Tuesday morning the New Jersey Globe published an op-ed by Newark Superintendent Roger Leon called “Newark Invests in Children, Not Soundbites.” Leon is on the defensive, miffed by recent bad press; for instance, legislators on both sides of the aisle are complaining about state aid cuts to many districts while Newark Public Schools (NPS) will operate with a $1.7 billion budget (82% comes from state taxpayers) and he’s getting panned for leasing an elementary school for $500 million, more than any school anywhere. “While I generally don’t dignify baseless accusations with a response,” he writes, “when elected officials continue to spew tired, uninformed, malicious nonsense about Newark Public Schools without facts and without shame, I am compelled to respond.”

Respond he does, using the Globe op-ed to list examples of his resounding success in resuscitating Newark Public Schools. As a public service, here are some corrections to what are, in effect, his own soundbites:

Soundbite: “We have a historic 10-year strategic plan, The Next Decade: 2020–30, and we are executing it with fidelity and seeing results. That’s why people come from across the state, across the nation, and across the world to see how Newark does it. They come to learn, to collaborate, and to witness excellence, not to cast blame like some of our more … fragile legislators.”

Fact: NPS does indeed have a 10-year strategic plan which says “our schools will be equal in quality to the best anywhere and all our students will achieve to their fullest potential.” This was one of the reasons given by the school board for repeatedly renewing Leon’s contract without public input – he has to finish the plan! Here is my review of his plan at the mid-way mark. Or see Chalkbeat, which says recent state standardized test results “showed little change, once again, with the overwhelming majority of Newark students still performing below grade-level proficiency in reading, math, and science.”

Soundbite: “Newark’s graduation rate stands at 90%, the highest in decades.”

Fact: This is called the “graduation gap,” what Chad Aldeman describes as “the growing disconnect between the diplomas states hand out and the preparation those diplomas are supposed to represent.” Think of this gap as an analog to grade inflation where parents take report card grades as gospel instead of objective assessments. NPS’s 90% graduation rate aside, 68% of NPS’s graduates met proficiency standards in reading on the state’s high school graduation assessment and 33% met standards in math— and that’s only because the State Board of Education lowered the cut scores for proficiency. (How do the rest of the students get diplomas? Through numerous loopholes available so NJ can boast of school quality, just like Newark.)

Soundbite: “Among the 78 largest urban districts in the country, Newark has the highest enrollment growth because families are voting with their feet and walking our way.”

Fact: That’s what Leon told attendees at a national school conference. But, reports TAPinto, “Newark schools have 818 fewer students than last year – the first enrollment decline in six years – a figure that came to light from the state-dictated student snapshot data used for the Application for State School Aid late last year.”

Soundbite (in response to many  articles on NPS’s habit of sending large groups of administrators to posh hotels for conferences): “We have never paid for anyone to attend a conference in Hawaii, we do not purchase or serve beer or any type of liquor at district sponsored events.”

Fact: From the Star-Ledger: “During an 8-month period this year, the Newark school district sent staffers to conferences in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando, Atlanta, Palm Springs, Puerto Rico and Honolulu, according to travel expenses approved by the school board and posted online.”

Soundbite: “We do not enter into ‘sketchy land deals or leases.’”

Fact: There has also been much coverage about the district signing a no-bid lease agreement for $500 million for an elementary school that will house 667 students. (This is about three times more than NJ has ever paid for a school building, even a high school.) Julie O’Connor of NJ Spotlight did some digging and found out the builder is Scott Fields, who donated $92,500 to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s failed campaign for governor. Some people call this “pay-to-play.” One wag calculated this comes to $1,500 per student per month, just for facilities.

Jhamar Youngblood, a lifelong Newark resident who is running for mayor, remarked, “you see a $500 million deal like this, and then you see the test scores and the reading and the math levels of our students,” he said. “And you’re just like, why isn’t that money being spent on the actual students, instead of these deals that you guys are making?”

Let’s finish with this one:

Soundbite: “Third graders in Newark read.”

Fact: Except for the 77% of them who don’t. (The state database says 23% of NPS third-graders meet grade-level expectations. Math is slightly better, with 27% of NPS third-graders meeting expectations.)

All this for $1.7 billion a year.