Yale Daily News - Brill: Booker and the Brick City:
"It’s time for Cory Booker to step up. I write that not in spite of the Newark mayor’s spectacular accomplishments in his first two years in office, but because of them. The Brick City — resilient, reborn under new leadership — is on the mend. But one project looms untouched, without which urban revitalization cannot be close to complete: mayoral control and reform of Newark’s public schools.
It’s hard to understate the miserable condition of New Jersey’s largest school system. For decades, Newark public schools were severely underfunded, resulting in crumbling schools and underpaid teachers. In 1990, however, funding advocates won a landmark lawsuit in the New Jersey Supreme Court which won billions in new school money. Today, per-pupil spending is $18,000, among the highest of urban school districts."
"It’s time for Cory Booker to step up. I write that not in spite of the Newark mayor’s spectacular accomplishments in his first two years in office, but because of them. The Brick City — resilient, reborn under new leadership — is on the mend. But one project looms untouched, without which urban revitalization cannot be close to complete: mayoral control and reform of Newark’s public schools.
It’s hard to understate the miserable condition of New Jersey’s largest school system. For decades, Newark public schools were severely underfunded, resulting in crumbling schools and underpaid teachers. In 1990, however, funding advocates won a landmark lawsuit in the New Jersey Supreme Court which won billions in new school money. Today, per-pupil spending is $18,000, among the highest of urban school districts."