"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Christie Halts State-Approved Construction Projects in Poorest Neighborhoods

His Lardness continues to act in the interests of corporations and their foundations to shut down public education in poor neighborhoods in favor of cheap segregated charter test camps without libraries or the other resources that are standard for public schools in the leafy suburbs. As a result of litigation that goes back 20 years, New Jersey over the past decade had finally begun to address the criminal neglect of poor schools that was documented for the public by Jonathan Kozol in 1992 in Savage Inequalities. Now that effort to establish some equity is in jeopardy.

As the video report by NJN shows, one of those schools scheduled for replacement was a hundred year old relic in Newark, where special ed children meet in broom closets and classes move from room to room looking for dry spots when it rains.  No doubt Christie, Booker T, and the salivating hedge funders have other plans for Newark that do not involve public school construction or renovation.  After all, there is a $100 million in PR cash from Facebook's slimy little twink, Zuckerberg, who is desperate to buy back a reputation for himself and his exploitative web hangout for those who don't seem to mind the mining of their personal information to the highest bidder.  If you haven't seen The Social Network yet, see it.  Views and critics alike give it an A.

Story with video:
By Marie DeNoia Aronsohn
State lawmakers are questioning why the Christie administration has put most of the 52 state reviewed, authorized and fully funded school construction projects on the 2008 Capital Plan on hold.  All work at a construction site in Newark for the Oliver Street School has stopped.  The same stoppage has happened at schools in Camden, Phillipsburg, and throughout the state. The new head of the Schools Development Authority (SDA) Marc Larkins stated all of the projects listed in the 2008 capital plan –with the exception of a handful of jobs already underway – will be stalled until his department can review them yet again.

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