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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Jersey Jazzman: California Billionaires Mostly Fail in Perth Amboy

Jersey Jazzman: California Billionaires Mostly Fail in Perth Amboy:


California Billionaires Mostly Fail in Perth Amboy

As I reported last week, a group of wealthy Californians and Coloradans - many affiliated with Rocketship Education, a charter management company - poured a ton of money into the Perth Amboy, NJ school board race. How they decided on Perth Amboy, a district 3,000 miles away, remains a mystery.

The tens of thousands of dollars they spent got them one seat in the small city, even though they backed four candidates on the "Better Schools Now!" ticket. Another seat was won by a member of the rival "New Vision, New Voices" slate; the other two seats were retained by incumbents.

Incumbent board president Samuel Lebreault, however, lost his seat. Lebreault was one of the chief critics of the controversial superintendent Janine Caffrey; whether the new board will chose to allow her to finish out her