NJ Education Report

Governor Corzine is fighting the perception that his Administration is unwelcoming to charter school expansion. According to New Jersey Newsroom, Corzine visited Community Charter School in Patterson and announced that in 2006 the number of charter schools in N.J. increased by 34% while student enrollment grew by 55%. His declared allegiance to the movement, in fact, is such that he will now expedite the process of approval from 18 months to 11 months.

Clearly he’s feeling some heat from Chris Christie’s steady beat of the charter school tom-tom, plus the perception that he’s been cowed into obeisance by NJEA’s anti-charter stance. In addition, Race To The Top funds are contingent on charter school expansion, or at least elimination of road blocks. Can Corzine have it both ways? Well, it won’t be for lack of trying. He tried a few tentative drum beats in Paterson:

I am proud of the work that is occurring at charter schools in New Jersey, as well as the work on-going in many of our traditional public schools.

Back in 1996,, the N.J. Assembly passed charter school legislation that allowed for the establishment of 135 new charters. Twelve years later we’ve got 68, with less than 1% of N.J.’s 1.3 million kids enrolled and at least 11,000 on waiting lists. Expediting the process is helpful (although the DOE can’t keep up with its current workload). Has Corzine had a death-election conversion?

Well, maybe the number of charter school is down to 67. According to the Courier-Post, Freedom Academy Charter School in Camden has just been ordered by the DOE to pay $415,938 because it neglected to properly advertise for vendors, though the vendors had been approved by the state. Now, there’s been a history of problems with paperwork, much of it linked to former administrator James Esposito, who retired last October. But a fine of half of a million dollars is a deathknell for a charter school, especially since state law allots only 90% of the cost per pupil (the local district keeps the rest) and gives no financial assistance for facilities. Was there a way to keep those kids in a stable environment without sending them back to the morass that’s known as the Camden Public School District? How can Corzine square his charter school hip-hop yesterday in Paterson with the dirge of Freedom Academy Charter School?