Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, October 27, 2012

UPDATE: Jersey Jazzman: Local Control of Schools: It's a White People Thing

Jersey Jazzman: Local Control of Schools: It's a White People Thing:


Local Control of Schools: It's a White People Thing

Banned Halloween Costumes
Longtime readers know I've been chronicling the sordid tale of Perth Amboy's schools for the past year. Superintendent Janine Caffrey, the Queen of Tenure, has been waging a public war through the press with her school board. For her part, Caffrey has leveled ethics charges against members of the board. All this has taken place against a backdrop of corporate reforminess and a nasty mayoral election.

As I've said all along: I don't know who is in the right here. But in this interview, board member Israel Varelamakes a valid point:
School board member Israel Varela has charged Republican Gov. Chris Christie and his state education commissioner with a bigoted attack on local control over the city’s public education system, arguing that the state never overturned a hiring or firing decision except in the predominantly Hispanic community, where a majority of elected representatives voted to fire a neoconservative administrator. 
“Janine Caffrey filed bogus ethics against her bosses because she was held accountable for reckless remarks about our teaching staff, unauthorized expenditures and other 

And in related news: 


Former Powell Chief of Staff: ‘My party is full of racists’


Former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told Ed Schultz of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” on Friday that the Republican Party is “full of racists,” and that the main reason most Republicans want President Barack Obama to lose the election to former Gov....