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.
When a school board president tells the New Jersey Education Association that its lobbyists and spokespeople "appear conditioned to defend the status quo with Pavlovian predictability," it's a clear sign there is more nuance to the debate over education reform than the union is willing to acknowlege. Laura Mercer, a former college instructor and current president of the Lawrence Township School Board in Mercer County, N.J., begins her piece today in NJ Spotlight by highlighting the party affiliations of some of the most serious education reformers in America and in New Jersey, pointing out that they're from the Democratic Party the union has been historically aligned with.
"In both policy and politics, education reform is neither red nor blue," Waters writes. "It's purple."
To that end, Waters has urged the NJEA to "eschew anachronistic slogans for 21st century strategies" by considering three suggestions. She writes:
--While the NJEA’s publicity propounds that "high-quality public charter schools" are "one component of an innovative, progressive system of public education," the union seems to spend a lot of time deriding these autonomous public schools, even those in districts suffering from decades of educational neglect. Get out in front of the issue and announce a pilot program of NJEA-sponsored charter schools. Your sister union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), did the same thing in New York City years ago and won accolades. Consider teaming up with the Education Law Center to create rigorous, inclusive programming with unionized teachers in one of our Abbott districts. Show New Jersey how to do it right.
--Propose a merit pay program for your colleagues willing to teach in Abbott districts. No education reform initiative ever dreamed of can approximate the value of a great teacher in the classroom. However, our neediest districts struggle to retain our best educators. In New Jersey, the average percentage of classes not taught by highly qualified teachers is a praiseworthy 0.3 percent. In Camden, it’s 16.5 percent. Show the Department of Education that the NJEA is able to create a framework that offers incentives for great teachers willing to work in our most challenging classrooms.
--NJEA President Barbara Keshishian should propose an annual 2 percent cap on salary increases. Over 70 percent of a typical district’s budget is dedicated to salary and benefits. Last year’s legislation capped annual budget increases at 2 percent. Staff contracts that specify salary increases higher than 2 percent can only be paid for through cuts in instructional programs, extracurricular activities, supplies or overhead. That’s a no-win scenario for local bargaining units and the NJEA’s public image. Take the high road and offer to keep salary increases within legislated limits. Everyone -- red, blue, and purple -- will applaud your largesse.
