Braun: Newark Mayor Cory Booker's $1M school reform 'outreach' initiative is a waste
Published: Thursday, November 04, 2010, 6:35 AM Updated: Thursday, November 04, 2010, 6:58 AM
Newark Mayor Cory Booker speaks to reporters to announce the Partnership for Education in Newark called "PENewark" during a press conference at a former furniture store, located on Market Street in Newark on Monday.NEWARK — If you had a million dollars to spend on Newark’s public schools, how would you use it?
More teachers? Tutors? New books? Advanced classroom technology?
No, the correct answer — to the city’s mayor, at least — is "relentless outreach."
Relentless outreach means spending a million asking everyone in town—yes, everyone, including "neighborhood nannies" and those in homeless shelters — what their "values and principles" are so a report can be written that someday might — might — include those values and principles in drafting a reform plan for public schools.