The Battle For Local School Control
The education debate in New Jersey is increasingly becoming a debate about local control of schools. Governor Christie and ACTING Education Commissioner Cerf's emphasis on standardized testing, charter schools, and tenure reform are top-down policy edicts that take more and more authority away from local districts and put it into the hands of Trenton.
What's emerged over the last year in response is a true grassroots resistance to the imposition of corporate "reform." Boards of education, parents, teachers, and concerned citizens are coming together in an effort to stop the destruction of New Jersey's outstanding public school system through state-wide fiat. Some examples:
- This week, Cami Anderson, Newark's Superintendent of Schools, was literally booed off the stage when she announced the closing of several "failing" schools.
Anderson attempted to bring her blueprint for school reform to parents and community leaders at