How Hespe and Anderson scammed Newark’s children to help charter school friends
New Jersey and local school officials have been involved in a conspiracy to evade laws governing the operation of charter schools in order to allow the wholesale “charterization” of public schools in Newark, the state’s largest city. State Education Commissioner David Hespe allowed the city’s charter schools to ignore legally-mandated lotteries while, at the same time, he secretly amended the charters of those privatized schools as an after-the-fact method of justifying the elimination of lotteries.
Amending those charters, according to documents obtained by this site, occurred long after Cami Anderson, the state-imposed school superintendent, required parents throughout Newark to apply for placement of their children through a so-called “Universal Enrollment.” The plan, at the time she demanded parents follow it, was illegal because it did not require a random selection process for charter schools.
Although the law and regulations may appear to be complicated, this much is clearly true: In February of this year, when Anderson required parents to sign up for the “One Newark” plan–leading to the charterization of the city’s schools–all charter schools in the city were bound by law and regulation to provide a random admissions process. The “One Newark” plan is NOT a random admissions process, as Anderson herself has admitted. It is based on a “secret” and privately-funded algorithm she will not reveal–but one she admits favors certain groups over others, a clear violation of the law and regulations.
The requirement that the process be random unquestionably continued to be in effect even after Anderson began How Hespe and Anderson scammed Newark’s children to help charter school friends | Bob Braun's Ledger: