Yesterday Newark Mayor Ras Baraka made a speech outside the Montclair Public Library accusing his fellow gubernatorial candidate Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill of being “tone deaf and completely out of touch” about systemic racism in New Jersey because she cited the decline in reading skills among students. Sherrill lives in Montclair.

Two points jump out:

First, Baraka went to the home of another Democratic gubernatorial contender who also lives in Montclair, NJEA president Sean Spiller, yet didn’t consider him worthy of mention despite union leaders investing $40 million of teacher dues into his campaign. This says a lot about how the Democratic field views Spiller’s chances, even though the polls are tight, Sherrill holding on to a five point lead over Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, with the others (Baraka, Spiller, Congressman Josh Gottheimer) close behind. That’s within the margin of error. (Among Republican candidates, Jack Ciattarelli is 30 points ahead of radio host Bill Spadea.)

Second, Baraka’s criticism of Sherrill (also, to a lesser extent, Fulop) is based on her answer at a candidate forum last week to a question about the racial wealth gap in NJ, which the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice advocacy group says is “staggering,” dwarfing most other states. Sherrill said, as part of her answer, we must focus on “disparities in education in this state…push in better educational programs. That’s high intensity tutoring, especially making sure at the third grade level, that is where we have to have our children reading by third grade.”

Baraka hit back yesterday, “Our congresswoman … says that the wealth gap can be fixed by making sure that third graders know how to read,” he said. “I think that if that was coming from a Republican, it would be considered racist … The wealth gap is created by years and years of discrimination.”

Question: Why is it racist to focus on literacy— particularly third-grade reading proficiency, an indicator of future academic success? After all, those gaps aren’t predestined: Until 2013, according to a Harvard study quoted by Chad Aldeman, U.S. achievement gaps among ethnicities shrunk, including in NJ. Then the U.S. gave up on accountability, waving goodbye to the unforgiving lens of the federal law called No Child Left Behind, and achievement dropped, even before Covid school closures accelerated the decline of student proficiency levels.

Baraka, as a former Newark high school principal, must know there is a correlation between lower test scores and adult economic stability. Stanford economist Eric Hanushek calculates that drops in reading and math proficiency triggered by school closures will lead to 6 percent lower lifetime earnings for U.S. students, which includes the indicators Baraka lists as essential to racial justice: home ownership, healthcare access, procurement, and small-business programs. (Hanushek includes state-by-state projections based on proficiency measured by national test scores. NJ students’ projected earning loss is close to 8%,  higher than  all states except  Oklahoma, Delaware, West Virginia, and Maryland.)

Certainly, racial inequities are complex. And, as Charles Stiles points out in his consideration of the Newark mayor’s speech in Montclair, Baraka believes he will be able to “tap the [NJ Democratic] party’s 800,000-plus voter advantage by embracing bold, left-leaning policies on health care, housing, immigration and LGBTQ issues,” distinguishing himself from more moderate contenders in June’s primary. 

Yet I’m not sure this is the hill Baraka wants to die on. In the district schools in Newark, three out of four students can’t read at grade level, despite a budget of $1.5 billion a year. It doesn’t have to be this way: at Newark’s North Star Academy Charter School, which enrolls a higher percentage of low-income and Black students than the district, 66% of students read at grade level.

Children’s prospects for a successful adulthood is intrinsically linked to their ability to read and do math. Acknowledging this doesn’t preclude the vast impact of structural racism and historical wealth gaps. We know that strong oversight from the state and federal government raises student achievement. In the dismal post-Covid reckoning, let’s not ignore something that works.