Professor: Educating New Jersey's impoverished kids costs more
One in a periodic series on efforts to remake New Jersey's education system.
NEW BRUNSWICK — A scholar who studies and blogs about education finance says improving the state's urban schools will take more money — and that merit pay is not likely to help.
Bruce Baker, an associate professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, spoke with The Associated Press for an occasional series of interviews on public education reform in New Jersey.
Baker's work is more often cited by those skeptical about the so-called reform movement in education. He's skeptical about whether students' standardized test scores should be incorporated into decisions about which teachers should be laid off and which should make more money. Those are among ideas promoted by President Obama, Gov. Chris Christie and New Jersey Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.
Baker, a former middle-school science teacher and tennis coach, has done research funded in part by teachers unions. But he's also quick to point out that he once did consulting work for Texas Gov. Rick