GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger

GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger:

GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to Newark

By JONATHAN ALSTON

Chris Cerf Must Not Become the Next Superintendent of Newark’s Public Schools: He has Already Exploited Us Enough

(Editor’s Note: Mr. Alston calls this the “polite” version of his incomparable analysis of what is going on in the Newark schools. He has reserved what he calls an “emotionally honest” version for his own blog, The Newark Teacher,  at http://newarkteacher.blogspot.com/2015/07/chris-cerf-must-not-be-next.html.

I respect that–but want my readers to know I wanted to publish the “emotionally honest” version and would never censor this brilliant voice from the Newark community.)

 Fanon realized that colonialism was a crime scene with evidence everywhere, admission nowhere, and the “authorities” were guilty parties.
- Lewis Gordon, @lewgord

Dear NJ State Board of Education:

Part I
The State Board of Education should unflinchingly reject Governor Chris Christie’s nominee for the next Superintendent of Newark’s public schools. Former NJ Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf has a history of underfunding, dismantling, and making money off of the very institution he now wants to now lead.

Like a parody of a shifty, racist politician from the 1950s, Chris Christie went from blatantly saying that he would not let Newark govern itself, to promoting an ugly, dishonest process that will ensure that -on education – Newark will never govern itself. If the State Board of Education is even mildly sincere about the importance of local control, then it must today work directly with the locally elected school board to select Newark’s next school leader.

In response to growing media coverage of wide spread protests and anger, Governor Chris Christie removed Cami Anderson as Superintendent of Newark’s public schools and started a commission to pretend that he was interested in local control. His commission is rigged to make Newark into a New Orleans style charter district. If the governor cared about starting a process to lead to local control, he would have suggested educators on his commission instead of making the committee’s deciding majority business people and charter school proponents.

If the governor cared at all about our children, he would have nominated an educator to be the next superintendent of Newark’s public schools. Instead of an educator, Chris Christie nominated a questionable business man, better known for GUEST: A gifted city teacher says Cerf must never come to Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger: