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

Mother Crusader: Chris Christie’s Education Policies “Wildly Unpopular”

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2013 //
7

Mother Crusader writes that the confrontation between Governor Chris Christie and teacher Melissa Tomlinson called attention to the governor’s Achilles’ heel.

His education policies are “wildly unpopular.” He wants vouchers and charters, not public schools. And he has demonstrated contempt for teachers, especially women teachers, on several occasions.

One unscientific poll reported that 79% think his goal is to destroy public education.

Other polls, scientifically done, show that most of Barbara Buono’s voters choose her because of Christie’s arrogant treatment of the public schools and their teachers.

Will it matter in the election? Will women vote for Buono because Christie once again berated a woman in public? Will public school parents, who are the vast majority of voters, express their opposition to Christie’s contempt for their local public schools?

It’s a long shot, but an intriguing one.

Categories New Jersey

Melissa Tomlinson: What Do Teachers Want?

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2013 //
24

Thanks to Kipp Dawson of Pittsburgh for drawing my attention to this letter written by Melissa Tomlinson, the teacher who confronted Governor Chris Christie, who shouted her down and said contemptuously, “What do you people want?”

This is her answer, which appeared on Mark Naison’s blog:
Dear Governor Christie,

Yesterday I took the opportunity to come hear you speak on your campaign trail. I have never really heard you speak before except for sound bytes that I get on my computer. I don’t have cable, I don’t read newspapers. I don’t have enough time. I am a public school teacher that works an average of 60 hours a week in my building. Yes, you can check with my principal. I run the after-school program along with my my classroom position. I do even more work when I am at home.

For verification of this, just ask my children.

I asked you one simple question yesterday. I wanted to know why you portray NJ Public Schools as failure factories.

Apparently that question struck a nerve. When you swung around at me and raised your voice, asking me what I wanted, my first response “I want more money for my students.”

Notice, I did not ask for more money for me. I did not ask for my health benefits, my pension, a raise, my tenure, or even my contract that I have not had for nearly three years. We got into a small debate about how much money has been spent on education. To me, there is never enough money that is spent on education. To invest in education is to invest in our future. We cannot keep short-changing our children and taking away opportunities for them to explore and learn.

As more money is required for state-mandated curriculum changes and high-stakes standardized testing, it is our children that are losing. Programs are being cut all over the state as budget changes are forcing districts to cut music, art, after-school transportation, and youth-centered clubs.

But let’s put money aside for a moment. What do I want? What do ‘we people’ want? We want to be allowed to teach.

Do you know that the past two months has been spent of our time preparing and completing paperwork for the Student Growth Objectives? Assessments were created and administered to our students on material that we have not even taught yet. Can you imagine how that made us feel? The students felt like they were worthless for not having any clue how to complete the assessments. The teachers felt like horrible monsters for having to make the students endure this. How is that helping the development of a child? How will that help them see the value in their own self-worth?

This futile exercise took time away from planning and preparing meaningful lessons as well as the time spent in class actually completing the assessments. The evaluations have no statistical worth and has even been recognized as such by the NJ Department of Education. I am all for evaluation of a teacher.

I recognize that I should be held accountable for my job. This does not worry me, as long as I am evaluated on my methods of teaching. I can not be held wholly accountable for the learning growth of a student when I am not accountable for all of the factors that influence this growth. Are you aware that poverty is the biggest determination of a child’s educational success. If not, I suggest you read Diane Ravitch’s new book Reign of Error. Take a moment and become enlightened.

Getting back to the issue of money. I am fully aware of our educational budget. Where is all of this money? To me it seems like it is being siphoned right off into the hands of private companies as they reap the benefits of the charter schools and voucher programs that you have put into place. It certainly hasn’t gone to improve school conditions in urban areas such as Jersey City. The conditions that these students and teachers are forced to be in are horrifying. Yet you are not allowing the funds needed to improve these conditions. Are you hoping that these schools get closed down and more students are forced to go to private charter schools while the districts are being forced to pay their tuition? I know for a fact that this is what has happened in Camden and Newark.

Yet these charter schools are not held to the same accountability as our public schools. Why is that? Because deep down you know that you are not really dealing with the issues that influence a child’s education. You are simply putting a temporary band-aid into place.

Unfortunately [for you] that temporary fix is already starting to be exposed as Charter Schools are showing that they actually are not able to do better than public schools. You are setting up teachers to take the blame for all of this. You have portrayed us as greedy, lazy money-draining public servants that do nothing. I invite you to come do my job for one week Governor Christie. I invite you to come see my students, see how little they really have during the school day as they are being forced to keep learning for a single snapshot of their educational worth.

For that one end-all, be-all test, the NJASK. The one that the future of my job and my life is now based upon. Why do you portray schools as failure factories? What benefit do you reap from this? Have you acquired financial promises for your future campaigns as you eye the presidential nomination? Has there been back-room meetings as you agree to divert public funds to private companies that are seeking to take over our public educational system? This is my theory. To accomplish all of this, you are setting up the teachers to take the blame. Unfortunately, you are not the only governor in our country that has this agenda.

What do “we people’ want, Governor Christie? We want our schools back. We want to teach. We want to be allowed to help these children to grow, educationally, socially, and emotionally. We want to be respected as we do this, not bullied.
BadAss Teacher, Melissa Tomlinson
http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2013/11/letter-to-governor-christie-from-new.html

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, New Jersey, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Barbara Buono for Governor of New Jersey

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2013 //
11

I can’t vote in New Jersey, but if I could, I would vote for Barbara Buono.

Since big corporations and billionaires and garden-variety millionaires have no reluctance to spread campaign cash to school board races in communities where they do not live, I have no reluctance to say that if I lived in New Jersey, I would vote for Barbara Buono.

Her first qualification is that she is not Chris Christie. Christie has divided the state, neglected its poorest communities (other than to try to privatize their public schools), and bullied people he doesn’t agree with. He disdains public schools (calling them “failure factories”) and scorns the people who work in them every day to educate the children of New Jersey. He is ignorant of the fact that the public schools of New Jersey are ranked near the very top on federal tests. He actively promotes policies that segregate and disempower people of color in New Jersey. I shudder to think of an America in which someone with the character of Chris Christie were considered a role model.

Barbara Buono was born in Newark. She was educated in the public schools of Nutley, New Jersey. She graduated from Montclair State College and Rutgers Law School. She was elected to the New Jersey State Senate in 2001 and was chosen as Majority Leader of the State Senate in 2010, the first woman ever to serve in that position. In addition to a distinguished career in New Jersey politics, Barbara and her husband Martin have six adult children.

I don’t know Barbara Buono, but she appears to be a person who understands the values of tolerance, responsibility, respect, and hard work. She exemplifies those values.

Despite her long career of service, she has been all but abandoned by the national Democratic party, which seems to want to morph into the Republican party.

Think differently. Vote for Barbara Buono and make New Jersey a state that values all its citizens. Make it once again the Garden State, where there is a place for everyone at the table and a room for everyone in the inn.

Categories New Jersey

Governor Christie Berates a Teacher, Again

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2013 //
80

Governor Chris Christie has made clear that he doesn’t like the public schools in his state. He calls them “failure factories,” as he campaigns for vouchers. (He is a graduate of Livingston High School.) He seems to despise public school teachers. He enjoys berating teachers, especially if they are female. He is one big, tough, strong guy who knows how to put down women.

Melissa Tomlinson is a public school teacher in New Jersey. She went to a Rally for Governor Chris Christie and she held up a sign.

Read this wonderful description on Jersey Jazzman’s blog of Melissa’s courage in confronting a bully.

Her sign said:

“I am a public school teacher.

“We are NOT failing our students.

“N.J. is ranked 3rd in the US.

“Christie’s refusal to finance public education is failing our students.”

She asked him: “Why do you portray our schools as failure factories?” His reply: “Because they are!” He said: “I am tired of you people. What do you want?”

So, the most powerful executive in the state of New Jersey treated this dedicated public school teacher with arrogance, rudeness, and disrespect. She didn’t back down. She had him cornered. She is right. He is wrong. Probably, he knows he is wrong, so he felt compelled to shout her down instead of engaging in civil dialogue.

Melissa Tomlinson was right that Governor Christie has underfunded the schools. He froze the spending that was supposed to be used to repair schools with leaky pipes and mold and crumbling facilities.

But Tomlinson was wrong about one thing: on the 2011 NAEP, New Jersey was second in the nation in reading, behind Massachusetts and tied with Connecticut. In math, New Jersey was second in the nation. Not third, but second.

The districts in New Jersey that are failing are the ones that are controlled by the state, some for decades. The state has no idea what to do other than to hand students and public funds over to private corporations.

As Julia Sass Rubin pointed out in an earlier blog today, the Christie administration has systematically underfunded districts that enroll children of color. It has stripped them of democratic governance. It has overloaded them with charters that skim the best students and increase segregation. Governor Christie praises charter schools that exclude children who have serious disabilities and children who don’t speak English. The state has embarked on a policy of separate and unequal for the districts that are powerless.

Governor Chris Christie should be ashamed of himself for his systematic neglect of the education of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children as well as his rude and disgraceful behavior towards public school teachers. He should stop his war against public education. It will not help him become president. It will be a huge liability.

Here is a blog in California. Governor Christie, your reputation as a bully is going national.

Categories NAEP, New Jersey, Poverty, Privatization, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Teachers, Vouchers

New Jersey: Why You Should Vote for Marie Corfield for State Assembly

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2013 //
2

If you live in New Jersey, you are probably stuck with Chris Christie, whose education policies are disastrous for the state. He trashes his state’s teachers and public schools at every opportunity, even though New Jersey has the second highest scores on the federal tests called NAEP, behind only Massachusetts. He seems to have a visceral dislike bordering on hatred for the state’s public schools, even though he went to public schools.

Since he is sure to continue his relentless campaign to privatize public education and demoralize its teachers and administrators, that’s all the more reason you should vote for Marie Corfield. She is a teacher, a parent, and a fighter for good public schools.

Read Jersey Jazzman. He will give you many more reasons to vote for Marie Corfield.

She was endorsed by the Network for Public Education, which recognized her as a true friend of public education.

She will be strong and independent.
Send her a contribution if you can.

Categories New Jersey

Governor Christie’s Disastrous “School Reforms”

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2013 //
15

Julia Sass Rubin, an associate professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University and a founder of Save Our Schools NJ, here explains the ugly face of what is deceptively called “school reform” in New Jersey during the administration of Governor Chris Christie.

It would be more accurate, she writes, to say that Governor Christie has promoted a policy of “separate and unequal,” targeting children of color.

First, he imposed massive budget cuts that disproportionately harm children of color. She writes:

For example, the Paterson, Elizabeth, and Newark school districts combined lost over $300 million since 2010. If the New Jersey Supreme Court had not intervened in 2012 to restore some of the funding, the damage would have been even greater. Gov. Chris Christie also tried repeatedly to permanently alter the State’s school funding formula, to reduce funding for the almost 40 percent of New Jersey public school students who are low-income and/or Limited English Proficient.

Second, allowing schools that serve the neediest children to become unsafe and unsanitary. Rubin writes: Trenton High’s 1,800 students, and thousands of others, attend schools plagued by rats, roaches, asbestos, and black mold because the Christie Administration has all but frozen the work of the Schools Development Authority. The authority is charged by law with building and renovating public schools in the 31 former Abbott districts, while those school districts are precluded from repairing or rebuilding their dilapidated public schools.

Third: Suspending local control in districts where most students are children of color and subjecting these districts to years of state control, which facilitates privatization. The assumption behind this policy is that democracy is the problem; but the state’s lack of success demonstrates that poverty and segregation are the problems that the state refuses to address.

Fourth, the state is determined to get rid of public schools wherever possible, and replace them with privately-managed charter schools. The suburbs have staunchly resisted charters, which would weaken their public schools and divide their communities, so the state controlled districts have become the petri dishes for charters. Rubin points out that the charters have intensified segregation: The Christie administration “has ignored the fact that many of the charter schools are contributing to the segregation of students by income, language proficiency and race…New Jersey Department of Education 2012 – 2013 data shows that Hoboken’s three charter schools educate 31 percent of the City’s total public school students, but a significantly larger proportion of its white students (51 percent), and a significantly smaller proportion of its impoverished students (6 percent of the free lunch and 13 percent of the reduced lunch). The charter schools also educate none of the city’s Limited English Proficient students. Thanks to the charters, the remaining public schools are weakened by the concentrated enrollment of students with the greatest needs.

What is in store for New Jersey in another Christie administration?

A sustained assault on public education, especially in communities of color. More charter schools that skim off the highest-performing students and kick out those that don’t meet their standards. More segregation. The destruction of community participation and democratic governance in communities of color. The suburbs may think they are safe from these policies, but with a renewed mandate, they should expect to see budget cuts, and a redoubled effort to divide their communities by introducing charter schools.

Rubin concludes:

We know what is effective: addressing concentrated poverty; involving parents and communities in decision-making; providing adequate funding and healthy and safe facilities; ensuring access to high-quality pre-kindergarten and wraparound social services. The research is clear and consistent. We only need the political will to follow.

It is ironic that Governor Christie is so hostile to public education, inasmuch as he was educated in the state’s public schools. Even more ironic is that New Jersey has one of the top public school systems in the nation. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, New Jersey ranks second or third in the nation, along with Massachusetts and Connecticut, on tests of math and reading. If New Jersey took realistic and research-based steps to improve its poorest districts–like Camden, Paterson, and Newark–New Jersey would very likely rank first in the nation. Yet Governor Christie continues to badmouth the state’s good public schools and tear down urban public education with failed privatization policies.

The Christie administration will renew its attack on public schools across New Jersey. Join other parents to save public education in New Jersey.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, New Jersey, Poverty, Privatization

Montclair Prepares for Test Score Decline under “”Reform” Leader

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2013 //
27

Jersey Jazzman describes the new era of creative disruption in Montclair, New Jersey, under its Broad-trained superintendent.

Montclair was, until now, one of the best districts in a high performing state.

Expect the crisis narrative to begin any day now as a prelude to charters and school closings. Unless, that is, the parents rebel. Suburban parents don’t like to be shoved around, and don’t like experiments on their children.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Broad Foundation, New Jersey, Testing

Another Broad-trained Superintendent Sowing Discord

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2013 //
10

Over recent years, I have received complaints from parents about superintendents “trained” by the uncertified, unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. Eli Broad is a multi-billionaire who freely admits that he knows nothing about education but everything about management. He firmly believes that when school systems have good managers, tests scores rise and the system gets better. He also puts great stock in closing low-performing schools instead of helping them. He espouses “creative disruption,” which seems to be popular among moguls.

Lately, I have heard rumblings about Montclair, New Jersey, a suburb known for its high-performing, well-respected, and racially integrated public schools.

Then someone sent this article, which sounds sadly familiar to the Broadie style.

“Scott White, the Director of Guidance at Montclair High School, leaving left the district this month after 22 years to take a position at Morristown High School. He’s going with some major criticisms. He has been blogging at “White’s World,” in which he discusses what he thinks are problems in Montclair.

In his post “Montclair Has Lost its Way,” he says: “The desire is to get rid of every experienced, thoughtful teacher and administrator and replace them with compliant, cheap and willing newcomers who do not know what it is like to be treated with respect.” He goes on to say that the same people (education reformers) also have the desire to leave every public school as a “rotting carcass after every student of quality has moved to charter schools and private schools funded by vouchers.”

“In his post titled, “Issues at Montclair,” (This post was removed from his blog after we ran this story) he states, “Morale is as low as I have ever seen it. Virtually every teacher I speak to, especially the strongest teachers, are planning their exit strategies. The environment is about compliance and loyalty and there is absolutely no emphasis on strong teaching.” He goes on to say that “the administrative team is extremely weak,” “Teachers are writing lesson plans that are never read,” and “We are being treated as a failing school when there are some highly successful things about the school.”

“In his post about Superintendent MacCormack called “MacCormack to the Rescue,” he talks about her training from the Broad Institute and business style and says “Like any oppressive regime, the workers are afraid to speak out and the managers are learning that unquestioning obedience is the only way to survive.”

Public education will survive. A better day is coming. It won’t happen as a matter of course. The present era will end when parents rise up and fight for their community public schools. We cannot allow the destruction of a precious community asset, destroyed by the whim of a billionaire in Los Angeles who knows nothing about education or learning or teaching or children. Those who have received Broad “training” must strive to unlearn it and remember that they are educators, not managers. They are preparing children to be good people, not fodder for global competition.

Categories Broad Foundation, New Jersey

A Broadie Wreaks Havoc in Montclair, New Jersey

By dianeravitch
October 18, 2013 //
19

Starting in 2002, the unaccredited Broad Superintendents “Academy” has produced graduates who supposedly learned the management techniques to turn the nation’s schools around. The Academy consists of six weekends over a ten-month session, where aspiring leaders are immersed in Billionaire Eli Broad’s management philosophy, which apparently means top-down mandates, high-stakes testing, close schools with low test scores, and never give evidence of compassion lest it be interpreted as weakness.

While Broad’s destructive ideas were embraced by Arne Duncan and became the cold, hard spirit of Race to the Top, his superintendents have a spotty record. A few, like Chris Cerf in New Jersey and John White in Louisiana, are state superintendents. Some are leading urban districts. None has a record of success, and some have been kicked out by the local citizenry. So dubious is the record that the Broad Foundation stopped printing the annual list of its graduates and their current assignments after the class of 2011. Sharon Higgins, an Oakland parent activist, has been keeping track, however, and here is the list that ends in 2011.

Once again, a Broadie is in hot water. Jersey Jazzman has the story. This one, Penny MacCormack, was chosen by Broadie Chris Cerf to run the excellent Montclair public schools in New Jersey. This was not a failing district by any measure. Every one of its seniors passed the state tests, 90% go to college, and 20% enroll in the nation’s most elite colleges. Yet MacCormack cracked the whip as she learned to at the Broad Academy, demanded more testing, and displayed the art of never listening to staff. Before long, some of the school’s best teachers ran for the exits, and staff morale plummeted.

Montclair parents don’t like what is happening to their high school. They created a Facebook page to register their protests and gathered signatures.

Jersey Jazzman writes:

“I really don’t think I’m overstating the importance of this moment when I say the resistance in Montclair is a turning point in the national story of the breakdown of corporate reform.”

The underlying story here is that the corporate reformers are free to experiment on urban children. After all, they are poor, black, and brown, and no one in a position of authority cares if their parents complain. They are powerless. But the reformers haven’t yet learned that they are supposed to stay out of the suburbs. Suburban parents don’t like all that testing. They like their schools and their teachers. And unlike urban parents, they have political power.

Categories Broad Foundation, New Jersey

New Jersey Taxpayers Underwrite Nepotism, Profiteering in Private Schools for Disabled Students

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2013 //
16

New Jersey has 180 private schools that receive public funding for students with disabilities.

They operate with little or no state oversight.

Governor Chris Christie and his State Commissioner Chris Cerf are big supporters of privatization.

They rant about the high salaries of public school superintendents, but say it is none of their business if the publicly-funded private schools have even higher salaries.

They don’t care about nepotism or self-dealing.

Hey, it’s the private sector.

Christopher Baxter of the Star-Ledger reports on a two-month investigation of private schools that spend public money in ways that would be illegal in public schools.

Baxter writes:

The payroll at Somerset Hills School reads like a family tree, with 10 relatives sprinkled throughout. Four of them earn six-figure salaries.

The cafeteria serves up a nice profit, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for food to a company founded and owned by the school’s executive director.

Even the land and buildings are worth big bucks. The school paid nearly half a million dollars for rent in 2012, mostly to a company owned by its former executive director.

Tucked away amid lush green meadows in Warren Township, Somerset Hills is one of about 180 private schools across the state where more than 10,000 severely disabled children go for an education when their public schools can’t handle them.

Though Somerset Hills is privately owned and run, it’s like a public school in one simple way: You pay for all of it.

And more:

In an era when public schools are under intense pressure to do more with less, the newspaper’s review showed nepotism, high executive salaries, generous pensions, fancy cars and questionable business deals are common in parts of this more than $600 million New Jersey industry.

Of course, Governor Christie would not tolerate such practices in the public schools.

But here are more findings:

• While Gov. Chris Christie rails about the pay of public school superintendents, top employees at these schools live in another world, spared from his rancor. Nineteen directors were paid the maximum allowed salary — $225,734 — to oversee schools with anywhere from 30 to 327 students a day. And 52 people at these schools took home more than $175,000, the most superintendents are allowed to earn in public schools with up to 10,000 students.

• About a third of the schools did business with companies owned or controlled by the same people who run the schools, or their relatives or associates, oftentimes at a higher cost than other schools pay. The deals ran the gamut from real estate to bus rentals to food.

• Nearly one-fifth of schools had instances of nepotism. One school had four related directors, three of whom earned the maximum $225,734. Another employed a part-time classroom aide related to the director who earned $94,000 in 2013, three times other aides’ salaries.

• Three dozen schools offered generous pension plans paid for by the public but requiring no contributions by employees, in stark contrast to public school teachers and administrators’ plans. At one school, a former official collected retiree health benefits after she served time for ripping off taxpayers.

• Twenty-two cars — including two BMWs, a Land Rover, three Lexus and two Mercedes — were charged in part to taxpayers despite being used for personal transportation by officials. School disclosure reports show many cars were kept at officials’ homes.

Consider that Governor Chris Christie want more privately managed charter schools, which will enjoy the same lax supervision as the private schools for children with disabilities.

Expect more outlandish executive salaries, akin to Eva Moskowitz’s $475,000 in New York City, where her schools enroll fewer than 5,000 students (she is an attorney, not an educator). Expect more nepotism, as is now common when charter schools (like those in Arizona) are unregulated. Expect more elaborate real estate deals, where the charter operator buys the real estate, then pays his corporation outlandish rent.

That’s the future, New Jersey. Governor Christie believes in it. So does Chris Cerf. They are pushing as hard as they can to privatize schools in every city in the state, which will operate with minimal oversight.

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