Gov. Christie Favors Charter Schools, Ignores Waiver Agreement with U.S. Dept. of Ed.
New Jersey’s governor Chris Christie’s disdain for democracy is notorious. The state of New Jersey has been running the public schools of Newark for 20 years, and referring to the citizens—parents and students—of Newark, Christie declared: “And I don’t care about the community criticism. We run the school district in Newark — not them.” It would appear that Christie is equally cavalier about his promises to Arne Duncan and the U.S. Department of Education. New Jersey’s Department of Education has been ignoring the terms of the state’s No Child Left Behind Waiver—ignoring the program the New Jersey Department of Education’s own staff proposed as the way New Jersey would implement the waiver.
Here is how the National Education Association and the New Jersey Education Association describe the problem in a formal letter of complaint they sent to U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, earlier this week: “(T)he state made extensive commitments to support the turnaround of its lowest-performing Priority schools, primarily through seven new Regional Achievement Centers throughout the state, in exchange for the waiver of many statutory requirements under ESEA (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), including the requirements… related to corrective action for schools failing to make adequate yearly progress, as well as sections… expanding the State’s flexibility in distributing federal funds. The Education Law Center recently alerted the Department that the State has failed to fulfill these commitments in the Newark Public School system. We are writing to inform the Department of even farther-reaching deficiencies in the Camden City School District…. Instead of working to turnaround Priority schools in Camden, the State is seeking to transfer five public schools to private parties to operate as ‘renaissance’ charter schools and to close an additional public school.”
The letter describes a series of supports for struggling schools that were promised in the state’s application for a federal waiver. Regional Achievement Centers were to be established to develop comprehensive individualized school improvement plans for each of New Jersey’s seriously struggling schools. Improvements were to include model curriculum, new tests, Gov. Christie Favors Charter Schools, Ignores Waiver Agreement with U.S. Dept. of Ed. | janresseger: