Why Can’t NJ Children Get a Quality Education, Too?

We are now in February, African American History Month, a time when we will again look back and remember and celebrate the great history of African Americans in this country. But it is my hope that this month will also be an opportunity to learn some valuable lessons that will benefit us as we move forward and make our history. I believe the chapters we write today will be positive or negative dependent on how we treat our children and prepare them for their futures. And so, I again come back to the issue of education. My friend, Dr. Calvin Butts says that ‘“faith and education are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers of our people.” How right he is.

I was struck the other day when Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York presented his proposal for the New York public schools. What struck me was how different New York and New Jersey confront the challenge of educating their state’s children, particularly urban and low income children. Governor Spitzer decided to forego the usual pleasantries and honeymoon that greet most newly elected public officials. He’s rolled up his sleeves and gotten to work: His first order of business:exerting strong executive authority in seeing to it that both necessary funding and necessary reform of the public schools take place.

This is GREAT news for children, parents and advocates alike. He is adding billions of dollars in spending, putting in place reforms that will bring accountability of administrators, tying tenure to teacher performance and making education of children the bottom line. What moved me most is that he made it clear he will not tolerate excuses or delays for the public schools failing to educate children. He stated that with funding and reforms the “debate would no longer be about money, but about performance. The goal will no longer be adequacy, but excellence. And the timetable wil1 no longer be tomorrow, but today.” What was most surprising and pleasing to me was that the governor’s proposal had the backing of the public school establishment and the teachers union. Strong leadership does make a difference. This begs the question, “why can’t this happen in New Jersey?” There are a number of reasons.

It requires strong leadership at the top of the state—executive leadership that takes no prisoners and is willing to stand up to the education bureaucracy in the state. The State of New Jersey has tolerated failure and lack of accountability for years. Isn’t it interesting that the school districts with the greatest failures and scandals in the state are those under state control. Look at the Camden public schools where test scores were falsified and millions of dollars squandered and the state has not acted strongly on it. The public schools fail to provide a quality education and the state keeps accepting excuses for failure.

The public school system in New Jersey is controlled by the teacbers unions. This was cemented recently when the governor nominated the former president of the state’s largest teachers union to a seat on the State Board of Education.

The NJEA, arguably the most powerful special interest group in New Jersey, has a tightfisted, bullying grip on New Jersey’s politicians. Confront them on the poor quality of school education for our children and they do like all bullies do. They huff and puff, send mail, place automated calls and wage strong campaigns to defeat or bring down those who oppose or challenge them. Confront them about the millions spent on protecting the bureaucratic system that makes it practically impossible to rid a system of a poor performing tenured teacher and they declare war. Confront them about poor test scores in Camden or Newark, Paterson or Trenton and they blame it on the parents and students themselves. It has nothing to do with teaching.

Administrators who are intimidated and beholden to the unions, boards of education who have little real power due to laws proposed and passed at the behest of the unions and state and local organizations who blame everything on lack of money—aIl of these make New Jersey different from New York.

Do you see a pattern? The bureaucracy spends millions upon millions safeguarding its interests at the expense of children’s interests. The result is that the bureaucracy continues to get fat off itself but our children continue to starve, failing to get a good education.

So, as we begin another African American History Month, I find it refreshing to find, across the river, a voice of strength and courage in the governor’s office. Governor Spitzer has decided to stand ultimately with the children deserving of a quality education giving them real life choices, and the opportunity to seize the freedom that a good education affords. Perhaps Gov. Spitzer can influence his friend and my friend here in the Garden State. It will begin a new and better chapter in the lives of so many of our children and the communities in which they live.

Rev. Jackson is pastor of St. Matthew A.M.E Church, Orange, NJ and Executive Director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey.