QOD: Suburban Parents Need to Get Their Heads Out of the Sand
May 10, 2016New York’s Love Affair with Standardized Testing (as long as you call them Regents)
May 12, 2016New Column at The 74 on Newark’s April Surprise and the Rise of Charter School Parent Power
It starts here:
New Jersey may be the Garden State, but don’t think you’ll find any country bumpkins in Newark, the state’s largest city with a school district that enrolls 44,000 children. Every Newarkian knows that mayors, city councilmen, and ward operators control municipal elections, including the three seats up this year for the nine-member School Advisory Board (SAB). Consequently, voter-turnout rates on school board candidate election days typically hover at a sparse 7 percent; residents know it’s not their vote that truly matters.
But the April 19th school board election three weeks ago was different because “an army of charter parents” found their voice — and started speaking as one.
Read the rest here.
