N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, Newark Mayor Cory Booker to join Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerburg on Friday's Oprah Winfrey Show broadcast
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, left, Oprah Winfrey, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.NEWARK — When the Oprah Winfrey Show hits the airwaves Friday, Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will be seated beside the famous host. At some point, this political odd couple will be joined by a 26-year-old billionaire with a $100 million check.
In an unusual mix of school reform, showmanship and politics the three will announce the kind of deal that will make most people do double takes and say, run that by me again.
Here is how it goes, according to two officials who have seen the framework of what will play out on Oprah’s set.
Christie and Booker are expected to say that the Newark school system, under state control for 15 years, will be placed under Booker’s authority. Booker, with the governor’s support, will embark on an ambitious series of changes long opposed by teachers unions. Those changes will include an expansion of charter schools, new achievement standards and methods for judging which schools and teachers are effective, the sources said.
Still with us? Here is where it gets a little strange.
The overhaul of the largest school district in New Jersey will be made possible by a challenge grant of $100 million from Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook. Zuckerberg is No. 35 on Forbes’ new list of richest Americans. The magazine estimated his worth at $6.9 billion — up $4.9 billion over the past year.
His pledge of up to $100 million in initial money can be matched, presumably by a Booker-led fundraising effort. Taken together, the announcement could mean a $200 million infusion into the Newark schools.
The plan was confirmed by a third person with knowledge of Booker and Christie’s arrangements. The sources detailed the plans on the condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to go public before Friday’s show, which has been carefully orchestrated with all the participants.
The story was first reported last night by The Star-Ledger on NJ.com.
The announcement is scheduled to air live Friday in Chicago at 10 a.m. EDT and then rebroadcast at 4 p.m. on ABC Channel 7 in North Jersey and Channel 6 in the southern portion of the state.
Facebook CEO Mark ZuckerbergThe school plan calls for Christie to use his authority as the ultimate supervisor of the Newark district to name Booker a "special assistant to the governor" for education in the city. It is a maneuver never attempted before and one that includes some bold political footwork. Only the Legislature or the voters have the legal authority to decide the management structure of school districts. But under this agreement the state is still, technically, running Newark schools. Christie would be able to overrule Booker if the two disagree, the sources said.
Naming Booker to essentially run the city’s long-beleaguered schools was a precondition for Zuckerberg, according to sources. Without that, the Facebook billionaire told officials he would not spend his philanthropic dollars in Brick City.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said Tuesday night she was pleased the money would be going to Newark schools but was concerned that strings might be attached to the gift.
"The devil is in the details," Oliver said. "We have to be very careful in terms of the intrusion into the public system and any donor that would provide funding to the Newark schools system, but I do want to examine what strings come with it."
The move was definitely designed to "circumvent the local community and local control," Oliver said, adding that in order for the mayor to achieve control of schools by traditional means, the matter would have to go before a public referendum of Newark voters. "They probably know the mood in the Newark community is not one that would want to give the mayor appointing authority."
Oliver also noted the irony of Christie’s recent push to eliminate the practice of holding dual offices in New Jersey.
"Last week the governor said he didn't want people to have two jobs," Oliver said.
A spokeswoman for Newark Public Schools could not be reached for comment. The president of the Newark Teachers’ Union, Joseph Del Grosso, also could not be reached.
Bruce Baker, an associate professor in Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education and an expert on education spending, said "open questions" abound about how Newark will use such a large donation.
"We don’t know if it’s $100 million all at once, spread out over time, with conditions and strings attached," Baker said. "These circumstances are certainly interesting, if not bizarre."
News of the announcement has been a closely-held secret in Trenton and Newark, even as officials struggled to contain their excitement and plan a public relations assault.
Political circles began buzzing in recent days with word that a major Newark schools announcement was on the horizon. But the package only crept obliquely into public focus Wednesday when Booker made arrangements to be in Chicago, a city official said, declining to be identified.
The Newark plan developed during the summer while Christie was making plans to dismiss Superintendent Clifford Janey, whose contract is expiring. As Christie worked through the issue, sources say Zuckerberg and Booker began a series of conversations that morphed into phone and face-to-face discussions with the governor, who made school reform a key piece of his campaign last year.
Booker told Christie he wanted control over the Newark schools, much the way New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg won authority over schools in the Big Apple early in his tenure.
Faced with a Legislature controlled by his political opposition, Christie told Booker that statutory mayoral control was a dead issue from the start because lawmakers would never go along. But with $100 million on the table, Christie and Booker hammered out the arrangement.
Newark students have languished for decades in failing schools. In 1995, the state took over the district, which under its former school board had become rife with wasteful spending, patronage and politics.
Under Trenton’s authority, student performance has improved somewhat, though nearly 46 percent of the district’s 40,000 students still fail to graduate high school and only about 40 percent read and write at grade level by third grade.
At the same time, the district spends just under $20,000 per pupil – some 47 percent above the state average. Even with a recent budget cut of $42 million, Newark students still have the highest cost-per-pupil in the state.
What could be welcomed news for Newark kids may also be a political boost for Booker, who recently won a second term only to see his power and popularity plummet.
Moments after taking the oath of office in July, Booker was publicly criticized by council members, many of whom ran on his re-election ticket. On the same day, Booker said he would likely not run for a third term, a statement that many see as a blunder that left him seen as a lame duck with more than three years to go in office.
Booker’s chief achievement – a nationally advertised reduction in crime – has also taken a recent hit as his city’s homicide rate jumped this summer and civil-liberties advocates went public with allegations that city police routinely use excessive force and keep questionable records of internal affairs investigations.
Newark government is also in the throes of a severe financial crisis, one that he did not fully reveal until after his election.
Christie also could use a little good news on the education front. For the last month, he has been battling to overcome the loss of $400 million in federal Race to the Top school funding caused by a mistake in New Jersey’s application. The error and aftermath led Christie to fire his education commissioner, Bret Schundler, but the furor has yet to die down. His political opponents continue investigating what happened and what role — if any — Christie’s closest aides played in the blunder.
Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris) joked about a possible Christie run for the White House "I’m wondering which one of them is going to be the vice presidential nominee, is it going to be Booker or is it going to be Oprah?"
"That’s a hell of a ticket," he said. "You’ve got a fusion ticket there. A portly white guy running for president and a skinny black guy running for vice president."
By Josh Margolin and David Giambusso / The Star-Ledger
Staff writers Jessica Calefati and Lisa Fleisher contributed to this report.
Related Newark schools coverage:
• Newark Public Schools cuts 194 positions due to budget concerns
• Newark superintendent Clifford Janey's contract is not renewed
• Ousted Newark superintendent to remain in post at start of school year
| Christie speaks in Washington DC, calling Newark schools 'absolutely disgraceful' |