The NJT disaster is a vision of this nation under Trump/ Should Chris Christie be charged with murder in NJ Transit Crash?

“It was an excellent railroad and running quite well until the last seven years, and it has been in constant decline,” said Martin E. Robins, a former deputy executive director of the agency. Under the administration of Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, the state subsidy for the agency has plunged by more than 90 percent... NY Times

From the first I heard that a woman died in that Hoboken crash my immediate thought was that Trump thug henchman Christie played the major role in the NJ Transit catastrophe - starting with his cancellation of the new tunnel under the Hudson when he took the money for his own political use -- mainly to keep the Jersey gas prices down so he could say he didn't raise taxes. Now the one over 100 year old tunnel is a disaster and the tunnel that Christie delayed for all these years still has to be built at a much higher cost - and we in NY have to help cover. I read somewhere a comment that the state took control of schools in Jersey so maybe the feds should take over the NJT.

Remember hurricane Sandy when the trains in NY were put on higher ground while the trains in Jersey were left to drown?

The NJT disaster is a vision of this nation under Trump.

It is no accident that Christie quickly tried to cover his tracks by finally agreeing to a big hike in the gas tax which was 30 cents below most of the rest of the nation for decades.

Yesterday, the NY Times did a major piece showing the neglect over the past 7 years of Christie admin - people who moved to Jersey who have to commute are rethinking their choice.

The railroad’s falling reputation, some fear, could push people out of the state and turn others off from living there.

My friend's daughter and her husband are thinking of moving from Brooklyn to Jersey, assuming a certain commute time since they both work in the city. I would rethink if I were them.

Poor Jersey transit clogs the entire northeast corridor. This is definitely worth reading despite its length.

New Jersey Transit, a
Cautionary Tale of Neglect

The swift decline of one of the nation’s busiest commuter
railroads is a story of failures and mismanagement, and
ominous for mass transit systems across the country.

In the 1990s, New Jersey Transit was riding high.

Its ridership was increasing, and its trains were new and running on time. It won a coveted award for outstanding public transportation three times. In the years ahead, faster routes to Manhattan and double-decker trains would put it at the forefront of the nation’s commuter railroads. Even as recently as 2007, it won a leadership award from New York University.

That all seems like a very long time ago.

Today, New Jersey Transit is in crisis. Its aging tracks and trains need billions of dollars in improvements. Delays and fares are rising along with ridership, with passenger cars packed to the breaking point. The century-old tunnel that carries its trains to New York is crumbling. And the agency has gone nearly a year without a permanent leader.

“It was an excellent railroad and running quite well until the last seven years, and it has been in constant decline,” said Martin E. Robins, a former deputy executive director of the agency.

Under the administration of Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, the state subsidy for the agency has plunged by more than 90 percent. Gaping holes in the agency’s past two budgets were filled by fare increases and service reductions or other cuts. Plans for a new tunnel under the Hudson River — one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the country — were torpedoed by Mr. Christie, who pushed for some of the money to be diverted to road-building projects.

 Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/nyregion/new-jersey-transit-crisis.html?_r=0

WTF: Is Baraka a Naive Pup or Selling Out Education in Newark?

[Baraka] had made a deal–he called it a “settlement” or an “agreement”–with Gov. Christie in which the mayor agreed to allow Cerf to become the Newark superintendent if Christie would agree to help bring about  eventual local control. “It wasn’t a quid pro quo. It was more like us coming to a settlement, an agreement that they’d pick a superintendent and help us get local control,” Baraka is quoted as saying....Cerf has promoted the privatization of public education for decades and has worked for and maintained ties with American and foreign corporations seeking to make a profit from privatization–in Newark and elsewhere.
Just before he was named to be Newark superintendent, Cerf was named to the board of directors of national organization promoting charter schools. He later quit.  He was part of an effort to help former Mayor Cory Booker make Newark the charter capital of the nation.
..... Has Christie divided Newark opposition to Cerf and state control?, Bob Braun's Ledger

Wait, let me get this straight. Baraka made a deal with CHRISTIE? To accept that crook Cerf as Newark Supt because Cerf will help get local control back? Give me a break. Privatizers like Cerf take direct aim at local control. If Cerf helps get control of Newark schools for an independent school board I'll eat his hat.

Is there something under the table going on here?

The mayor’s comments in his interview might surprise some critics of state control who, like Rice, are demanding that the state school board reject Cerf because Cerf himself hired Andserson and determined the policies under which she closed public schools and opened new charter schools.  The Alliance for Newark Public Schools, an organization that has worked hard against state control for more than a year, has called for a rally at City Hall Tuesday to protest Cerf’s appointment and to demand immediate local control of the state’s largest school district. The alliance called for a “`March of Dignity’ to restore full local control of the Newark Public Schools and reject the appointment of Christopher Cerf as the next Superintendent.

So, is Baraka turning out to be a JUSP - just another sleazy politician? Sadly, methinks YES.

Before the agreement between Baraka and Christie, the opposition to Anderson and state control had been building and unified. Now that Baraka has accepted Cerf as superintendent, it’s difficult to know how that opposition could continue at the level it had been in the last two years.
Christie, who just announced a presidential bid, may have managed with his alliance with Baraka to quiet Newark as he tries to portray himself as someone who can reach agreements with opponents. The agreement indicates it will be at least a year before a date can be set for local control–and that’s a year Christie can use to run for  president without major controversies in the state’s largest city.

So, let's make a deal with Christie to assist his campaign for president. Oy, Ras!

The elected school board last week voted to choose assistant superintendent Roger Leon as  the next Newark superintendent. Baraka was present at this meeting but he has insisted he won’t focus on anything but local control, a position he repeated in his interview.
The board’s action rejecting Cerf’s appointment in favor of Leon—along with the continued opposition of the alliance and Rice to Cerf’s appointment—creates a potentially awkward and divisive situation in what had been for years a solid front of opposition to state control. In his interview with NJSpotlight, Baraka would not criticize either Cerf or the governor.

Baraka repeated his criticism of those who disagreed with his decision to reach an agreement with Christie and create a 9-member “Newark Board of Education Success” that would play some sort of role in bringing local control back to Newark after 20 years. Christie appointed a majority of the members and rejected some members recommended by Baraka. The mayor has criticized this site specifically for its opposition to Cerf’s appointment and blamed that opposition on “paternalism” which he called “pathetic.”
It’s unlikely Rice would consider his own consistent opposition to Cerf’s nomination a matter of “paternalism.”  The senator attached to his letter a long history of the legal and ethical problems Cerf created for himself both as a private entrepreneur, a New York City official,  and as New Jersey commissioner of education. Cerf has promoted the privatization of public education for decades and has worked for and maintained ties with American and foreign corporations seeking to make a profit from privatization–in Newark and elsewhere.
Just before he was named to be Newark superintendent, Cerf was named to the board of directors of national organization promoting charter schools. He later quit.  He was part of an effort to help former Mayor Cory Booker make Newark the charter capital of the nation.

Right Ras, paternalism. I call it sell-out.

CamiGate: Get Rid of Black Teachers and Replace them with white TFA in Newark in the Name of Civil Rights

• There is a historical context of racial discrimination against black teachers in the United States, and “choice” systems of education have previously been found to disproportionately affect the employment of these teachers. One Newark appears to continue this tradition.
• There are significant differences in race, gender, and experience in the characteristics of NPS staff and the staff of Newark’s charter schools.
• NPS’s black teachers are far more likely to teach black students; consequently, these black teachers are more likely to face an employment consequence as black students are more likely to attend schools sanctioned under One Newark.
• Black and Hispanic teachers are more likely to teach at schools targeted by NJDOE for interventions – the “tougher” school assignments... Weber.Baker.Oluwole.Staffing.Report_3_10_2014_FINAL

Ahhh, the essence of ed deform. The 3 C's (Christie, Cerf, Cami) plan to destroy public ed in Newark. Thanks to the Ed Notes Newark correspondent bull dog - who I met for the first time at the MORE happy hour- for sending this.

Teachers at Newark Public Schools (NPS) largely reflect the racially and ethnically segregated student populations of their respective schools. Mark Weber also known as Jersey Jazzman, Bruce Baker and Joseph Oluwote have released a new report entitled "One Newark's" Racially Disparate Impact on Teachers. The previous report focused on how Cami Anderson's One Newark Plan disproportionately affected black and low income students in the district. In the new report, the authors contend, "NPS's black teachers are far more likely to teach black students; consequently, these black teachers are far more likely to face an employment consequence as black students are more likely to attend schools sanctioned under One Newark." In layman's terms, black teachers are more likely to teach in schools that are closing or being renewed. To make matters worse, charter school demographics differ from NPS by employing teachers more likely to be white and less experienced. We find ourselves in a fine kettle of fish here in Newark!

A Newark Teacher

Disparate Impact on Teachers

PDF of Policy Brief: Weber.Baker.Oluwole.Staffing.Report_3_10_2014_FINAL
As with our previous One Newark policy brief, this one is too long and complex to post in full as a blog. Below are the executive summary and conclusions and policy recommendations. We encourage you to read the full report at the link above.

Executive Summary

In December of 2013, State Superintendent Cami Anderson introduced a district-wide restructuring plan for the Newark Public Schools (NPS). In our last brief on “One Newark,” we analyzed the consequences for students; we found that, when controlling for student population characteristics, academic performance was not a significant predictor of the classifications assigned to schools by NPS. This results in consequences for schools and their students that are arbitrary and capricious; in addition, we found those consequences disproportionately affected black and low-income students. We also found little evidence that the interventions planned under One Newark – including takeovers of schools by charter management organizations – would lead to better student outcomes.
In this brief, we continue our examination of One Newark by analyzing its impact on NPS’s teaching staff. We find the following:

• There is a historical context of racial discrimination against black teachers in the United States, and “choice” systems of education have previously been found to disproportionately affect the employment of these teachers. One Newark appears to continue this tradition.
• There are significant differences in race, gender, and experience in the characteristics of NPS staff and the staff of Newark’s charter schools.
• NPS’s black teachers are far more likely to teach black students; consequently, these black teachers are more likely to face an employment consequence as black students are more likely to attend schools sanctioned under One Newark.
• Black and Hispanic teachers are more likely to teach at schools targeted by NJDOE for interventions – the “tougher” school assignments.
• The schools NPS’s black and Hispanic teachers are assigned to lag behind white teachers’ schools in proficiency measures on average; however, these schools show more comparable results in “growth,” the state’s preferred measure for school and teacher accountability.
• Because the demographics of teachers in Newark’s charter sector differ from NPS teacher demographics, turning over schools to charter management operators may result in an overall Newark teacher corps that is more white and less experienced.

These findings are a cause for concern: to the extent that the One Newark plan disproportionately affects teachers of one race versus another, the plan may be vulnerable to legal challenge under civil rights laws.

Conclusions and Policy Implications

In our previous brief, we found that the One Newark plan imposed consequences on schools and their students that were arbitrary and capricious. We found little evidence to support the claim of NPS that One Newark would improve student outcomes, and we found that the students who would see their schools closed, turned over to CMOs, or “renewed” were more likely to be black and/or suffering from economic disadvantage.
In this brief, we turn our attention to the effects of One Newark on NPS staff. We find patterns of racial bias in the consequences to staff similar to those we found in the consequences to students, largely because the racial profiles of students and staff within the NPS schools are correlated. In other words: Newark’s black teachers tend to teach the district’s black students; therefore, because One Newark disproportionately affects those black students, black teachers are more likely to face an employment consequence.

NPS’s black teachers are also more likely to have positions in the schools that are designated by the state as needing interventions – the more challenging school assignments. The schools of NPS black teachers consequently lag in proficiency rates, but not in student growth. We do not know the dynamics that lead to more black teachers being assigned to these schools; qualitative research on this question is likely needed to understand this phenomenon.
One Newark will turn management of more NPS schools over to charter management organizations. In our previous brief, we questioned the logic of this strategy, as these CMOs currently run schools that do not teach students with similar characteristics to NPS’s neighborhood schools. Evidence suggests these charters would not achieve any better outcomes with this different student population.
This brief adds a new consideration to the shift from traditional public schools to charters: if the CMOs maintain their current teaching corps’ profile in an expansion, Newark’s teachers are likely to become more white and less experienced overall. Given the importance of teacher experience, particular in the first few years of work, Newark’s students would likely face a decline in teacher quality as more students enroll in charters.
The potential change in the racial composition of the Newark teaching corps under One Newark – to a staff that has a smaller proportion of teachers of color – would occur within a historical context of established patterns of discrimination against black teachers. “Choice” plans in education have previously been found to disproportionately impact the employment of black teachers; One Newark continues in this tradition. NPS may be vulnerable to a disparate impact legal challenge on the grounds that black teachers will disproportionately face employment consequences under a plan that arbitrarily targets their schools.

Cami Anderson Supported Charter Calls Off Public Hearing - ICE's Jeff Kaufman Led Opposition to School

 A Joint Hearing scheduled for Thursday evening for the colocation of a new charter school for just released incarcerated students and other "disconnected youth" was abruptly cancelled by the proposed school. A Charter School Association representative stated that the failure of the new proposed charter to obtain a principal caused the sudden withdrawal for the application while others understood that the pressure by local civic leaders and Aspirations High School staff brought to bear was too much for the DOE and the proposed Charter.- 

MORE at ICE blog: UFT Chapter at Aspirations HS Stops Charter School in Its Tracks

Hit the Road Cami- with new best friend, or sibling,  Chris Christie

New Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson was involved in this school. Are they pulling back because she left as Supe of Dist. 79? (In case you're not following, her bio is the usual ed deform suspect: Teach for America official plus other hazzerai.)

Or was it the strong opposition from the UFT chapter and community as intimated in the ICE post?

UPDATE:  COMMENT FROM JEFF:

Could be. But I think this model is dead. Privatizing this segment of public education may have gone too far. When I spoke to the SUNY Charter rep yesterday she understood that the proposal was fast tracked because of political considerations and little thought was given to how the school would actually function. While I’d like to feel it was our pressure that stopped them I believe they knew it would fail.

Jeff

How nice to cancel the hearing about an hour before. Jeff Kaufman was going to lay it on them. I posted previous stuff from Jeff, who is chapter leader of Aspirations - Jeff Kaufman on Joint Hearing for Charter School

An interesting sidelight is that Aspirations seemed at one time to be a hotbed for E4E - they held a mixer that Jeff attended: Up Close and Personal With An Opposition

Here is the cancellation notice:

Good afternoon all,

The Department of Education just received notice from the ROADS Charter School Board that it will be requesting a planning year and will not be ready to open its new school, ROADS Charter School I, until the 2012-2013 school year.  As a result, the DOE is considering revising the proposal to co-locate ROADS Charter School I in Building K894 beginning in September 2011. 

In addition, the hearing that is to be held tonight on the proposal will be cancelled.  A DOE representative will be coming to the school to discuss this and to answer any questions from the community.  We apologize for the inconvenience this late notice may have caused. 

The DOE is currently discussing the matter with the ROADS Charter School Board, as well as other stakeholders in Building K894 and the community.  If the DOE decides to revise this proposal (i.e., to propose that ROADS Charter School I open in Building K894 beginning in the 2012-2013 school year), a revised Educational Impact Statement will be issued and a new joint public hearing will be held. 

Thank you again for your cooperation and apologies for any inconvenience.

Have a good night.

Best,

Izaak

Izaak Orlansky

Portfolio Engagement Specialist

New York City Department of Education

212-374-6811

AFTERBURN
I might have some more stuff soon on some backdoor stuff between Jeff and some key UFT officialdom. Really an interesting and developing story which we are monitoring.