Archives for category: New Jersey
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Ras Charges Secret Newark Slush Fund

By dianeravitch
May 6, 2014 //
14

Below is today’s press release. Representatives of Newark First showed up to this press conference to disrupt and agitate the Newark residents who attended. This is another indication that Shavar Jeffries and his backers lack positive ideas to change Newark, and so they have to rely on negativity and cynicism to cut into Baraka’s lead. With YOUR help, they will not succeed!

NEWS

For Release: Tuesday, May 6th, 2014
Contact Frank Baraff (914) 469-3775 fbaraff@optonline.net

Ras Baraka describes a complex scheme that has provided his opponent Shavar Jefferies with more than a million dollars in secret campaign contributions

.

Statement by Ras Baraka

80% of the money spent on radio and television commercials in this campaign has been spent by one committee, Newark First, on behalf of Shavar Jeffries. Newark First has spent at least two million dollars, and the donors of most of that two million are secret.

In other words, a group behind Shavar Jeffries is trying to buy control of Newark’s government, and the people of Newark have no idea who they are, what they stand for, and what they ultimately seek to achieve.

At the last financial filing 20 days ago, Newark First had received $1.3 million in contributions. Of the $1.3 million, $850,000 came from Education Reform Now, a New York City group of Wall Street hedge fund operators behind Chris Christie and his appointed school superintendent, Cami Anderson. Today, Newark First has spent more than $2 million.

By putting their money through Education Reform Now, large contributors are able to hide from the people of Newark. There is nothing illegal about that kind of money laundering. It’s allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court. But the people of Newark must know who is trying to control our city.

The fact that people launder contributions through an education reform group does not necessarily mean that they are supporters of Chris Christie-style education reform. The money could just as well be coming from the South Jersey political boss, George Norcross, or big contractors seeking to avoid pay-to-play laws.

Let me be clear. The issue is not that Shavar Jeffries is outspending me. The issue is that he is keeping the source of his money secret. I call upon Shavar Jeffries to reveal his secret contributors. Jeffries will no doubt deny any connection to Newark First.

But there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The Shavar Jeffries campaign is deeply involved with Newark First and I have the evidence.

Connections Between Shavar Jeffries, his campaign, and the Newark First “Independent Expenditure” Committee

Under the law, communication between an independent expenditure group and a candidate or committee it is supporting is strictly illegal. That’s the meaning of independent expenditure.

1. After Jeffries met several times with George Norcross, the political boss of South Jersey, Norcross helped to establish Newark First. The media and mail consultants to Newark First are extensively involved with Norcross candidates.

2. Jeffries raised the most money of any candidate, $1,351,800, yet has only spent $82,000 on television and radio, barely enough to have any impact. No rational candidate would spend so little to communicate his message unless he knew that somebody else (Newark First) was going to spend $2 million or more for him on radio and tv.

3. The Jeffries campaign is run by Steve Adubato’s North Ward political organization. Members of that organization appear in commercials paid for by the so-called independent expenditure group.

4. The chairperson of the independent expenditure group is a leader in the Adubato North Ward political organization.

5. Congressman Payne a leader of the Shavar Jeffries campaign appeared in a television commercial paid for by Newark First. It stretches credulity to claim that the Congressman is unaware of who is paying for his tv spot.
—

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does” Margaret Mead

Categories New Jersey

Anthony Cody Interviews Ras Baraka about Newark

By dianeravitch
May 6, 2014 //
2

In this post, Anthony Cody interviews Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka.

Newark has been under state control for nearly 20 years. During that time, democracy has been suspended.

Ras is running for the restoration of democracy in Newark. He is a high school principal and City Councilman.

He is running against Cami Anderson’s plan to turn more public schools into charter schools. Cami is Chris Christie’s choice to privatize the Newark public schools.

Not surpringly, the billionaires and hedge fund managers have backed a candidate to oppose Ras, a candidate eager to support their efforts to wipe out public education.

Read the interview and help Ras if you can.

The Network for Public Education has endorsed Ras Baraka and we are helping him as much as possible. His election would have national ramifications. He is currently leading in the polls by a few points.

Go, Ras, go!

Categories New Jersey

State-Appointed Superintendent of Camden: I Represent the People of Camden

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2014 //
14

Professor Stephen Danley of Rutgers has been attending the school board meetings in Camden. Camden has been under state control for many years. Its new, young, inexperienced Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard wants to turn Camden’s public schools into charter schools. There is no evidence that the people of Camden want him to give their children and schools to charter corporations, but no one can stop him because he was appointed by Governor Chris Christie.

Paymon is under the delusion that he represents the people of Camden, but in reality he represents the Governor and does his bidding.

Why is it that these fake reformers never pay attention to niceties like democracy or evidence? They are blinded by their arrogance.

Do they believe their own press releases?

Categories Corporate Reformers, New Jersey

Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey Sends Bradford to New York

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2014 //
7

New Jersey is sharing its riches. Darrell Bradford, formerly of a billionaire-funded group called B4Kids, will move to New York to become CEO of NYCan. This is another of those fake “reform” groups that advocates for privatization as the cure for poverty and the surefire way to get rid of unions.

Jersey Jazzman knows him well and describes his role in advocating for vouchers.

The origin of these CAN groups is Connecticut, where Jonathan Sackler, a billionaire leader in the pharmaceutical industry (see Leonie Haimson’s comments below) and various hedge fund managers organized to advocate for privatization, mayoral control (to speed the pace of privatization), and anti-teacher legislation.

In the psychiatric literature, CAN is an acronym that stands for “child abuse abuse and neglect.”

Welcome to New York, Darrell. If you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere, it’s up to you, New York, New York.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New Jersey, New York, Privatization

Bob Braun: Cry, Cry for Newark

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2014 //
27

Bob Braun has written one of the most moving, powerful critiques I have ever read of the heartless destruction of neighborhood public schools. What is it all about? To quote Braun: “money and power and greed.”

He writes:

“Sad. There’s a word rarely heard in the context of the state’s war on Newark’s neighborhood public schools. Sad. Yet the story of how a cruelly tone-deaf state bureaucrat named Cami Anderson is singlehandedly destroying a community’s neighborhood schools is just that. Sad. And nothing more illustrates that sadness than the brave but probably futile effort of one successful neighborhood school to remain alive despite Anderson’s promise to give it to privatized educational entrepreneurs who include former business partners of the recently resigned state education commissioner.”

Hawthorne Avenue School is not a failing school. It ranks well in the city and state. It has string parent involvement. But Cami has promised it to her friends at KIPP.

To get ready for the transfer, she has devastated the school:

“Anderson’s treatment of Hawthorne—and similar schools throughout the state’s largest district—has been a nightmare. A sad nightmare. She stripped the school of its librarians, its counselors, its attendance personnel. She has ignored constant pleas to repair crumbling walls and leaking ceilings—promising repair money only after she gave the building to TEAM Academy, the local name for KIPP charters, and the Brick schools. The head of TEAM Academy, Tim Cardin, is a former business partner of Christopher Cerf, the recently-resigned education commissioner. All three–Cardin, Cerf, and Anderson–worked for the New York City schools.”

Cami Anderson has no sense of shame.

Categories Charter Schools, KIPP Charter Schools, New Jersey

HELP RAS BARAKA NOW!!!!

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2014 //
18

Ras Baraka is in a tough fight for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

The hedge fund managers have poured into the campaign more than $1 million–that has been reported–to defeat him and to turn over more public schools and children to corporate charter chains. Please help save public education in Newark by supporting Ras Baraka.

Ras is a high school principal and a member of the Newark City Council.

Please donate whatever you can to help him.

The primary election is May 13.

He needs your help NOW.

