It is only 100 days into Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s tenure and we have no idea to what degree the New Jersey Education Association will control her educational agenda as it did Gov. Murphy’s. But there is hope: Apparently she didn’t consult with NJEA leaders on her selection of Lily Laux as Education Commissioner and she seems aware of the downsides of unbridled local control.

As such, she has a chance to show she prioritizes children over politics by finding ways to offer families educational alternatives when they are relegated to low-performing districts. One way is expanding New Jersey’s highly-regarded public charter school sector, held to far higher standards than traditional public schools.

So let’s talk about public charter schools, specifically the ones that sit in the backyard of the Statehouse. Trenton Public Schools (TPS) is one of the most dysfunctional and low-performing districts in the state. In 2018 the 74 published an article called “In the Shadow of New Jersey’s State Capital, Trenton’s Forgotten Schools Struggle to Get Better on Their Own”; they haven’t: A few months ago Julie O’Connor wrote for NJ Spotlight, “in a class of 24 Trenton third graders, the chances are that only three can read adequately. Four can do math on grade level.”

You know where Trenton kids have a chance? At one of the seven charter schools in the city that serve over 4,000 students. Here’s a minor point: taxpayers pay $4,400 less per Trenton charter school pupil than the $24,083 per student in the traditional district. Here is a major one: students who win the lottery to get into Trenton’s public charters (there are almost 3,000 kids on wait lists) get a shot at beating the odds.

Let’s look at one Trenton charter, Paul Robeson Charter School, which was designated a “Lighthouse District,” the NJ Department of Education’s highest honor. You won’t find all student academic growth and achievement data on the DOE’s School Performance Reports because they redact percentages below 10% but, if you have the patience to wade through Excel spreadsheets, you’ll find it here. (Hey, DOE, a little more accessibility/transparency, please?)

Just a few comparisons to keep this brief:

• At Trenton Public Schools, 8% of fourth graders meet expectations in reading and 5% do in math.
• At Paul Robeson, 47% of fourth graders meet expectations in reading and 36% do in math.
• At Trenton Public Schools, 34% of students are chronically absent.
• At Paul Robeson, 5% of students are chronically absent.
• Trenton Public Schools fails all state and federal accountability targets.
• Paul Robeson meets all state and federal accountability targets.

If you were a parent in Trenton, where would you send your child?

If TPS were a charter, the state would have shut it down long ago.

Gov. Sherrill and Commissioner Laux seem serious about improving NJ’s public education sector — said the Governor in an interview, “We can’t keep spending all this money on schools and not getting better results.” If their focus is on academic success they’ll ignore Trenton’s chapter of NJEA (“charter schools have resulted in gaps in learning, impeding the academic progress of black and brown children in urban districts like Trenton”) and listen to Trenton parents desperate for better options for their kids.

On final note: Last year Paul Robeson completed construction on a brand-new building that will house 750 students. The total cost was $35 million. In comparison, the Newark School Board and superintendent Roger Leon just got lots of press for leasing a school building for 667 kids that will cost $500 million. Seems relevant as NJ seeks more muscular academic and fiscal oversight of the state school system so that children, regardless of where they live, learn to read and do math.