A Eulogy for Public Education Part l: Why is the NJ State Board of Ed Using Napalm to Cut the Grass?
Along with approximately 50 other education professionals from the New Jersey Education Association, members of the Newark Teachers Union (AFT-NJ), and parents and other concerned citizens, I attended a lobby day at the State Board of Education last Wednesday—Chris Cerf’s last day as state education commissioner.
In certain ways it was like a funeral. While passionate, articulate, well-educated speakers delivered anecdotes of excellence in teaching, and the joy, inspiration and enthusiasm that go along with it, there were many harrowing, absurd, and truly heartbreaking stories of what public education has devolved into under Cerf’s fiefdom.
NJEA delivered a binder to each board member filled with over 1,000 letters from teachers across the state. Many educators brought more letters with them from co-workers who couldn’t attend. Two rooms were set up for testimony. I was assigned to the smaller of the two where 36 speakers had registered. At 5 minutes each, they were easily looking at 3 hours of testimony.
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Binders full of letters
The following are quotes pulled from copies of testimony and/or letters. They are posted anonymously because, contrary to popular belief, tenure does not mean a job for life. Teachers can and do get targeted by administrators with an ax to grind. Almost every person who sent me their testimony asked me not to use their name. Reading through all the text has been emotionally draining.
“South Brunswick was not too long ago considered a ‘lighthouse’ district by the state of NJ - a beacon, an example for other districts to