New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won applause at the RNC with his zinger, “They believe in teacher’s unions. We believe in teachers.” Ditto for former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum when he said President Obama’s solution to a failing education system “has been to deny parents choice, attack private schools and nationalize curriculum.”
But with the convention winding to a close tonight, it’s interesting how much the suggestion of stark divisions between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on K-12 education has not been the norm – at least away from the main stage. Jeb Bush, who speaks tonight, said as much in his appearance with Michelle Rhee. And this is what son George P. Bush said yesterday when asked what’s the most important thing the federal government can do to improve education: No matter who’s elected president, he said, “Keep Arne Duncan … he’s been a fantastic education secretary.”
As we wrote yesterday, George P. Bush and Josh Romney, Mitt Romney’s middle son, also made interesting comments about teacher pay. And Josh Romney seemed to suggest large classes might be an issue when he said, “We sometimes have teachers that aren’t able to cope with the size of their classrooms.” (On a related note about crosscurrents, there’s a post on today’s Politics K-12 blog about the dwindling band of Republican U.S. reps who are backed by teachers unions.)
The political blurring will continue next week at the Democratic National Convention - at least at a town hall meeting organized by Democrats for Education Reform. AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel will be among the panelists, but so will Colorado state Sen. Mike Johnston, a Democrat who sponsored a bill reforming teacher tenure and evaluations, and North Carolina state Rep. Marcus Brandon, a Democrat who co-sponsored legislation this year (which did not succeed) to start a statewide program for tax credit scholarships. Closing remarks will be made by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a rising star in the Democratic Party who wholeheartedly supports private school vouchers.
New Jersey: At the American Federation for Children national summit, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie invokes civil rights 
era imagery to make his case for vouchers. (Associated Press) Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal tells choice advocates they have "truth and the American people on (their) side." (abcnews.com) Newark Mayor Cory Booker decries an education system that "chokes out the potential of millions of children." (redefinED) Beyond the headlines, choice supporters also talk accountability. (redefinED)
Alabama: Embattled charter school bill is watered down again before passage. (Associated Press)
New Hampshire: Charter schools in the state are expanding rapidly. (Concord Monitor)
Montana: Vouchers and tax credit scholarships become an issue in the race for governor. (Billings Gazette)
California: Two dozen high-performing traditional public schools in Los Angeles seek to become charter schools. (Los Angeles Times) (more…)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker offered a stirring, soaring plea for expanded school choice today, in the close-out speech at the American Federation for Children summit in New Jersey. Here's a taste:
"Every child born we recognize by our founding principles is born and created in the reflection of the divine. They have innate and endowed by their creator the ability to achieve incredible things. But yet, we've created a system that still chokes out the potential of millions of children, who are trapped in systems that deny this nation the benefit of their genius."
New Jersey employs a brand of education politics that is not renowned for its nuance or subtlety, so let's credit New Jersey Education Association Director Vincent Giordano with raising the bar. In an interview on the New Jersey Capitol Report over the weekend, Giordano was pressed on the timely subject of a legislative proposal there to give private learning options to low-income students who attend public schools that are judged to be under-performing. For context, let's add the fact that, according to the Newark Star-Ledger, his salary in 2010 was roughly $422,000.
His response, captured in this video clip, is nothing if not succinct: "Well, you know, life's not always fair and I'm sorry about that."
Giordano is no doubt thinking better of his remarks today. But it does seem fair to point out that key New Jersey Democrats, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker, support the scholarship option precisely because life is unfair for children who grow up in poverty. The mayor sees the scholarship as one modest way to try to level the playing field.
For sharing a stage with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to urge passage of a tax credit scholarship bill to benefit low-income students, for pushing an expansion of charter schools in some of Camden's most depressed neighborhoods, Democratic power broker George Norcross finds himself the target of attack ads engineered by the New Jersey Education Association disparaging Norcross and Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney for backing legislation that would require the state's public employees to pay more for health and pension benefits.
In response, Norcross surrounded himself with influential Democrats who stood in his defense, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former Gov. James J. Florio. "What I saw this past week in an attack ad was a departure from the sensible -- was painful and poisonous -- and not in any way adding what is necessary for us to move forward," Booker said.
Cami Anderson, an ally of Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's pick to lead the Newark school district, brings bona fides to a school system desperately in need of an alternative vision. Anderson has served the New York Department of Education for the past five years as its director of alternative schools for nontraditional students, a role Andy Rotherham profiled in this 2009 story for U.S. News and World Report. During that time, Anderson had pushed independently for the opening of several charter schools that would serve students at risk of dropping out of the very district for which she worked.
Cami Anderson
Age: 39
Occupation: Superintendent for District 79 in New York City, a network of 300 schools serving nontraditional students, usually over-age, who disengaged from schools or whose education was otherwise interrupted.
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.A. in education and anthropology; Harvard University, M.P.P. and M.Ed.
Background: Executive director for the New York City Regional Office of Teach for America; chief program officer for New Leaders for New Schools; director for policy and strategy for Cory Booker's Newark mayoral campaign
No matter how fair-minded advocates for school vouchers or tax credit scholarships make their case, they're often drawn into a straw-man argument.
Newark Star-Ledger columnist Bob Braun is the latest to criticize New Jersey's proposed Opportunity Scholarship Act as "another gimmick masquerading as school reform." Braun is right to point out that "vouchers won't fix" the collapse of traditional public schools throughout the Garden State, but few of the bill's proponents are claiming that it will. While Braun mocks Newark Mayor Cory Booker for invoking the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "no fewer than three times" during his testimony in support of the New Jersey bill, he neglects the core of Booker's argument. "This bill doesn’t remove our moral obligation to fix the failing public schools in New Jersey, nor does it relieve the crime that’s happening every day when we fail our children," Booker told the New Jersey assembly's Commerce and Economic Development Committee on Thursday, which approved the measure 5-0. "[But] it’s about time we give some small sliver of immediate hope for parents who are desperate in our city.”
This is not to say that advocates for school choice have never made far-reaching claims. Researchers John Chubb and Terry Moe didn't help the debate when they wrote in their 1990 book, Politics, Markets & America's Schools, that "without being too literal about it, we think reformers would do well to entertain the notion that choice is a panacea." Whether Chubb and Moe's rhetorical flourish helped build the straw man that opponents to vouchers, charter schools and other forms of choice have found it convenient to knock down is another debate. But for more than two decades, people like Cory Booker have been engaged in a debate over an assumption they've never made. (more…)
UPDATED: New Jersey's proposed Opportunity Scholarship Act won unanimous approval Thursday in the state assembly's Commerce and Economic Development Committee. Of the five members who approved the plan, three were Democrats, including the committee chairman, Albert Coutinho. While Coutinho acknowledged there are concerns over the measure within his party's caucus, he said the vote was "a sign that we're serious about education reform and considering all options."
Newark Mayor Cory Booker testified in favor of the proposal: "This bill doesn’t remove our moral obligation to fix the failing public schools in New Jersey, nor does it relieve the crime that’s happening every day when we fail our children. [But] it’s about time we give some small sliver of immediate hope for parents who are desperate in our city."
Before approving the plan, Coutinho said the overall size of the program would be reduced from nearly $1 billion over five years to $360 million, the Asbury Park Press reported. Proponents said they expect further amendments as the bill heads to the assembly's Budget Committee.
