Break a kid’s heart? Who cares?
Newark’s school superintendent, Cami Anderson, yesterday shrugged off the political embarrassment she dumped on Gov. Chris Christie—a national champion of education?–and stubbornly pushed her deeply flawed and unpopular “One Newark” plan. In a letter whirling with spin, Anderson tried to skip over the reality that thousands of city children and their parents were disappointed.
The letter just came a day after Ras Baraka, an outspoken opponent of the plan, handily beat a pro-Anderson opponent who had access to millions of dollars in pro-charter school money in a hotly contested mayoral election. Millionaires from California’s Silicon Valley to New York City’s Wall Street tried to save Shavar Jeffries’s mayoral ambitions but the poison represented by “One Newark” was just too toxic.
And the letter came just one day before non-tenured teachers are likely to receive layoff notices. Today. Unless, of course, they are Teach for America recruits or charter school teachers. They skate.
More than 10 percent of all families got no matches at all despite following the rules of the so-called “Universal Application” plan that will help Anderson realize her ultimate goal—the replacement of neighborhood public schools with privately-Break a kid’s heart? Who cares? | Bob Braun's Ledger: