Jersey Jazzman: What's REALLY Happening In Newark's Schools?

Jersey Jazzman: What's REALLY Happening In Newark's Schools?:

What's REALLY Happening In Newark's Schools?

by Duke

I've already written about Tom Moran's pig-headed view of Newark's charter schools, as demonstrated in his op-ed piece in Sunday's Star-Ledger.

Let me address something else from the article:

This council has a long history of crazy behavior. It pays itself the highest council salaries in the state, and each member is entitled to a free car, as well. One councilman compared the charter school movement to the Tuskegee experiments when black men were secretly infected with syphilis to study the progress of the disease. When a council meeting last year broke down in chaos, police had to spray mace to restore order. [emphases mine]

First of all, black men were NOT secretly infected with syphilis in the Tuskegee experiment; they already had syphilis, and were left untreated. This is a myth that has been repeated by prominent people many times.

The idea that "police had to spray mace to restore order" is not something everyone at the meeting would agree with. That aside, Moran doesn't mention why some council members were upset: they felt Mayor Cory Booker was pulling a fast one in a literal back-room deal. I'm no expert on Newark's politics, so I'm not about to say Booker was in the wrong. But the notion that things only get heated in Newark politics because everyone involved, save Booker, is "crazy" strikes me as more than a little paternalistic.

There is a common notion floating around the punditocracy that the state of New Jersey has been forced to act