OPINION: WHAT'S GOOD FOR OUR TEACHERS IS GOOD FOR OUR STUDENTS
Attempts to deprecate or demonize teachers when they stand up for themselves are bad for our kids' education
Why is teaching the only profession in New Jersey (and the nation) where employees are criticized for standing up for themselves?
In Newark, the teachers union has decried a plan, proposed by State Superintendent Cami Anderson, to bypass laws requiring the use of seniority in layoffs. Considering the NTU just ratified a contract in 2012 that included unprecedented provisions for merit pay and teacher evaluation, the Newark Teachers Union felt blindsided by Anderson’s request for a waiver from seniority laws.
Her response?
An op-ed in the Huffington Post that chides her critics for criticizing what she describes as “. . . bold proposals that challenge sacred cows -- and adult interests embedded in the status quo.”
In other words: Anderson thinks it’s wrong for Newark’s teachers to demand that the laws that protect the interests of educators in other districts apply to them as well, because standing up for themselves perpetuates a “status quo” harmful to children.
New Jersey’s former Education Commissioner Chris Cerf was also given to making oblique statements that took teachers and their unions to task when they advocated for themselves. Cerf saw himself as a crusader who stood up against those who “… focus on adult interests at the expense of children’s interests.”
MAYORAL RIVALS FIND COMMON FOE IN STATE CONTROL OF NEWARK SCHOOLS
Both candidates promise to pose challenges for state’s new education commissioner
- Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka
Even thought they hold no legal authority over the public schools, Newark’s mayors through the years have never been shy about expressing their views – and exerting their considerable influence – over the state’s largest school district.
This spring’s contentious race between mayoral candidates Ras Baraka and Shavar Jeffries is proving to be no exception, with the state of the schools at the center of the campaign in many ways.
Baraka, a city councilman and principal of the city’s Central High School, has drawn some of his biggest support from those opposed to the state’s ongoing control of the school district and, specifically, the leadership of Superintendent Cami Anderson, who was appointed by Gov. Chris Christie three years ago.
Jeffries, a Seton Hall law professor and former assistant state attorney general, comes from the school-reform camp that Baraka opposes and was among the founding board members of the city’s largest charter school network.
But in the weeks leading up to the May 13 vote, where it has gotten especially interesting is that a common ground has emerged in the candidates’ views of the state’s operation of the city’s schools and Anderson’s leadership.
- Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries
Jefferies, a former chair of the School