Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny
Gov. Chris Christie and his powerful Democratic allies–most notably US Sen. Cory Booker and South Jersey political boss George Norcross–promote charter and voucher schools as a way of avoiding the two most pressing problems facing urban public education: Chronic underfunding of the state school aid formula and oppressive racial isolation. By favoring charter schools that can help a few students, Christie, Booker, and Norcross never have to face the problem of providing all children with the constitutionally required level of schooling that is their birthright.
Charter schools are politically powerful and receive enormous amounts of private funding from both Democratic and Republican sources. Because of that political support, they have been able to avoid the kind of intense regulatory scrutiny that in imposed on public schools, especially in places like Newark and other state-controlled districts. They also receive preferential funding, including a shameful diversion of an additional $37 million in public school funding diverted to charter schools this year alone.
Christie and Booker want to make Newark the charter capital of the nation. Recently, in a deal with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the Republican governor agreed to remove the much-despised Newark superintendent, Cami Anderson, and replace her with former state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, a nationally-recognized champion of charter schools. Baraka has said he accepted to this “settlement” because Christie promised to bring local control to Newark after 20 years of state mismanagement. The nature of that return to local control, h0wever, depends on a 9-member committee, headed by Cerf, that is dominated by pro-charter Christie allies. The agreement raises the question whether, in return for local control, Newark will become what Christie and Booker want–a charter school district.
On Monday, a subcommittee of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Schools, held a hearing on whether charter schools should be held to the same level of accountability as public schools. Charter school proponent–backed by the state–are resisting a proposal to require charters to under the same QSAC Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny | Bob Braun's Ledger:
