Newark activists to feds: Help us achieve genuine community schools
Just days after state-imposed schools superintendent Christopher Cerf and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced a joint, top-down program with the holders of what’s left of Mark Zuckerberg’s money to develop “community” schools in the city’s South Ward, a grass-roots organization based in the ward with a national focus–Parents United for Local School Education (PULSE-NJ)–wrote to federal education secretary Arne Duncan to demand he help ensure genuine community schools are established. PULSE-NJ has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the state administration. PULSE-NJ’s letter follows:
Dear Secretary Duncan:
As you prepare to leave office after seven years, you are likely using your last few days to tie up loose ends and reflect on your tenure as the Secretary of Education for the United States of America. Perhaps you are even looking on your years with pride, and congratulating yourself for accomplishments. We are not sure if you have a performance review, but because you are charged to serve those in America’s public education system, we would like to provide you with a review of the effects your education policies have had on the people of Newark, New Jersey.
As parents in Newark, we would be remiss if we did not specifically speak to the devastating effects of policies like Race to the Top. Unfortunately, our children and community will be experiencing the residual effects of these policies for generations to come. The policies you supported caused harm in our community and your education experiment caused long-term trauma for our children.
The policies you supported caused harm in our community and your education experiment caused long-term trauma for our children.
A Newark parent stated, “Our children are anxiety-ridden. They have seen their neighborhood schools close down, and they do not know if the school they are currently attending will remain open. The children have had a hard time adjusting to new neighborhoods, new teachers and administrators. We try to calm their constant anxiety, but many of our children have been moved around two or three times and have seen the closures of the schools in their neighborhood. The lack of stability has contributed to the adverse childhood experiences of our children. This is how we define trauma.” There is plenty of research to support that the prevalence of traumatic life experiences in the first 18 years of a person’s life impacts not only brain development, but their overall well-being in their later years.
Marginalized people in our country have been stripped of their agency, voice, dignity, and humanity. The state-sponsored and inflicted trauma on our people continues on through our education system.
In many ways, we should not be surprised. This is how we have come to know our United States of America; a country that experiments on its most marginalized, particularly Black, Native American, and Latino people. From the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, to the Contraceptive Trials of Puerto Rico, to the Indian Schools that Newark activists to feds: Help us achieve genuine community schools | Bob Braun's Ledger:
