A Good Charter Approval Process = Good Charter Schools. Check Out the Videos!

Leave a comment

As New Jersey halts all charter school expansion in order to “study” our 23-year-old charter school law (call it a pause, call it a moratorium, call it a pander to NJEA/Save Our Schools-NJ/Education Law Center), the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has just put out some information relevant to our…well, whatever you want to call it. “For years, we’ve known that good authorizing leads to great charter schools, not just for a few …

What the Heck Is Going on at the DOE’s Special Education Division? Or, Some (Verified) Leaks from the Inside.

2 Comments

Ever since I published this post (and this follow-up) recapping layoffs of 40 people from the New Jersey Department of Education, a process a manager there described  as callous” and “sloppily done,”  I occasionally receive information from former and current employees who report on dysfunction, disarray, and deteriorating morale. I read their comments gratefully (if sadly) but don’t considering posting unless I can verify with a second reliable source. After all, these are people’s lives. …

Jasmine Morrison, Newark parent: “With Rigor Comes Endless Possibilities!”

Leave a comment

In the interest of giving NJ Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet and Gov. Murphy some (unsolicited) help in their Charter School Program Act Review (which, according to the web page, has closed off registration for community focus groups), I’ve been interviewing some parents about their public school experiences, both traditional and charter. This is an interview with Jasmine Morrison. You can see the first interview here. Scroll to the bottom for a video! Laura: Jasmine, as a …

Tafshier Cosby-Thomas: “Parents are Making Choices for Their Children. Why Would Anyone Get in the Way of That?”

One Comment

Last week I had the opportunity to interview long-time Newark resident Tafshier Cosby-Thomas on her experiences with the city’s public schools: traditional, magnet, and charter. While Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet, under instructions from Governor Phil Murphy, takes a “pause” on authorizing charter expansion in order to conduct his “review,” let’s pierce the smog of special interests and politicking around this hot-button issue and actually talk to parents whose children’s educational trajectory rides on decisions made …

Just Picture These Scholars Tomorrow! KIPP Joins with District Schools To Celebrate Future Heroes

Leave a comment

Yesterday KIPP Seek Academy students enjoyed a Halloween parade with children from two district schools, George Washington Carver Elementary and Bruce Street School. But this was not your typical Halloween celebration! Instead of ghosts and goblins, 1,100 children dressed in costumes that represented their hopes and dreams for the future. According to KIPP, spectators caught a glimpse of “our future police officers, doctors, teachers and even Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Astronaut Mae Jemison.” After the …

NJ Department of Education Watch: Another One Bites the Dust

Leave a comment

Friday morning I put up a post that describes five ways that the New Jersey Department of Education is undermined by questionable hires and actions. These incidents appear to be panders to special interests by Governor Murphy and/or Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet, resulting in a DOE bereft of transparency, moral integrity, and effectiveness. The majority of these actions are personnel appointments. I should have waited until Friday afternoon to publish the post because there’s now …

Five Ways That New Jersey’s Education System Is Being Undermined

One Comment

Sue me. I was an English major. When I think about the state of the Murphy Administration’s Department of Education, a host of literary allusions sweeps over me: Faust selling his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for power; Dionysus gifting Midas with the golden touch, thus cursing him with starvation; Macbeth’s moral compass eclipsed by blind ambition. Okay.  I’m being melodramatic. Yet let us look at five ways in which the Governor’s tendency to pander …

Do Gov. Murphy and Ed. Comm. Repollet Have What it Takes to Put Education Over Politics?

One Comment

“We parents filled that room last night and our voices were heard on why we LOVE our Public Charter schools!” That’s Paterson parent Ashley Lauren describing the vibrant atmosphere at the NJ Department of Education’s first of five stops on its Charter School Program Outreach 2018 Calendar. With almost no notice (the dates for focus groups were announced on Thursday, October 11th and the Paterson meeting was the following Tuesday) and at a parent-unfriendly time …

Something Farshtunkene* in Lakewood

One Comment

When news broke last year that the FBI raided homes of 26 Lakewood ultra-Orthodox residents on charges of wrongfully collecting Medicaid, food stamps, SNAP, and SSI benefits, as well as evading property taxes that fund schools and municipal activities (see here), New Jersey Comptroller Philip J. Degnan issued a statement that said participants must make “full restitution of all improperly received funds.” Unless, that is, if you’re a Lakewood Board of Education member. Or maybe just …

Oops. New Jersey DOE Leaders Just Made a Mistake.

Leave a comment

On October 12, last Friday,  Assistant Education Commissioner Linda Eno sent a letter to all “Chief School Administrators, Charter School and Renaissance School Project Leads,” copied to Commissioner Lamont Repollet. The letter, entitled “Spring 2019 State Assessment Name, Length and Time Changes,”  describes the differences between last year’s administration of standardized tests to those that will be given this coming Spring. There’s just one problem. The information shared with school leaders is wrong. Two weeks ago …