NJ Education Report

The anti-charter school/Christie/Common Core/NCLB/etc. group, “DEFEAT NJ BULLIES,” is engaging in a feud with AFT President Randi Weingarten. Latest tweet from Ms. Weingarten:

@rweingarten: Sorry @DefeatNJBullies even I am done w/your rants.You marginalize what are imp sentiments w/the lack of civility.”

Speaking of feuds, the Perth Amboy School Board tried to pass a resolution prohibiting Superintendent Janine Caffrey from various superintendent activities (investigating new educational programs, overseeing staff, etc.) but the motion failed by one vote.

When I was 10, my mother was killed. Shortly thereafter, my father abandoned my family. My grandmother took me in and put me in after-school programs run by the Boys & Girls Club of Newark, where I received academic, social and emotional support that she could not provide by herself. These programs helped change my life and put me on a path where, as a taxpayer, law teacher, elected official and former senior executive in the state Attorney General’s Office.

The Star-Ledger investigates the Adelaide Sanford Charter School in Newark, where the state has spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars to lease the James Street building over the past 16 months [while] the children were being educated somewhere else.” Editorial here.

A leading school labor leader Thursday compared public education to the auto industry and warned about 700 northern Illinois school board members that unless labor and management stopped fighting and worked together to improve education, American parents would turn to private schools much as car buyers have turned to foreign markets.

“We can`t make the same mistake and management have to make significant changes, significant sacrifices to keep public education alive. Tinkering will no longer help.“

Thursday he repeated his calls for making teaching “a true profession,“ and said that wouldn`t happen as long as teaching was looked at as “an occupation you went into if you were stupid.“

“We have to give teachers respect and allow them to make some decisions about how they will do their jobs. We aren`t going to get bright college graduates to go into teaching, even if we pay then high salaries, if they don`t feel they can use their talents and skills with some degree of independence.“

 The source? A 1985 Chicago Tribune article on Albert Shanker, President of the AFT.