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Friday, January 11, 2013

Jersey Jazzman: Newark Parents Fight School Closings

Jersey Jazzman: Newark Parents Fight School Closings:


Newark Parents Fight School Closings

I've just received a copy of a remarkable letter from a parent group in Newark: Parents Unified for Local School Education (PULSE). The letter is reprinted below; here's the story:

Newark, like so many other urban districts, just went through a round of neighborhood school closings. The pattern seems to be the same in every city: an autocratic mayor or a conservative governor comes in and disenfranchises the local citizens (see New York City, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, etc.).

A regime of charter schools is set up, segregating the children by language, disability, socio-economic status, and, yes, even race. Outsiders then begin a propaganda campaign, convincing both the citizens of the city and the media-at-large that they are offering parents "choice," even though that "choice" is between under-funded, crumbling neighborhood public schools and charters that may have more resources but also impose a rigid and authoritarian learning style on their students.

Inevitably, parents and other concerned members of the community start standing up and demanding that their