Much Ado About Nothing…. If You Consider the Corporate Takeover of Public Education Nothing, Then I Guess You're Right Ms. Waters!

Below is my comment on the opinion piece posted today on NJ Spotlight by Ms. Laura Waters, President of the Lawrence Township School Board.  I have emailed John Mooney numerous times to ask why he continues to give voice to the weak arguments presented by Ms. Waters.  I won't bother this time.  Instead, I kind of want to thank him for the opportunity to bring everyone together to take her on.  It's kind of cool how everyone came together to debunk her opinions.  The comments today from so many people were just stellar. 


And don't miss Jersey Jazzman's blog response.  In classic Jersey Jazzman style it makes you think and laugh at the same time.  


Here's my take on it.  


Is there any point where a district can do anything other than roll over and allow a charter to set up shop in your opinion, Ms. Waters? Highland Park has been fighting Tikun Olam pre-approval, South Brunswick, Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro have been fighting post approval, but prior to the final charter being granted, and East Brunswick is fighting Hatikvah post approval. 

At NO POINT in this process is the local district or community allowed access to the NJDOE as they are deciding on a charter that will siphon hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars out of it's budget. Districts are not granted meetings without significant pressure. In our case it took a Town Hall, Occupying the NJDOE and a NY Times article in order to be able to make our case directly to the NJDOE. Without these extraordinary measures the ONLY RECOURSE a district has is to submit written responses. Districts have every right to have these responses drafted by their district council. If a charter is approved against the wishes of a district, they are also entitled to appeal, which is also handled by a lawyer.

Do you not see that these written responses and appeals are the only way districts can make their case to the NJDOE, but when they do they risk lawsuits from charters claiming they are wasting district resources? Not only that, but in the case of PIACS, the New Jersey Charter School Association threw their weight and money behind the suit as well. Oh wait, I mean the Walton Foundation's money that keeps the NJCSA in business. How silly of me.

And by the way, Walton is a major funder of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools whose report you mention in your piece. Oh, and the National Alliance of Charter School Authorizers, too. And all three organizations, all bought and paid for by Walton etal. testify before the Senate Education Committee to push for the legislation that will give even more advantages to charters and even less to districts. Oh, and lets not forget that NACSA is also advising the NJDOE on their application process and paying for the reviewers. And we only know this because of OPRA requests and lawsuits from lawyers and Senators. But, yeah, you're right. Much ado about nothing...

So HELL YEAH. We are fighting back. Get used to it Ms. Waters. We're not going away either. I doubt we have scared the NJDOE and Governor out of the suburbs entirely, and even if we have we will fight them in the urban districts as well if those district don't want more charters. 

Ms. Waters, I have asked this of you before and you have failed to answer me. What in the world will you do if a charter application is dropped on the desk of the superintendent in Lawrence Township? Do you honestly think the MAJORITY of parents and residents there would be any happier than those in East Brunswick, Highland Park, or any of the districts facing PIACS? How will you respond to them when they come before your board to ask what you will do to protect the budget they vote on year after year? 

Until the day you are in that position Ms. Waters, I can't imagine how you feel so entitled to pass judgement on districts that are faced with not only the loss of funds that charters represent, but have to fight special interests that are connected to both the legislature AND the NJDOE.


I'll try to come back to this post later and add links and stuff, but I am a mom after all.  Need to go feed the troops...

Sorry Mr. Brown, but I gotta DIS your opinion piece

I have a thought or two about Neil Brown's guest opinion column.

I am disappointed by what is said by many of those who will establish recently approved charters. When asked what is special about their school’s program, they often say something like: “We plan to hire high-quality teachers and have longer hours.” My former students would call that a “duh” statement — their fancy term for a tautology.

All too often, proposed schools seem more like boutiques, catering to communities that demonstrate neither much need nor broad demand, while so many other communities are desperate for truly innovative schools. Rarely is anything proposed that is innovative or experimental, which circumvents the original charter school legislation’s intent. 


I am much more than disappointed Mr. Brown.  That the boutique charters getting approved are not "special" is the tip of the iceberg.  


In an earlier post I shared my Senate Education Committee testimony.  I was truly disheartened  to be steam rolled by lobbyists in crisp suits with shiny brochures as I and other parents from across the state tried to explain to the Education Committee the effect the current legislation is having on our districts. All of the lobbyists against the legislation Save Our Schools NJ is fighting for are bought and paid for by big foundations like the Walton Foundation whose "core strategy is to infuse competitive pressure into America’s K-12 education system."  While this may not have been the initial intention of charter legislation, that's who is impacting the legislative agenda now.


If you are truly paying attention to what's happening with charter schools in New Jersey you can't help but be genuinely dismayed.  Please see my previous post about the for profit charter operator already getting a foothold in New Jersey.  Please also read the numerous letters here and here and here from increasingly frustrated superintendents tired of receiving huge bills for charters they feel are not warranted in their districts.  The other common themes are that local district and community wishes are ignored in the application process, and real problems with applications are being ignored too in the NJDOE's charter approval process.  Did you know that in the last round paid national consultants led teams of NJDOE employees in reviewing applications?  Of course this was only revealed after a lawsuit and several OPRA requests.  


Are you seeing the pattern? The same national lobbyists that are pushing for legislation are reviewing the applications.  Gee, that just doesn't seem right now does it?


And this is your best argument against local control legislation that will take these decisions away from national lobbyists with corporate agendas and put the power back in the hands of the people of New Jersey?

Unless residents are privy to a proposed school’s mission statement and curriculum, how can they possibly make an informed decision? They can’t. Given our traditionally low voter turnout, the problem is compounded. 

You don't think voters could grasp the mission of a proposed charter yet they can vote on multi-million dollar budgets?  And why do residents have to be privy to the curriculum?  In the current application process a completed curriculum isn't even a requirement.  If the Acting Commissioner doesn't need to see the schools curriculum before giving a school the thumbs up or down, why is this a reasonable argument against the voters getting to decide?  And if low voter turnout is one of your reasons, hell, why do we vote on anything?  You definitely need stronger arguments here Mr. Brown.

Local control legislation sounds a lot more reasonable than a system where the Acting Commissioner gets to make the decisions but the districts and taxpayers get to foot the bills.  You don't find THAT disappointing? 

The more than 4,200 people that signed the Save Our School NJ petition for local control are distressed that not only do they have no say in how their district's money is being spent, they are almost entirely shut out of the application process.  

The charter proposal you are working on for homeless children and children of incarcerated parents sounds noble, but why shouldn't district schools have the funding and ability to service these children without taking much needed funding away from the rest of the children that will be left behind in the district schools?  

And while I agree that the state should reevaluate the original intent of the charter school law, it is abundantly clear that the players with money and influence have no intention of time traveling back to 1995.  Our state is on an entirely different trajectory.  

Disillusioning, isn't it?