Newark Is Failing Our Kids. What’s Next?

As a lifelong member of the Newark community, I was glad  to read the recent Star-Ledger editorial which called out the facts about the plight of our children and validated what I’ve called out over and over again: Superintendent Roger Leon and his enablers are hurting our children’s education and future prospects for success.

When New Jersey’s largest media outlet says things like Newark’s “lagging recovery has been among the worst in the state” (even in cities with higher rates of low-income students), when Vivian Cox Fraser, head of the Urban League of Essex County, says Newark students’ failure to make gains even after huge influxes of state and federal money “is alarming and it is a crisis,” when the school board decides the best use of funds is to spend money on a museum instead of on students’ academic needs, you know we’re in trouble. 

Meanwhile Leon goes to Vegas on your dime to stay at a luxury waterfront hotel with 18 of his district pals and claims Newark is “truly high performing.”  Sure,  with only 19% of our third-graders reading on grade-level, an academic hole so deep  they made no gains over the last year.  Either Leon’s  denial is so deep he’s unaware  it exists or he’s the slickest liar in the world, a champion con artist.

Or maybe he, with his $300K+ salary,  just doesn’t care.

“The numbers don’t lie,” says the Star-Ledger Editorial Board. “Newark is falling tragically short, and with the superintendent’s Trumpian mindset and the governor’s disengagement, why believe anything will change for these kids?”

In light of all this, with the State Education Department, our state legislative representatives, our City Council  largely silent,  even those who aspire to higher office, I am wondering what the people of Newark—parents, community members, anyone who cares about our children—want to do about this mess. What is next? How do we stand up for our children in a school district that is “falling tragically short”?

We know the facts; this is not something that’s “inside baseball” but something we talk about when we’re picking up our kids at school or chatting with neighbors at the grocery store.  What course of action can we take to clean up our public schools, besides talking about it until we’re blue in the face? 

These are hard questions without easy answers. If the State and our superintendent won’t rescue our children, then we have to do it ourselves. We can’t let  Leon and the school board slide into lies and jabber on with their happy-talk. We have to point to the real work that must be done so our children have a fighting chance to learn what they need to make it as adults. We have to do this now.