HOBOKEN — Gov. Chris Christie today proposed overhauling a current law to expand charter schools and allow private companies to operate them. New Jersey parents should have greater choice to send their children to an increased number of high-quality charter schools, Christie said today In the gymnasium at Hoboken’s Elysian Charter School. “In order to change the status quo,...
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Governor Christie unveils his package of education reforms at the Cooper Civic Center in Old Bridge on 9/28/10.HOBOKEN — Gov. Chris Christie today proposed overhauling a current law to expand charter schools and allow private companies to operate them.
New Jersey parents should have greater choice to send their children to an increased number of high-quality charter schools, Christie said today In the gymnasium at Hoboken’s Elysian Charter School.
“In order to change the status quo, parents must be given options,” Christie said. “It is unacceptable for children to be trapped in failing schools without any hope.”
Currently, 73 charter schools serve 26,000 students in New Jersey, a group that accounts for 1.4 percent of the state’s total K-12 student population. To increase this figure, Christie said public, private and parochial schools should easily be able to convert to charter status, something California already allows. Eleven thousand students are on waiting lists to gain entry to the state’s top charter schools.
“When I talk about education reform, the costs of inaction are incalculable,” Christie said. “You can’t quantify the cost of lost hope.”
Christie also called for swift passage of the Opportunity Scholarship Act, a bill introduced in March that would provide corporate tax credit scholarships for low-income students to attend private or parochial schools. At full capacity, the scholarship program could serve as many as 19,000 students.
The governor’s proposals on charter schools and choice come days after he revealed controversial plans to tie teachers’ raises and tenure to their students’ performance in the classroom. Seated next to Christie during yesterday’s town hall was Harlem Children’s Zone Founder and CEO Geoffrey Canada, a man the governor said “gives us hope that what we want for our kids tomorrow can be better than today.”
Canada, a Democrat, said he came to Hoboken because fixing education is not about party politics.
“Businesses have to come to the table, political leaders have to come to the table, union leaders have to come to the table and say ‘Look, we failed. What are we gonna do to save our kids,’ “ Canada said. “I’m rooting for all of you to do what needs to be done for the kids in New Jersey.
When asked by the governor what Harlem Children’s Zone schools can do that public schools cannot, Canada said the teachers and administrators running his schools have the flexibility to make changes when things are not working in the classroom.
“The other big difference is we make mistakes hiring teachers, but those teachers are not here anymore,” Canada said. “We fire people who don’t work for our kids and we have the freedom to make that decision.”
New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian said charter schools have an important role to play in the state’s public education system, but that she will not support the Opportunity Scholarship Act.
“We do not believe that public funds should be used for private and religious schools, and neither do a majority of New Jersey’s residents,” Keshishian said. “At a time when we are cutting more than a billion dollars from state school spending while demanding ever-more accountability from the public schools, the last thing we should be doing is spending $360 million dollars on unaccountable private and religious schools.”
Keshishian also noted that not all charter schools are successful. A Stanford University study of 2,400 charters nationwide released last year found that only 20 percent of them outperformed public schools, while 40 percent performed at levels lower than their public school counterparts.