In Newark, charter schools beef up for political fight | Moran
The failure of urban schools, we are often told, can be traced to the apathy of urban parents when it comes to their children's success in the classroom.
It seems that in Newark, no one got that memo.
Because about 400 parents and their children crammed into the city council's hearing room Monday night, filling the seats and balconies, and overflowing into hallways where they strained to hear.
What drove that kind of passion? A bid by North Star charter schools to build a new K-12 building on an old parking lot in the Central Ward.
"We outnumbered the teachers union by 10-1, and that tells you where the mood of this city is," says Barbara Martinez, a spokeswoman for North Star.
Are charters “sucking the life” out of traditional schools?
This is something entirely new. Until now, the charters have paid little attention to politics. They have served as the city's political punching bag, like the passive kid on the playground who never hits back.
But lately, the charters have been taking vitamins and doing lots of push-ups. With nearly 1 in 3 Newark kids in charter schools now, they have a reserve army of parents, one that grows every year.
And they recently hired a professional political operative, Muhammed Akil, who has built a staff of 20 local people and intends to hire more.
"The growing number does affects the politics," Akil says. "And we intend to weigh in heavily."
This could change Newark's political landscape, just as the state prepares to yield control of the city schools sometime in the next few years.
One impact could be on school elections. The charter schools could finally outmuscle the city's teachers' union, as they did Monday night. North Star's new building was approved by a vote of 8-1.
But the bigger question concerns the charter schools' collision course with Mayor Ras Baraka, who made charter schools a chief target during his election last year and vowsnow to block any further expansion.
Baraka grudgingly concedes that many charters are doing remarkable work. But he says their success comes at the expense of the traditional schools, which lose state aid every time a student moves to a charter.
"It's about 60 percent of the kids we are ignoring because we are so enthralled with these schools," he says. "I have to worry about the kids from every school. I have to make sure one is not sucking the life out of the other.
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Let's look at that argument, first the merits, and then the politics.
Are charters "sucking the life" out of traditional schools? When a child moves to a charter school, state law provides that up to 90 percent of the money follows. The 10 percent is supposed to help the district cover its fixed costs, like buildings.
Baraka says that's not enough, and blames that formula for the cuts at district schools in recent years, which he saw first-hand as a high school principal.
"Ultimately, it's still about resources," he says. "We cut chorus. Then you go to athletic programs. You go into the clubs and newspapers. And after a while, you cut an English teacher, a math teacher, a technology coach."
But are charters really driving that? Trenton has frozen aid to schools across the state, despite built-in cost increases for things like health care and teacher salaries. And the state' makes no allowance for the growing number of students in Newark, which has mushroomed by 10 percent in the last three years.
"That is the core challenge, and it is independent of charter schools," says In Newark, charter schools beef up for political fight | Moran | NJ.com:
