egREGIouS Behavior

NOW Amir Khan can't comment?

"We understand persecution, and you just push forward through every obstacle," said Khan, who declined to explain the church's decision to stop fighting the eviction. "We're not going away. Our church is about to celebrate 20 years in ministry and we're going stronger than ever before."

What impact the move could have on Khan's charter ambition is unclear. Khan said he still planned to open Regis, which would be a secular public institution, in time for the coming school year. He declined to say where it would be.

A New Jersey Department of Education spokesman said Thursday that Regis planned to locate in the former Living Faith Christian Academy on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill and that state officials had recently inspected the facility.

"I want to be careful. I can't comment on that," Khan said when asked about the property. (emphasis mine)

Oh, and what a coincidence!  The owner of the "new facility," Living Faith Ministries, wouldn't comment either!

So what are the terms established between Amir Khan and Living Faith Ministries, the owner of the property?

Maybe the DOE knows, but the public sure doesn't!

Check out the Regis Board Meeting Minutes from the June 21st meeting.  Amir Khan reported: 

Solid Rock WC has received mortgage approval 
and 

the State preparedness visit has been re-scheduled for 6/27/12 at 2:00 PM 

So, six days before the preparedness visit at a PUBLIC MEETING Amir Khan, PRESIDENT of the Board of Trustees conveniently FORGOT to mention where that visit would take place?  

This is all very, very fishy.

Courier Post reporter Jim Walsh wrote that

Solid Rock has faced an eviction lawsuit from Holy Eucharist Parish of Cherry Hill, the property’s owner. The dispute’s status could not be determined Thursday.

That's odd, because community activists had no problem uncovering the following details:

• June 15th a "warrant for removal" was issued
• June 15th a lawyer for Solid Rock Worship Center tried to get an emergency stoppage of the removal.
• June 25th the warrant was given to a court officer which would lock them out of the property
• July 13th court date set for a motion to reinstate

These details were confirmed with Camden Diocese spokesman Peter Feuerherd.

When Amir Khan "reported," to his Board of Trustees and the PUBLIC that he had a mortgage and the preparedness visit date had been changed, he had to know that he was about to be locked out.

District officials and community members have been alerting the Office of Charter Schools for months that eviction proceedings were underway.  How that office saw fit to move forward with a preparedness visit on a facility that seems to have materialized out of thin air, is beyond me.  

Amir Khan and the NJDOE need to release the terms of Amir Khan's "deal" with the owners of the former Living Faith Christian Academy, and they need to release them NOW! 

Oh dear, we wouldn't want to interrupt Amir Khan's vacation though...

But Thursday, Khan remained upbeat, saying he was on vacation with his wife and trying to relax ahead of the state's decision about whether the charter could open in two months' time.

"Like everyone else, we just have to sit and wait," he said.

I can assure you Pastor Khan, the community activists and district officials that have been involved in this mess since you received your approval will not sit and wait.  

They will demand transparency of you and the NJDOE.  

Facing Eviction, Regis Finds New Facility While Districts Are Kept In The Dark.

My friend Jersey Jazzman mapped out the districts the Regis Academy says their students will come from and posited that Regis doesn't really seem to be offering much to warrant schlepping kids from a 50 mile radius.  


I hate to be the one to tell him, but he needs to redraw his map.


Seems that Regis, facing eviction from their current facility where Amir Khan also houses his church, Solid Rock Worchip Center, as well as many other ventures, has found themselves a new facility!  


How did the districts find out about the change of facility?  


It must have been at a Regis Board of Trustees Meeting, right?  Concerned citizens have attended EVERY meeting, to stay abreast of any big happenings.  After all, public dollars will be spent to educate Regis students, so the public has a right to have a say in how that money is spent.  


WRONG!  


There has been no mention of the change of facility at ANY Regis Meeting.  In fact, their website still uses the original address for the facility the Camden Diocese is evicting them from!

Well, then Amir Khan must have broke the news in the press!  He seems to LOVE talking to the press, even when the chips are down!


WRONG!


Just recently, perhaps even in the last few days, Amir Khan told WHYY reporter Jen Howard that he had struck a deal with the Diocese! 

Well, then the NJDOE must have let the districts know before they conducted that preparedness visit last week, which included a tour of the facility!  

WRONG!

In fact, unbeknownst to the districts, the preparedness visit was conducted at the NEW facility!



The districts found out when the address on the transportation requests they received from Regis did not match the address of the facility.  


Classic.


Here are the new supposed digs:

The biggest problem with this is simple.  If Regis can't afford the property they currently occupy, and Amir Khan was very clear that he needed the income from the charter to pay the bills, what makes the DOE think they can afford this property?  

Numerous concerned citizens have been emailing the Office of Charter Schools and Acting Commissioner Cerf trying to tell them that there are MASSIVE problems with this charter, but their cries are falling on deaf ears.  Jeanine Martin, interviewed in the WHYY piece, hand delivered her concerns, and those of almost 2,500 petition signers, to the NJDOE last week.  

Jeanine attempted to set up a meeting with Amy Ruck, Director of the Charter School Office, to deliver the materials in person, but of course, she was not granted a meeting and had to deliver her materials to the mailroom.

The NJDOE is totally out of control.  They are allowing unproven charter operators to run rampant, taking tax dollars from districts with little but empty promises of innovation in return.  

If Regis Academy is granted a final charter on July 15th, ostensibly allowing them to use taxpayer dollars to keep themselves afloat, EVERY New Jersey taxpayer should be OUTRAGED.

Newark Charter School Fund: What Role Do They Play In The Newark Charter School Takeover?

NJ Spotlight, the Star Ledger and Jersey Jazzman have all covered the "news" that Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson overruled the vote of the ELECTED Advisory Board to reject Anderson's plan to lease district school buildings to charters.  


Chairperson of the Advisory Board, Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, spoke with NJ Spotlight. 

The chairman of the local board last night was very critical of the decision.

“The board members took this issue of leasing very, very seriously,” said Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, recently elected as the board’s chairman. “At this point, what has happened is that the democratic rights of the voters we represent have been totally disrespected.”  (Emphasis mine)

Jersey Jazzman has already done a great job showing how outrageous it is that the Newark public schools are caught in a Chinese finger trap where no matter how hard they may struggle to get free of the state, the state's hold on the district only gets tighter.  

Jersey Jazzman also pointed out how unsurprising it is that Newark Mayor Corey Booker jumped behind Anderson's decision, using the same tired lines as Cerf, Anderson, and every other reformer in the state about "creating high-quality school options."  

I guess it doesn't sound as good to come right out and say they are privatizing public education.

But wait!  There is another voice in the choir singing the praises of "high-quality school options!"  

Let's take a look at the quotes from Newark Charter School Fund CEO Mashea Ashton in both the NJ Spotlight and Star Ledger pieces.   

(For the record, John Mooney and Jessica Calefati didn't reach out to her to get quotes, she put out a press release.  Here it is in it's entirety.)

Mashea Ashton, the CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund, issued the following statement regarding Newark School's Superintendent Cami Anderson's decision to veto the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board's vote on charter school leases. 

"Superintendent Cami Anderson should be applauded for making the tough decision to veto the school advisory board. Her decision to approve charter leases will expand the number of high quality public school options for all Newark students.

"Although the superintendent in Newark has the power to veto the advisory board, we believe this power should be exercised judiciously. In this case, it was without a doubt the right decision. It does not make sense for the district to maintain half-empty buildings while high-performing charters as well as new charters poised for breakthrough results cannot find space in the city to educate Newark children.

"What has become lost in this debate is that charter schools are public schools, funded with public dollars, educating the same Newark children as traditional district schools. It's time to put politics aside and move forward with this plan that will benefit all students in Newark."

Time to put politics aside!?!  More like time to put local control aside and force districts under state control to step aside while charters take over.  

So, who is Mashea Ashton?

Mashea Ashton is the CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund, having joined the organization as a partner in February 2009. Before joining NCSF, Mashea served as the Executive Director for the New York Program and Senior Advisor for Charter School Policy for New Leaders for New Schools. Mashea has also served as the Executive Director for Charter Schools for the New York City Department of Education, the National Director of Recruitment and Selection for the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), and as a special education teacher in Williamsburg, VA and Washington, DC.  (Emphasis mine)

That puts Ms. Ashton at the NYC DOE at the same time as Acting Commissioner Cerf for at least a year, if not more.  No big surprise that they are both advocates of charters taking over public schools since this practice is rampant in NYC.  

And what is the Newark Charter School Fund?  John Mooney describes it as "an advocacy and funding group for the city’s burgeoning charter school network," but let's take a peek at their website and see where their funding comes from.

NCSF was started with $18 million from national education foundations. NCSF’s founding sponsors — Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, The Robertson Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation — each contributed $4 million in the spring of 2008 to establish NCSF. NCSF expects to raise an additional $2 million in national funding and to close out its initial funding base at $20 million. NCSF’s initial funding base will probably be dispersed over the next three to four years in support of Newark’s charter school sector.  (Emphasis mine)

Yeah, but Senator Ron Rice is a conspiracy theorist when he says that Newark's schools are being privatized.  They are pretty clear here that the money from the Billionaire Boys Club is to benefit the "charter school sector," not ALL of Newarks students.  But above Ms. Ashton claims that Anderson's plan will "benefit ALL students in Newark."  I think the folks in Chester Upland would beg to differ that the unchecked spread of charters is good for ALL students.

The district’s fiscal woes are the product of a toxic brew of budget cuts, mismanagement and the area’s poverty. Its problems are compounded by the Chester Community Charter School, a nonprofit institution that is managed by a for-profit company and that now educates nearly half of the district’s students.

The district sees the charter as a vampire, sucking up more than its fair share of scarce resources. The state, it says, is giving the charter priority over the district. 

“It’s not competition, it’s just draining resources from the district,” said Catherine Smith, a principal at Columbus Elementary, a district school. “It’s a charter school on steroids.” (Emphasis mine)

And I would contend that, with the convergence of the reform money pouring into the Newark Charter School Fund, the political clout of Mayor Booker, and the audacity and unaccountability of Acting Commissioner Cerf and his protege Cami Anderson, Newark's charters are poised to take over Newark in very short order.  

We all need to get behind the people of Newark to help get their voices heard. 

And fast.

The Final (Charter) Countdown

And the saga continues...

Let's break this one down a little:

Jeanine Martin of Voorhees isn't wild about public education dollars going to a church-run charter school. 

"We live in Voorhees because of the school system," said Martin. 

The mother of three has collected almost 2,500 signatures urging the Education Department to block Regis from opening.  Martin says she doesn't want her school to cut corners just so a new charter can open. 

"When Regis was approved, Voorhees was told to set aside $2 million of its budget for kids that may want to go to this Charter school. So, we knew that that was going to cut teachers and services," said Martin. "There's no way they could cover their costs and educate our kids to the way that they have."

Voorhees was asked to set aside 2M.  So how many kids from Voorhees have actually enrolled?  

TWELVE.

Does anyone else see how messed up this is?  Why are charters not forced to do surveys BEFORE they even submit their application?  If the parents in Voorhees had been asked if they were interested in this charter they could have said, "Yeah, no thanks, we're good."  They could have saved the district, and Voorhees parents like Jeanine Martin a lot of time and aggravation and the Department of Education a LOT of embarrassment.  


But Amir Khan can spin just about any situation. 


Solid Rock Pastor Amir Khan says his kids and grand kids attend Voorhees schools, too. But just because schools are high-performing doesn't mean they're for everyone.  

"We believe that one size doesn't fit. We believe that every parent should be able to have school choice," said Khan. "There is room for growth, there is room for innovation. We don't believe that public schools should be a monopoly." 

Well, clearly Pastor Khan has his reformy talking points down, but how exactly is Regis Academy going to provide "room for growth" and "room for innovation?"

Rev. Amir Khan, the controversial head of the Solid Rock Worship Center, says students at Regis Academy will receive their own Sprint tablet. Every classroom will be equipped with Blackboard, a multi-media learning platform more prevalent in colleges than elementary schools.
"We believe we can bring innovation and technology to children starting in kindergarten,” says Khan, who ran a telecommunications company, among other entrepreneurial ventures, before becoming a pastor. "There are ways advanced technology can be taught in basic formats to make it very interesting, such as opening up devices to see how they communicate from one phone to another or opening up computers to see how they establish a network.”  (emphasis mine)  

Seriously?  This is the best example he can come up with to explain how Regis will "bring innovation and technology to children?"

Clearly Regis wasn't able to sell this to the families of Voorhees, so where are the kids coming from?  According to the chart above, it is taking 33 districts to fill the seats at Regis Academy (up from 25 at last count).  And currently the most kids are coming from Lindenwold, where Geraldine Carroll is the Superintendent.  

Lindenwold was not a part of the Regis application, so Ms. Carroll had no way to know her students would even attend this charter.  But if Regis' enrollment numbers are correct, and Regis is awarded their final charter, her district could be out almost 500K.  

Check out this video about Ms. Carroll, who was recently named South Jersey Superintendent of the year.

Ms. Carroll has worked to get grants so that Lindenwold students can have access to a Smart Board in every classroom, document cameras, laptops, iPads, iPods, digital cameras, digital video cameras, and instant responders, and technology has been integrated cohesively into the curriculum. 

And Regis will take tax dollars from Lindenwold public schools so that students at Regis can... take apart their Sprint tablets to "see how they communicate?"

And don't miss this...

Solid Rock is also involved in a dispute that could lead to it being evicted from the building it rents from the Catholic Diocese of Camden. But Khan says a deal with the Diocese has been struck, and will settle in the next few weeks.   

A decision from the Department of Education is due by July 15th.

I will hopefully have more on this soon, but not for nothing, the NJDOE did their walkthrough of Regis' facility last week, and all documentation was due to the Office of Charter Schools by June 30.  If eviction proceedings were underway when the NJDOE did their walkthrough and may not be resolved before decisions are made on final charters on July 15th, how can the DOE even consider giving Regis their final charter, even if a "deal with the Diocese has been struck?"

Remind me how this charter got approved in the first place?

Regis was one of only four charters approved in September of 2011, and this application round was hailed by the NJDOE as a "rigorous review process" and was held up as an example of the best practices in the nation!

This year, the Charter Schools Office continued to improve the application evaluation to align with national best practices identified by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). This included setting clear benchmarks around predictors of school success including a research-based academic program with a proven history, experienced school operators, high expectations for all students, a well-rounded board of trustees, and a strong capacity to implement program elements. These components, along with a number of others, were reviewed through a several stage process including an intensive interview with the evaluation committee.  NACSA also provided the Department with national charter experts to serve on the review committees in line with NACSA best practices.

Well guys, you all did a bang up job on this one...

If Regis Needs Students From 25 Districts To Open, Should It?

Remember back in February when Amir Khan was bragging at a Regis Academy Board of Trustees Meeting that he could take kids from Hoboken if he wanted to because the NJDOE had allowed him to expand his districts?  A couple weeks later the NJDOE told the Courier Post that Regis was NOT given permission to expand their districts.  For a minute there it looked like Regis would actually have to fill the majority of their seats with kids from the districts they were actually approved to serve.  Imagine that!

Fast forward to June and it's crunch time.  The NJDOE is doing their walk through of Regis' facility in the next couple of weeks, and all of the final paperwork is due to the NJDOE by June 30th.  Acting Commissioner Cerf will decide if Regis gets it's final charter on July 15th.

At a Board of Trustees meeting tonight Regis claimed to have 267 students enrolled, and this is also the number Khan cites in an article in today's South Jersey Sun.  On June 8th however Christian Barnes, Regis Lead Person/Principal/Founder, confirmed enrollment of just 187 students and provided a breakdown.  

Guess how many districts those students were being pulled from?  25.  That's right, 25.  And how many of those students are from the original four sending districts?  Only 78, or 42%.  Here's the breakdown.

This brings me back to the old adage trotted out over and over and over again by Carlos Perez of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association.  That parents will "vote with their feet."

 A charter school that fills up with students is one that was wanted by the community.

So if it takes 25 districts to fill a charter school, can we assume it wasn't wanted or needed?  Looks like the parents in Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Somerdale and Lawnside DID vote with their feet.  


But the NJDOE let Regis stuff the ballot box.  

Regis needed to fill 250 seats in grades K-4.  So just for fun, lets look at how many kids are in Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Somerdale and Lawnside schools in K-5, and see how many have chosen Regis Academy.

Less than 1% of the students in Cherry Hill and Voorhees have chosen Regis, and only 4% in Somerdale.  But the numbers for Lawnside are alarming.  29 students may seem insignificant, but that's 21% of Lawnside's students in Grades K-5.

This brings up a very troublesome issue.  The NJDOE is supposed to consider the segregative effect a charter will have on a district before they grant a final charter.  Lawnside's student population is predominantly African-American.  In the 2010/2011 school year the district had 283 students in total, and 94% were African-American.  The town of Lawnside claims to be "the first independent self-governing African-American community north of the Mason-Dixon line."  


Why would the NJDOE allow Regis to take over 10% of the total population of this historic district?  


I noted back in February that Regis did not fill out the demographic information on the enrollment data submitted to the NJDOE.  I have since received enrollment data via OPRA on 11 other pending charters, and EVERY SINGLE ONE includes the required demographic information.  Only Regis failed to submit this information.

Why??

There certainly seems to be reason to be concerned that Regis is enrolling primarily African-American students.  Are they trying to hide this by not submitting the demographic information?

These are issues the NJDOE should carefully consider before granting Regis their final charter.  Regis needs to produce the demographic information on the students they have enrolled.  If they are indeed pulling primarily African-American students out of the traditional public schools, the segregative effect this will have on the sending districts must be explored.

The NJDOE also needs to carefully consider the potentially disastrous effect Regis may have on the Lawnside school district.

These are just two of the many, many issues I hope to highlight between now and July 15th when Acting Commissioner Cerf makes his decision on Regis.

Ready Or Not NJ, Here Come The Virtual Charters!

Looks like Pennsylvania has caught on:

Under the law that brought charter schools to Pennsylvania in 1997, charters and cyber charters receive funds from school districts based on the district's own per-student spending. Because there are 500 school districts, there are 500 different rates.

And cyber charters - which enroll students from across the state - receive the same amount as traditional charter schools that operate buildings. Cybers also receive wildly different per-pupil amounts.

For example, a cyber charter received an average of $16,915 for each Montgomery County student who enrolled in 2010-11 and $6,752 for one from Schuylkill County. (emphasis mine)

17K per student for a virtual education?? So let's think about this a bit.  

Cyber charters have very little overhead as there is no need for a "brick and mortar" facility to house the students and the student teacher ratio can be higher because students are working at home, either on their own or with a parent/guardian.

But how high is the ratio?

Teachers have had to take on more and more students, relaxing rigor and achievement along the way, according to interviews. While teachers do not have the burden of a full day of classes, they field questions from families, monitor students’ progress and review and grade schoolwork. Complaints about low pay and high class loads — with some high school teachers managing more than 250 students — have prompted a unionization battle at Agora, which has offices in Wayne, Pa. (emphasis mine)

Whoa.  

So where is all that money going? 

K12 Inc., which will be operating four of the five cyber charters slated to open in New Jersey this fall, reported in their 2011 proxy statement that they experienced revenue growth from $384.5M to $522.4M, an increase of 35.9%.  And in 2011 CEO Ron Packard earned over $5M in salary, stock awards, and other compensation, and the companies four other named executives earned an additional $2.6M combined.  

So these guys have clearly proven they can make a lot of money on virtual charters.  But have they proven that students can excel in a virtual environment?

A Stanford University group, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, tracked students in eight virtual schools in Pennsylvania, including Agora, comparing them with similar students in regular schools. The study found that “in every subgroup, with significant effects, cyber charter performance is lower.”

Devora Davis, the center’s research manager, said the group’s analysis of Pennsylvania online schools showed that students were slipping. “If they were paired with a traditional public schools student, the public school student kept their place in line, and the cyberstudent moved back five spots,” she said.

So why is this happening?  Why are for-profit companies allowed to make buckets of money off of kids who aren't learning?  A snippet from a K12 Inc. Earnings Conference call with wall street analysts may shed some light on why in 2011 K12 Inc.'s enrollment increased across the country by 45.7% from 67,878 to 98,890.

Amy Junker - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. — Analyst And then are — do Obama and Duncan, are they distinguishing at all between for-profit versus not-for-profit? Or do they seem not to care? 

Ron Packard - K12 Inc. — CEO

I have not seen that distinction by either one of those two individuals. And I think it should be noted that our hybrid school in Chicago was — you know, we worked very closely with now Secretary Duncan then Superintendent of Chicago Schools to open that school. So my experience with Secretary Duncan is that he wants solutions that work for children. And it doesn’t matter to him whether it comes — whether it’s provided by a private provider or by a not-for-profit or by district. (emphasis mine)

Arne strikes yet another blow against public education.  Has he not noticed that virtual charters are NOT working for children or does he just not care?  

Assemblyman Diegnan, one of the great defenders of public education in New Jersey, is trying to bring some sanity to this state and put the brakes on virtuals, at least until the legislature has a chance to review the issue thoroughly.  (crazy, I know!)  He introduced a bill last week that would put a 12 month moratorium on virtual charters, and establish The Virtual Charter School Task Force.  Here are the highlights of the bill: 

Following the bill's effective date, the Commissioner of Education will not be allowed to approve any application for the establishment of a virtual charter school for a period of 12 months while a task force is created to investigate and develop recommendations for the structure governing virtual charter school education in New Jersey.

The Virtual Charter School Task Force would consist of 9 members, three appointed by the Governor, three by the Senate President, and three by the Assembly Speaker.

The task force's recommendations must address: statutory and regulatory authority for the operation of virtual charter schools; part-time and full-time virtual charter schools; non-profit and for-profit virtual charter schools; parental involvement requirements; financial management systems; guidelines for Internet-based technology for classes; and guidelines for the performance of virtual charter schools.

Let's hope cooler heads prevail and this is brought before the full Assembly and Senate as well.  If not, you can bet years from now we will be in the same spot as Pennsylvania, with for-profit virtual charters draining millions of tax dollars with very little to show in student achievement.


UPDATE!  The full Assembly has approved the virtual moratorium bill!  


“There are far too many unanswered questions in terms of whether this teaching method is effective for both educational development and social growth,” Vainieri Huttle said in a statement.  


Let's hope we get some fast action in the Senate...

The Christie Administration's Weapon Of Choice

Matt Katz has written several pieces lately about the Government Records Council (GRC), and how he has been unable to get documents related to the Governor's press release recipient list.  Hardly seems like it should be highly classified information, but Katz's Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request was denied.  He appealed, and it was brought before the GRC.  


And who is one of only four members of the GRC?  None other than your friend and mine, Acting Commissioner of Education, Chris Cerf.

How has the GRC voted on appeals?  44-0.  Wanna bet whether they voted in favor of the administration or the good people of New Jersey?  Let's just say Matt Katz was one of the 44.  

So if I want to appeal the redaction of emails between Tikun Olam lead founder Sharon Akman and Acting Commissioner Cerf that I received via OPRA, I have to appeal that decision to Cerf himself.  


Well that seems fair.  

Here are the emails I received:  

Akman Emails Requesting Cerf Meeting

If you notice any response back to Sharon Akman is redacted.  Did Akman get the meeting she requested?  Did the federal grant give her application magical powers?  We'll never know.  I emailed the Acting Commissioner directly asking him to release the emails and, big surprise, I never got a response.  


Just for fun, here's the email too:  
Please Release Redacted Emails

I greatly appreciated how Katz illuminated the lack of government transparency under this administration.  But when I saw the picture attached to one of Katz's pieces, I have to admit, I became more than a bit distracted.  

I immediately flashed on Christopher Walken in the Fat Boy Slim video for the song "Weapon of Choice" and imagined that, like Walken, Christie started dancing with abandon right after this shot was taken.  


Here's the video.  Watch it, and you'll understand why I became so distracted.  

As I watched the video, it hit me.  At every turn, the Christie Administration undercuts the people of New Jersey (Matt Katz demonstrated that perfectly) as well as the New Jersey Legislature.  Here's a couple examples of how this administration is attempting to cut the legislature off at the knees. 


Department of Environmental Protection attempts to waive regulations based on 40 years of legislation.

Department of Education attempts to rewrite charter school regulations based on the Charter School Program Act of 1995.


If you haven't already, join the almost 4,000 folks letting Acting Commissioner Cerf, the Governor, the State Board of Education and the legislature know that we will not sit silently by while these changes are pushed through.


http://www.change.org/petitions/reject-destructive-changes-to-new-jersey-s-charter-school-regulations

In these proposed regulatory changes are a couple of doozies that will pave the way for virtual charter schools, which clearly were never envisioned by the legislature in 1995.  


Nonetheless, the Acting Commissioner will decide on July 15th whether to grant final approval to no less than FIVE virtual charter schools that are already recruiting students and are just waiting to open their, um... doors (?) in September.  


Assemblyman Diegnan got a virtual charter moratorium bill out of the Assembly Education Committee last week, but if it doesn't get any further the Department of Education will open virtual charter schools with no regulations or legislation to monitor their operations.  That job will be left to discredited for-profit online content providers and an unaccountable Department of Education.  


Fabulous.


Just another example of the Christie Administration and Acting Commissioner doing as they please, to hell with the people of New Jersey and their representatives.  


The Christie Administration's Weapon of Choice?  


Autocracy.