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Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
Wed May 14, 2014, 08:36 AM May 2014

Charter School Industry Loses Another One: Ras Baraka Is Mayor Of Newark

Which means they are down but not out. They lost in NYC by 73% to 23% but purchased sufficient influence in Albany to keep it goin' anyway. ( "It" means privatization.) We'll see what happens in Newark.

From enotesonline: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2014/05/major-defeat-for-ed-deform-ras-baraka.html

>>>Major Defeat for Ed Deform: Ras Baraka Is Mayor of Newark

A major focal point of the election was the debate over the schools and state-appointed Superintendent Cami Anderson’s controversial "One Newark" school reorganization plan — which calls for the relocation and consolidation of one-quarter of the city’s schools and turning over some neighborhood schools to charter operators.
Jeffries, 39, a law professor, former assistant attorney general and school board member who helped found a charter school, had been backed by charter school interests, along with the Essex County Democratic machine.

"When everybody didn't believe, you believed. Today is the day we say goodbye to the bosses."

Baraka, the principal of Central High School and a sharp critic of Anderson’s plan, was supported by the teachers’ unions.
Some similarities to the Wash DC mashing of Fenty/Rhee but that story did not turn out all that well. Oh, stop being such a cynic, Norm, my alter voice is saying to me.

Ok, I'm cheering. Like I did for de Blasio. Come talk to me in a few months. But what fun to see what happens with Cami Anderslime.

Read it all:


http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/05/newark_voters_elect_new_mayor_to_succeed_cory_booker.html

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Charter School Industry Loses Another One: Ras Baraka Is Mayor Of Newark (Original Post) Smarmie Doofus May 2014 OP
Excellent. This is still an uphill battle vi5 May 2014 #1
As it applies to education, when "both sides" agree that "something must be done"... Smarmie Doofus May 2014 #2
I'm cheering too! :) but it remains to be seen ellenrr May 2014 #3
 

vi5

(13,305 posts)
1. Excellent. This is still an uphill battle
Wed May 14, 2014, 08:55 AM
May 2014

I tend not to post political things to my facebook feed but any and every article about how big a scam Charter schools are, and their failures, and the speaking out against common core and education "reform" proponents gets passed on.

Education has been and will continue to be the biggest victim of our "both sides agree something must be done" mentality, especially when the "something" that has to be done involves more testing companies getting money, more privatization and on and on and on.

 

Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
2. As it applies to education, when "both sides" agree that "something must be done"...
Wed May 14, 2014, 09:15 AM
May 2014

... you can be reasonably sure that literally doing precisely *nothing* is .... as counterintuitive as it sounds.... an infinitely more judicious public policy.

If the last 10 years have proved nothing else, they've proved that opening up education to politics and money makes everything exponentially *worse*.


People who are serious about education have got to figure out how to take the profession back from the $$$ people and the corporate pols. The alternative is ever-deepening chaos and incoherence.

ellenrr

(3,864 posts)
3. I'm cheering too! :) but it remains to be seen
Tue May 20, 2014, 07:43 AM
May 2014

what CAN he do and what will he do.
Certainly there is a long battle ahead.

what saddens me is that out of Newark's population of over 277,000, - only 20,000 voted. And Ras Baraka won by only 700 votes.

How to understand this _ I don't know.

Low-income people love their children and value education more than anyone - in my experience - I used to work among the poor in Newark.
There was a lot of news coverage of the election.

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