We All Stand Together! Statewide Advocates Turn Out To Support Newark Public Schools
It was a great honor to participate in yesterday's NJ Ed March, which brought together education advocates from all over the state, a fact the Star-Ledger failed to mention, instead choosing only to report that "(s)everal hundred Newark parents, teachers, students and community activists rallied in Trenton." The event was intended to highlight the resistance to the haphazard One Newark plan, to lend support to those pushing back against Cami Anderson and Chris Christie, and to bring the message directly to Trenton.
Hundreds heeded the call on a blustery, cold, not-very-Spring-like day. The districts I personally saw represented were too numerous to list, but included both urban and suburban districts from all corners of the state, from District Factor Group A to I. The Ledger's failure to report this part of the story is, quite frankly, irresponsible.
Hundreds heeded the call on a blustery, cold, not-very-Spring-like day. The districts I personally saw represented were too numerous to list, but included both urban and suburban districts from all corners of the state, from District Factor Group A to I. The Ledger's failure to report this part of the story is, quite frankly, irresponsible.
I want to tell you a story about why it was so important to me to be there to support the people of Newark as they fight back against the top-down edict that is One Newark.
Back in 2012 my district was riding high after putting the brakes on a charter that seemed destined to open its doors. The charter would have decimated our small budget, but the application had the support of the USDOE in the form of a $600,000 federal grant. My community staged a massive pushback campaign, including a Town Hall style meeting and a subsequent Occupy the DOE event when NJDOE staff, including then Commissioner Cerf, refused to participate in our Town Hall. We got tons of state, local and even national press coverage, which put much needed pressure in all the right places. Without the publicity drawing attention to our plight the outcry of my community was being ignored by the NJDOE.
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| Yup, I was so blown away to be there I asked Diane to autograph the flyer as a momento. |
After it was all over and the application was denied for the final time I was still hooked. I kept blogging, I kept advocating; the immediate threat to my district may have been over but the education reform threat was still very real all across New Jersey. I felt obligated to use what I had learned to help other communities and to lend my voice to the fight.
In May of 2012 I was asked to participate in an Education Law Center panel with Diane