The State of New Jersey has a new governor and the General Assembly has begun a new legislative session. Governor Jon Corzine and this General Assembly have a lot on their plates-- a four billion dollar budget deficit, soaring property taxes, a school construction program which has wasted millions of dollars and needs around $12 billion to build and renovate schools in poor urban districts and addressing a crisis at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. These are only a few of the problems that must be addressed. While all of these are important there is one other that must also be addressed. It is the one I have been writing and talking about for the last several years --the education of our children, particularly poor, urban and minority children.

A majority of African American children in the State of New Jersey do not meet minimum state standards. In other words they are not proficient in reading, math or science. As a result they graduate from public schools unprepared to face the world they are about to enter. There is anger on the streets of our cities because our children can’t get a good job, provide for themselves or their families, are in poverty or dependent on government to provide for them. We are feeding an environment that breed’s gangs, violence, crime, prison and death. Yet we refuse to do anything to reform our schools or provide alternatives for parents to educate their children. Tragically, the major stumbling block to our children getting a quality education is African American leadership, and unions who purport to be our friends.

Last month I went to visit Northern State Prison in Newark, it was one of the most uplifting, yet gut wrenching experiences of my life. I saw gifted and talented Black men who were eager to talk to me about their plight. Many acknowledged their guilt, but what gripped me was that they talked about how their lives would have been so much different if they had gotten an education and pleaded with me to urge other young Blacks that getting a good education is paramount to their survival. To a man they agreed that “the thing is a good education.”

There is legislation before this session of the General Assembly that would provide a pilot project for school choice. It is modeled after a program in Pennsylvania in which corporations would dedicate a portion of their taxes to provide scholarships to the children of low-income parents. Over five years it would provide up to 20,000 scholarships. This legislation has a good chance of passing, if it is posted before the Senate Education Committee.

Presently, many African American legislators and the teacher’s unions oppose this legislation. Their arguments are that these scholarships are really vouchers and that vouchers take money from the public schools, thus destroying them. These arguments are, first, incorrect and second, totally without merit. It is contradictory for them to complain about vouchers when they advocate even more money for vouchers called welfare, food stamps, Section VIII and other such programs. Apparently, they find nothing wrong with these vouchers. Yet, if children were to receive a quality education less money would be spent on these vouchers and fewer people would be dependent upon the state or federal government. Why do our leaders continue to defend programs that keep our people dependent on government programs? The public schools exist to provide our children a thorough and efficient education, but if they fail to do that, there must be alternatives. Their argument suggests that it is better to destroy the lives of our children, than to give them alternatives. They always throw out the argument that the schools need more money. The Newark School District’s budget is $914 million for more than 41,000 students. That averages to almost $22,000 per student. There are charter schools in Newark that rank academically among the highest in the state, and average less than $10,000 per student. The issue is not money; the issue is productivity — children getting a quality education.

I ask you who read this column, to pray that African American leadership will put the interest of our children ahead of the interest of unions whose number one interest is not the education or the future of our children.