Ex-Tweedie and District 79 teacher destroyer, Cami Anderson, the State appointed Superintendent who now heads the Newark Public Schools (NPS) has proposed a plan to dismantle the City's Public School System. She calls this the "One Newark Plan". The proposed plan closes schools, lays off teachers, adds charter schools, and sell off school property. No where in her "One Newark Plan"does it talk about concrete strategies to improve student outcomes but of course, the idea is to save money not improve student academic achievement.
Ms. Anderson's "One Newark Plan" would allow NPS to lay off 700 teachers, many of the"quality teachers" while adding up to 300 Teach For America (TFA) "newbies"to replace them. You think money is an issue here? Interestingly, in the "One Newark Plan" it talks about having more"quality teachers"in the classroom. However TFA "newbies"are not considered "highly qualified teachers"as defined by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Yes, its about the money! The only thing standing in the way is that Ms. Anderson needs a State waiver to layoff the 700 teachers. Unfortunately, the State Commissioner is another ex-Tweedie and fellow ed deformer Christopher Cerf. Therefore, there is a strong chance that the State will approve the waiver and seniority based layoffs will be overridden by the waiver.
Cami Anderson's "One Newark Plan" is to reshape the Newark schools to the ill-fated and failing New Orleans model. Meaning that most of the schools will end up as charter schools and many public schools that close down that are not used as charter schools will be sold to real estate interests.
The "One Newark Plan" is simply an "education on the cheap" policy that will do nothing to improve student academic outcomes and with "unqualified newbie teachers" can actually hurt student academic. achievement. When ed deformers take charge of a school system they implement policies that don't improve classroom instruction but try to impose questionable programs that don't seem to work. When this happens they blame teachers,school administrators, and union rules while never being held accountable for their own failures.
Children first? Not when ed deformers like Cami Anderson are put in charge of school systems since their primary concern is to run the school system as a business and ignore the very real social-economic factors, like poverty, The result are lean school budgets,"unqualified teachers", and programs that don't work in the classroom. Does anyone really think that improves student academic achievement? I don't, how about you?
For more information on the Newark Schools go to the Bob Braum's Ledger blog. Another Blog of interest about the Newark schools isJersey Jazzman