubin stop identifying herself as a Rutgers professor when she says these things that make the NJ Charter operators look like lying liars who lie.”

Greene adds:

“I can understand their confusion to a point. It is, of course, standard operating procedure in the reformster world to NOT identify who you actually work for, get money from, or otherwise are affiliated with. It’s SOP to put out a slick “report” without actually explaining why anyone should believe you know what you’re talking about, but Rubin and Weber go ahead and list their actual credentials. Apparently NJCSA’s argument is that it’s unethical to let people know why your work is credible.”

Professor Rubin posted the following on her Facebook page:

“The NJ Charter School Association filed an ethics complaint against me on Monday with the NJ State Ethics Commission, claiming that I was violating Rutgers policies on lobbying by identifying myself as a Rutgers Professor when I wrote editorials or spoke in public meetings and articulated a position consistent with that of Save Our Schools NJ.

“Their complaint is not only completely devoid of substance, it also demonstrated very unethical behavior by the NJ Charter School Association as the complaint distorts the Rutgers Lobbying and Advocacy Policy, including actually editing parts of that policy to change its meaning and omitting the list of communications that are expressly not considered lobbying. Of course, every example of my writing or testimony that they categorized as “lobbying” [editorials, speaking at public events, etc.,] was actually on the list of communications that do not constitute lobbying.

“Aside from demonstrating the NJ Charter School Association’s stunning lack of morality, this also is a chilling attack on personal and academic freedoms. If Professors of Public Policy are not allowed to testify or write editorials that displease well-funded constituents, we are truly in trouble as a country.”

Here is Marie Corfield’s hilarious commentary. She includes an excerpt from Bob Braun’s Facebook comments, where he reveals how few educators are on the board of NJCSA.

Star Ledger coverage: http://www.nj.com/education/2015/01/charter_schools_association_files_ethics_complaint_against_rutgers_professor_sosnj_founder.html#comments

Phili Inquirer coverage: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/287983381.html.