Star-Ledger abandons Newark. Again.
The Star-Ledger will soon leave Newark, making the city one of the few metropolitan centers in the nation not to have even one daily newspaper. But, in truth, the newspaper already has abandoned Newark and there is no better proof than its shameful endorsement of Shavar Jeffries for mayor. Jeffries, as The Star-Ledger’s editorial board well knows, is the creature both of Wall Street money and the worst kind of slime politics, the kind of politics that has made New Jersey infamous throughout the nation. Jeffries is the candidate of George Norcross, the South Jersey political boss, and John Mack, the former chairman of the board of Morgan Stanley. Now he is the candidate of the fleeing Star-Ledger. He is not the candidate of the people of Newark.The endorsement certainly is no surprise because Jeffries is close to, and supports, Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of schools, and, like The Star-Ledger, Jeffries endorses her cruel “One Newark” plan for disassembling public education in the city by closing neighborhood schools and launching new, privatized charter schools.
The newspaper continues to be held in an embarrassing, almost adolescent, thrall by Anderson who, today, the very day the editorial appeared, broke yet another promise to the beleaguered parents of the city, the promise that they would know what schools their children would attend by this week. Her plan–a gift to privatized charter schools favored by Wall Street–closes neighborhood schools and disperses students throughout the city. And this in a city without an extensive school transportation system. If The Star-Ledger was paying attention to what was happening inStar-Ledger abandons Newark. Again. | Bob Braun's Ledger:
