By The Associated Press

JERSEY CITY —Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are the headliners at a national conference on school choice scheduled for this week in Jersey City.
Both men are scheduled to speak at the American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice’s major meeting. The groups advocate for giving parents more school options for their children.

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ByBob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist

HIGHLAND PARK — Marilyn Valentine of Franklin Township was one of the few African-Americans in the audience the other night at Highland Park’s Bartle School. She came to hear a panel discussion about charter schools. Much of the discussion was critical of state policies concerning the privately managed but publicly-funded alternatives.

Valentine, who raised two children into successful adulthood, said she understood the criticisms but pointed out that many parents who looked like her despaired of traditional public schools. “Where are the solutions?” she asked.

If charter and other privatized schools aren’t the solution—and she didn’t say they were—then what are parents to do? “You’re telling the people there is nothing for you.’’

Valentine’s complaint reflects what Gov. Chris Christie and other proponents of privatizing public education—especially in the cities—have been saying. Christie insists a child’s education should not depend on a zip code.

Her questions raised the most fundamental issue in public education: What is the responsibility of the state to the education of its children. What should it do in response to continued failure?

The debate about privatization—about charters and vouchers and increased aid to private schools—really is a consequence of the failure of what was once thought to be the ultimate school reform: The state takeover of failing schools.

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PERTH AMBOY — The Perth Amboy Board of Education has voted to put Superintendent of Schools Janine Walker Caffrey on paid administrative leave.

Caffrey moved to a seat in the audience following the vote, in which only four members supported the motion.

One member abstained and four others had family conflicts that prevented them from voting.

The vote came after the board president read a list of 22 allegations involving Caffrey.

[...]

Donna Chiera, president of Perth Amboy Federation/AFT which represents all non-administrative employees, said “my issue is the trust and confidence in district leadership has been eroded so much and there is no process in place to fix that.”

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By Julianne Hing
Using plays from the ALEC handbook, Bobby Jindal has transformed public education in Louisiana. But education advocates have deep concerns about who’s going to benefit.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has remade the Louisiana public schools system with impressive speed over the past legislative session. Last week, he signed into law a suite of landmark reform bills that will likely change the direction of public education in Louisiana forever. But not all change is good, and critics say both Jindal’s agenda and the strategy to move it come right from the playbook of conservative advocacy group ALEC, in an effort to revive Jindal’s national political profile.

Louisiana is now home to the nation’s most expansive school voucher program. Charter school authorization powers have been broadened. And teacher tenure policies have been radically transformed. Louisiana already had something of a reputation as a radical-reform state, thanks to the post-Katrina educational climate in New Orleans. But not all change is good, and education advocates have deep concerns about the efficacy of Jindal’s overhaul, and the interests that have push it.

“With these laws Gov. Bobby Jindal has sold our kids out for his political aspirations,” said Karran Royal Harper, a Louisiana parent activist and education advocate.

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OLS report shows how poor districts could get less under Christie’s plan to change formula

By John Mooney

Whether Gov. Chris Christie’s FY 2013 state budget hurts or helps public schools has been an open debate, with today’s Assembly hearing on the budget unlikely to bring any new consensus.

The governor and his administration have said emphatically that the latest budget proposal is a boost to schools, with overall state spending for education seeing a $213 million increase to what the administration maintains is a record high amount for the state.

In its favor, close to 500 districts will see increases next year, easing some of the lingering pain of the last two years and quieting any statewide criticism of the funding plan.

But a budget analysis by nonpartisan legislative staff highlights the ongoing debate in the details of that plan, with questions raised to whether the increases this year and next are masking a longer term shift from the state’s support for especially at-risk students to a funding system favoring wealthier suburban districts.

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Some bonus targets tied to increasing proficiency scores district-wide

By John Mooney

Almost one year into the job, Newark superintendent Cami Anderson and the Christie administration have inked a contract that will pay her $247,500 for this and each of the next two years, plus bonuses of up to nearly $50,000 if she meets a mix of performance targets.

The total amount places her among the highest-paid school administrators in the state, albeit slightly below what her predecessor, Clifford Janey, received to lead the state-run district.

A significant portion of Anderson’s contract, obtained by NJ Spotlight yesterday under an Open Public Records Act request, is tied to merit bonuses contingent on specific student achievement measures and broader judgments about her progress.

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By The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk

JERSEY CITY — Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will speak to a pro-school voucher group next week in Jersey City.

The two New Jersey politicians will be joined by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who will travel to the Garden State only two weeks after the he signed a bill that creates a statewide voucher program that will use tax dollars to send children to private schools.

The American Federation for Children said Monday that Jindal is participating in its 2012 national policy meeting, which is set for May 3 and 4 at the Westin Jersey City Newport in Jersey City.

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By Tom Moran/ The Star-Ledger

It is a sad fact of life of that school reform is often derailed because it threatens the adults who depend on the status quo for power, prestige or jobs. And in Newark, where the schools are the largest employer by far, the push-back is especially strong.

So it is great news that reformers survived an assault by the status quo, taking one of the three seats up for grabs in last week’s school board election. It turns out that parents who want something better for their kids have some political punch as well.

Superintendent Cami Anderson, a bulldozer who is pushing reform with the urgency it demands, will still have a working majority on the board, even if it is narrow and fragile. But here’s the rub: She is going to need help from Steve Adubato, the old-school boss who runs the city’s most effective machine for turning out votes. His crew controls the swing votes on the board.

And Adubato is the sort of fellow who will put one arm around your shoulder, whisper sweet words into your ear and use the other arm to sink a shiv into your ribs.

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Michael Dixon, who has taught math to eighth-graders in New Jersey’s largest city for more than a decade, moved his family to a suburb after a drive-by shooting on their block. With proposals to weaken the protections of tenure and roll back benefits for teachers, he said, an affordable apartment would not be enough to bring him back to the city where he was raised.

“If I was to move here with my family,” he said, “what if they suddenly say: ‘We don’t need you?’”

Newark, like other urban school districts across the country, is desperate to hang onto good teachers.

Across the country, 30 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years. But in urban and low-income districts, the turnover is closer to 50 percent. At last count the Newark schools had almost 90 vacancies.

One issue is that the idealistic young teachers provided through programs such as City Year and Teach for America, who get housing assistance as part of their deals, usually come from elsewhere and often leave after a few years, as soon as their commitments are up.

“Although they do a superb job in filling hard to fill jobs, they only stay for two years,” said Joseph Del Grosso said, president of the Newark teachers union.

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