This is what Mark Naison wrote about Ras Baraka:

“Friends of public education. The most important election in the nation regarding the future of public education is happening right now in Newark New Jersey. On one side is Shevar Jeffries, a lawyer and a huge charter school supporter getting millions of dollars in contributions from Hedge Fund advocates of school privatization and on the other side is Ras Baraka, a high school principal who has been in the front lines of community voices resisting Chris Christie “One Newark” plan and the school closings and mass teacher firings which have accompanied it. Rarely has there been a clearer choice for defenders of public education and those who think Big Money Interests should not determine the future of our schools. Ras Baraka is not only the right choice for Newark students, teachers and families, his election will inspire candidates like him to come forth in cities like Philadelphia and Chicago and Los Angeles where pro privatization Mayors currently are in office. And he is not just strong on paper. His is a brilliant speaker, someone who inspires those who hear him to step forward in the struggle for justice, and take on the Special Interests who are deforming our democracy.

“Any way you can help this campaign will help our entire movement. We need Ras Baraka as Mayor of Newark, and we need more people like him to run for office in every urban center in the nation

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=246039618866448”

Categories New Jersey, Supporting public schools

Peter Greene Explains Why Cami Hates Democracy

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2014 //
16

Peter Greene, a man of infinite patience, watched a video in which Cami Anderson explains why she has the right to tell everyone in Newark what to do without listening to their opinions.

She compares herself to her sister, who is a surgeon. Her sister doesn’t ask the opinion of nobodies; she does what she has to do to save the patient’s life.

Greene points out to Cami that her sister is a highly trained professional who spent years learning her profession, whereas Cami’s five weeks of training in TFA is hardly equivalent. Furthermore, her sister operates with the consent of the patient and the patient’s family, and was not given consent to cut up the patient by Chris Christie.

The bottom line, Greene sees, is this:

“Democracy is stupid.

“Look, say the Reformistas. We are just better than you are. We are wiser, smarter, and just plain righter than the rest of you. So you should stop getting in our way. All of you lesser humans should stop insisting that you’re entitled to some sort of voice– you aren’t. Shut up, sit down, and let the superior humans take care of these difficult matters.”

Greene is not sure where Cami is, other than noting she is at Arizona State University/GSV. A few days ago, I wrote about the education “gold rush.” Cami is speaking to 2,000 entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers, and investors who are looking to make profits in education with the Next Big Thing. They paid $1,000-2,000 each to meet at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale. The meeting was co-sponsored by Global Silicon Valley, which leads the way in monetizing and privatizing education.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, New Jersey, Teach for America

Bruce Baker: The Magical Secrets of Awesomeness

By dianeravitch
April 29, 2014 //
13

The charter sector is riddled with fraud. The fraud gets uncovered whenever you see a charter claiming a miraculous success with poor, inner-city kids who are identical to the kids in the neighboring failing public schools. When they boast of their 100% graduation rates or their 100% passing rates on state tests, look behind the curtain.

Watch a master at work as Bruce Baker pulls back the curtain on Newark’s awesome North Star Academy. 100% of the seniors graduate! (But half the kids drop out before senior year.) 100% of the students pass the state tests! (But North Star has remarkably few students with disabilities or English language learners, compared to the neighborhood schools.)

Schools like North Star are so bleeping awesome that they have their very own “graduate” schools of education, where they learn to be driven by data and how to “teach like a champion.” Really cool “graduate” schools with no researchers or scholars. Just charter teachers giving masters’ degrees to other charter teachers. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. What will they think of next?

Doctored data, make-believe degrees, pretend teachers.

This is called “education reform.”

What a world.

Categories Charter Schools, Data and Data Mining, Graduation rates, New Jersey

EduShyster: A Letter to TFA in Newark Who Are Replacing Veteran Teachers

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2014 //
10

This post was written for EduShyster by guest blogger Owen Davis, a former corps member of Teach for America.

 

It is firmly tongue-in-cheek. He advises members of TFA headed for Newark not to back down.

 

So what that Cami Anderson, one-time leader of TFA-New York, plans to lay off 1,000 experienced teachers–most of whom will be black–and replace many of them with TFA?

 

He writes:

 

Your ability to shrug off the naysayers is what really astonishes me. So what if TFA is on average whiter than the teachers it will replace? What does it matter that TFA is a necessary ingredient in the charter stew that drowns traditional public schools – and that Newark’s current layoff plans stem directly from the diverting of district funds to charters? Who cares that 60% of NJ TFAers end up in that same charter sector, whose teachers are only 74% as likely to be black and half as likely to be Hispanic as in district schools? And the fact that half of TFA’s current teachers in Newark’s district schools landed in “renew schools,” where existing staff had to reapply en masse and where hundreds of educators were displaced?

 

He adds:

 

The Newark situation can’t help but stir recollections of your stalwart march into New Orleans in the decade after Hurricane Katrina, when the number of TFA first- and second-years shot up from 85 to over 400, while the proportion of African-American educators dropped from 73% to 49%. Or in Chicago, where your corps size grew by a third while fifty schools were closed and a thousand positions were cut – and where previous mass layoffs hit black and Latino teachers hardest. It’s in these dire circumstances that “doing nothing is not an option.”

 

The post is loaded with links. Read it and follow the links. Owen Davis’s advice to TFA: Don’t back down. Go right ahead and replace those experienced black teachers and see yourself as civil rights leaders.

 

Life is filled with ironies, is it not?

Categories Humor, New Jersey, Teach for America

Save Our Schools NJ Complains That Public Schools Are Recruiting for Charters

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2014 //
9

Camden, New Jersey, is one of the state’s impoverished small cities that is under state control. It may be the poorest district in the state. It is rhe lowest performing. The Chris Christie administration appointed a 32-year-old inexperienced young man (Teach for America alum) with some time working in the New York Department of Education and Newark as Camden’s superintendent, and naturally, his goal is to turn public school students over to charter operators. Save Our Schools NJ sent the following letter to the state commissioner of education:

“FOR IMMEDIATE USE

April 21, 2014

Save Our Schools NJ requests that Commissioner Hespe stop additional legally-questionable activities by the Camden School District

Save Our Schools NJ Contacts

Susan Cauldwell susancauldwell@saveourschoolsnj.org 908-507-1020

Julia Sass Rubin jlsrubin@verizon.net 609-683-0046

Today, Save Our Schools NJ, a non-partisan, grassroots organization with more than 15,000 members across New Jersey, sent a second letter to the state’s Acting Education Commissioner David Hespe, alerting him to actions by the State Operated Camden School District that raise serious legal concerns.

Highlighting the fact that the Camden School District had mailed home to district families a recruitment flyer for the Mastery charter school network, Save Our Schools NJ requested that the Acting Commissioner “investigate the extent to which Camden’s public school resources were used in mailing” the recruitment flyers to parents as this “would constitute inappropriate use of school funds to promote — and give preferential treatment to — a specific private organization.”

Save Our Schools NJ further informed the Acting Commissioner that Mastery recruiters had been going to the homes of Camden public school students, to encourage them to enroll in the school. Save Our Schools NJ asked the Acting Commissioner to “investigate how Mastery, a private entity, obtained the addresses of Camden students for purposes of conducting unannounced visits to students’ homes” and to “examine whether Camden provided Mastery with students’ home addresses — or any other individual student information — without the consent of parents and guardians.”

Referencing the legislative record of the Urban Hope Act, Save Our Schools NJ also raised once more the concern identified in a prior letter that Camden was violating the Act’s ban on temporary facilities for Renaissance charter schools:

“In passing the Urban Hope Act, the legislature was very clear that Renaissance Schools cannot operate as temporary schools in temporary facilities, but rather must be in a “newly-constructed” school. The legislative statement to the Urban Hope bill, issued by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on January 5, 2012, states on page 3 that “[t]he committee amended the bill to: … clarify that renaissance school projects are newly-constructed schools…Yet, Camden is planning to locate both Mastery and Uncommon Schools Renaissance schools in existing public school buildings, for the 2014-15 academic year.”

Save Our Schools NJ requested that the Commissioner “immediately investigate whether Camden has authorized Mastery and Uncommon to operate schools under the Urban Hope Act in 2014-15 on a temporary basis in existing Camden school facilities and, if so, take prompt action to direct Camden to terminate this arrangement.”

April 21, 2014

Commissioner David C. Hespe
New Jersey Department of Education
100 River View Plaza
P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Commissioner Hespe,

As a follow-up to our April 14, 2014 letter, we wish to bring to your attention additional actions by the State Operated Camden School District (Camden) that raise serious concerns about Camden’s compliance with the Urban Hope Act and regulations, and with other laws.

1) Temporary facilities are not allowed under the Urban Hope Act

We remain very concerned that, although their application to build such schools has yet to be approved by your office, Camden is moving forward to facilitate the enrollment of Camden public school students in September, 2014 in “temporary” schools, to be operated by the Mastery and Uncommon organizations and located in existing Camden public schools, ostensibly as Renaissance Schools under the Urban Hope Act.

In passing the Urban Hope Act, the legislature was very clear that Renaissance Schools cannot operate as temporary schools in temporary facilities, but rather must be in a “newly-constructed” school. The legislative statement to the Urban Hope bill, issued by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on January 5, 2012, states on page 3 that “[t]he committee amended the bill to: … clarify that renaissance school projects are newly-constructed schools.”

Yet, Camden is planning to locate both Mastery and Uncommon Schools Renaissance schools in existing public school buildings, for the 2014-15 academic year.

The attached letter, which was mailed by Camden to public school parents, states:

“Mastery School of Camden will open this fall in two temporary locations for approximately 600 kindergarten through 5th grade students:

-At PynePoynt Family School, Mastery Academy will serve up to 380 new K-5 Students.

-At the old Washington School, Mastery Academy will serve approximately 220 K-2 students.”

These types of schools — to be operated by a charter management organization and located temporarily in existing public school facilities — are clearly not authorized under the Urban Hope Act. Accordingly, we request that you immediately investigate whether Camden has authorized Mastery and Uncommon to operate schools under the Urban Hope Act in 2014-15 on a temporary basis in existing Camden school facilities and, if so, take prompt action to direct Camden to terminate this arrangement.

2) Public school districts should not advocate for specific private entities

The letter quoted above, which Camden sent to public school parents, included the attached solicitation flyers for the Mastery charter school chain.

The use of Camden personnel and resources to encourage public school students to attend the privately managed Mastery school would constitute inappropriate use of school funds to promote — and give preferential treatment to — a specific private organization.

We request that you investigate the extent to which Camden’s public school resources were used in mailing Mastery recruitment flyers to parents.

The investigation also should ascertain why it appears that Mastery was the only charter organization in Camden to be given direct assistance by the Camden School District for 2014-15 enrollment recruitment activities.

3) Camden cannot share confidential student data with individual private entities

Camden parents who live in the area from which Mastery plans to draw for its unapproved Renaissance school also indicated that Mastery representatives came to their homes to encourage them to enroll their children in the Renaissance school.

This raises serious concerns about whether Camden disclosed individual student records and information to a third party entity without the consent of the students and their parents and guardians.

We request that your Office launch an immediate investigation into how Mastery, a private entity, obtained the addresses of Camden students for purposes of conducting unannounced visits to students’ homes. This investigation should examine whether Camden provided Mastery with students’ home addresses — or any other individual student information — without the consent of parents and guardians.

We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss this further.

Sincerely,

Susan Cauldwell, volunteer organizer, Save Our Schools NJ
Executive Director, Save Our Schools NJ Community Organizing
susancauldwell@saveourschoolsnj.org

Julia Sass Rubin, volunteer organizer, Save Our Schools NJ
Chair, Board of Directors, Save Our Schools NJ Community Organizing
jlsrubin@verizon.net

cc: Paymon Rouhanifard, Superintendent, Camden City Public Schools

David Sciarra, Executive Director, Education Law Center

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, Privatization, Resistance
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »