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March 9, 2012Sunday Leftovers
March 11, 2012Education Law Center and Save Our Schools Has a “Moment”
Save Our Schools-NJ has joined forces with Education Law Center to protest proposed cuts in school aid. SOS leader Julia Sass Rubin said, according to the Asbury Park Press,
Underfunding our schools not only shortchanges our children’s future, it also places an increased burden on local communities in the form of higher property taxes and fees.
The two organizations had bonded recently over their opposition to the Urban Hope Act, which permits non-profits to run up to four failing schools in Trenton, Camden, and Newark. Both SOS and ELC argued that the Urban Hope Act was a thinly-veiled get-out-of-jail-free card for an incompetent School Development Authority, the state commission charged with repairing and rebuilding some of NJ’s most decrepit school buildings.
Another bonding experience: the shared betrayal by NJEA, who originally fiercely opposed the Urban Hope Act, but applauded it once the bill was amended to protect teachers’ rights to unionize. (This support is also a sound strategic move on NJEA’s part: it provides convenient cover for its continued opposition to the Opportunity Scholarship Act [the voucher bill] because – hey – NJEA already supports alternative school models with innovative funding mechanisms.)
SOS and ELC share other interests as well: opposition to charter schools (to be fair, SOS would say the antipathy is not towards charter schools but NJ’s charter school laws) and disdain for Gov. Christie and Comm. Cerf. ELC was most recently in the news for Stan Karp’s sharp words o Monday for Sen. Teresa Ruiz’s tenure reform bill at the Senate Education Committee hearing.
About a year ago Stan Karp, a founding member of ELC, wrote an editorial for Rethinking Schools on the conspiracy on the part of “reformy” Obamaites and hedge fund managers to take over public schools. It’s a long piece and I’m on a short leash this morning but here’s his take on the scheme, which he learned about by reading the very reformy Stephen Brill book, “Class Warfare.”
One of the key vehicles for advancing the corporate reform agenda has been the Democrats for Education Reform, or DFER, a political lobby initiated and funded by hedge fund superstar Whitney Tilson. According to Brill, then-Senator Obama was present at the founding meeting of DFER in 2005, which was sponsored by a group of financial and charter school entrepreneurs, some of whom would later become key figures in the coming financial meltdown. DFER was formed explicitly to drive a wedge between Democrats and the two large teacher unions, the NEA and AFT, and to cultivate political support and develop strategies to bring market reform to public education. The fact that Obama won the Democratic nomination by defeating Hillary Clinton, who initially had the backing of both national teachers unions, only strengthened Obama’s ties to the hedge fund/DFER crowd. After Obama won, DFER produced a strategy paper memorably entitled “Bursting the Dam,” in which it described Obama’s election as creating “unprecedented political conditions” for “fundamental reform of public education.
Karp is reassured, though, by some ”hopeful signs” that “the tide is turning against education reform.” The first hopeful sign is the growth of a group called Parents Across America, which strives to “alliance between parents and teachers to defend and improve public education.” SOS-NJ is an affiliate of Parents Across America, so Karp’s admiration for the local group makes perfect sense. It’s always fascinating to ponder the interplay among various interest groups.
Correction: Stan Karp is not a founding member of ELC, but ELC’s Director of Secondary Education.
5 Comments
Laura,
Of course Save Our Schools NJ is opposed to the proposed 2013 budget. It underfunds almost 90% of the school districts in this state by a total of over $715 million.
This brings the State's underfunding of public education to more than $3.6 billion since fiscal year 2010, money that our children will never get back.
Lawrence alone will have lost $5.4 million since 2010 if the Governor's proposed 2013 budget is adopted.
Local communities either have to raise that money through higher property taxes and fees, or they have to continue shortchanging their children's education.
The proposed FY 2013 budget also hits immigrant and low and moderate income children disproportionately, permanently lowering the amount of money their communities receive. This is a group you often write about and seem passionate about,yet this is exactly who will be hurt.
For example, the State has cut $66.9 million from Bayonne's schools since 2010, and the FY 2013 budget would permanently cut their funding by $12.6 million a year going forward. North Bergen, which has lost $66 million since 2010, would see a permanent cut of $11 million.
And these cuts will hurt both traditional public schools and charter schools. In fact, since the majority of charter schools are located in low-income and immigrant communities, they would be disproportionately affected.
This is a reverse Robinhood budget as the money being taken primarily from low income and working class communities would be used to fund an income tax cut that will go mostly to very wealthy residents.
The surprise is not that Save Our Schools NJ opposes the Governor's proposed 2013 budget. The real surprise is why you do not?
Right on, Julia.
Did you mention the excess surplus that was looted in the Governor's first budget? Our district lost over $1 million.
When do we get OUR money back?
Kallikak, Same here. No capital improvements for our school buildings since our surplus was raided by the State.
Laura, you've misrepresented who SOSnj is for how long now?
Basically, your strategy has been when you don't have facts on your side, you've just attacked the messenger instead of the message. It's old. And, the more time that goes by our actions speak way louder than your words.
Care to admit you've been wrong all along and its just getting harder and harder for you to keep up the charades?
It's time to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. If you really support quality education, you need to start speaking out against those who are defunding it. Similarly, If you really want school choice so badly, it's time for you to come out swinging against those in the school choice crowd who are causing it to self-destruct.
“If you don't stand for some something, you will fall for anything,” and girl, you are falling for the Christie rhetoric, hook, line and sinker!
Study after study continues to show that the following measures do not improve student and overall school academic performance: stricter teacher evaluations; state takeover of schools (see Camden and Newark as examples); MORE testing of students (both state required and district required).
School districts must work for the betterment of the schools within their district by fighting WITH teachers, students and parents to take back their schools instead of accepting the state imposed “rubrics.”
Only through consensus-building with all stakeholders–including BOEs, NJEA, administrators, parents and their organizations, and high school students who care about their own education–will change begin to take place.
The State of New Jersey MUST commit to full-funding of all public school districts and must allow for more flexible utilization and procurement of funding at the local level.
Otherwise, how can the requirements of the State for academic performance and teacher performance possibly be realized? New Jersey can continue to stay in the top 5 for public education nation-wide, or it can begin a free fall as a result of disastrous new policies, requirements, and funding cuts.
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