Trenton must ignore NJEA on school choice
June 8, 2008
Editorial
The Courier-Post
N.J. should launch pilot program to allow 4,000 kids from eight poor communities the chance to escape their failing schools.
There’s an old saying about the definition of insanity — how it’s insane to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
That’s the course of logic the state’s largest teachers’ union — the New Jersey Education Association — and its president — Joyce Powell — apparently follow in their incredibly misguided opposition to a proposal in Trenton to finally give 4,000 kids in eight poor communities scholarships to go to better schools and get real educations that might give them a chance to escape a life of poverty.
State lawmakers should ignore the NJEA and give kids in failing schools the option of going to successful private schools.
For years, our state has poured billions of dollars into poor, urban school districts hoping upon hope that, eventually, the money would turn things around and lead to markedly improved schools and a better education for our state’s poorest students.
Well, as anyone who has looked at the student-performance data from Camden, Newark and other such school districts over time knows, doing the same thing has not led to a better education for the majority of kids in these cities. Kids are still coming out of those districts woefully lacking in basic skills such as the ability to read and write well enough to attend college.
So it’s encouraging that, after years of futile efforts to rescue the schools, a small effort is being pursued to actually rescue the kids, at least 4,000 of them. Quite a novel idea.
On May 8, the state Senate Economic Growth Committee, approved S-1607, a bill that would, under a five-year pilot program, give $6,000 grants to 4,000 poor children to attend another public or private school. Business groups, which support the bill, would fund the scholarships through donations that count as tax credits. The scholarships would be available to children in Camden, Elizabeth, Lakewood, Newark, Orange, Paterson, Trenton and Jersey City.
Trapped
These are urban communities where incredibly poor, mostly minority kids are trapped in horrible, failing schools where violence and bullying are the norm, where many of the buildings are crumbling and where graduation rates and test scores are low.
The state constitution says every child in New Jersey is entitled to a quality education, yet most students in these communities aren’t getting what they’re entitled to.
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June 15th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Where can I get an application or information about this for my child?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I am a graduate of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and I am currently teaching physical education at Trenton Community Charter School (TCCS) where the students are hopeless by the 2nd grade. They do not listen, follow directions, or respect the personal safety of classmates. This is of no fault of their own. I am fully aware of socioeconomics and every excuse that the urban community and liberals have to offer… SOME of which is true. However, I feel that it IS NOT the school systems that are failing our students. It is the parents of the students that are knowingly, or unknowingly, failing the school systems. For example, a physical educator at TCCS may have up to 200+ students and only 6 parents attend back to school nights and parent/teacher conferences. Who is to blame for the parents lack of concern? I agree that we should not continue to dish out money hand-over-fist to these inner city schools because it has obviously done nothing. However, I do not feel it is the responsibility of the tax payers to accomodate for the lack of parenting.
Facts are facts.. it is the year 2009 and the fact that education is paramount has been established for years, yet the urban community is content with having teen parents (some 8th graders already have children) and other detrimental cultural aspects engraved into their society. Yet this site condones the usage of tax payers money to send these inner city children to disrupt successful schools. I have a suggestion that may solve this problem. Instead of sending 4,000+ inner city students to the suburbs to succeed, the state/national government should use money to educate parents on the importance of education, school safety, and proper etiquette. Also, the government should enforce mandatory parent/teacher conferences in order for the child to attend school (public or private). They can do this by having the parent or gardian sign a contract making their participation mandatory. If they do not show concern for the education of their child, then the parents will have to be forced to pay tuition, similarly those who attend successful private schools. This will be an incentive to dicipline and teach their child right from wrong.
The previously mentioned actions of the Trenton students are of no fault of their own. Their actions have been taught to them by their parents (or lack-there-of) and by the society they live in. The sad thing is that many believe that the students need these savage skills of fighting, cursing, and misbehavior to “survive in the streets.” Well, in order to succeed in the “real” world, these skills are unnecessary and unwanted. To repeat my previous statement; IT IS NOT OUR SCHOOL SYSTEMS THAT ARE FAILING… WE (they) ARE FAILING OUR SCHOOL SYSTEMS.