Hundreds Rally for Local Control of Newark Public Schools

Newark school leaders say they've made enough progress in improving the city's public schools that they no longer need state control.

During a rally Monday night at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, the schools' advisory board members, as well as city and state officials, told nearly 300 people that improving test scores and passing part of a state mandate within the past year prove they no longer need the oversight. The state has controlled the schools for the past 16 years.

"All that matters is that people have a say in what goes on in the school system," Eliana Pintor Marin, Newark's school advisory board chairperson, told the crowd. "We still struggle and fight to get answers (from the state)."

She pointed to New Jersey's Quality Single Accountability Continuum, or QSAC, that measures a district's improvement. QSAC essentially is a scorecard that rates a district's ability in finance, governance, instruction, operations and personnel. If a district meets at least 80 percent in each of the five categories, it would regain control of that category if the state education commissioner agrees.

Newark's most recent QSAC review from June shows city schools scored 80 percent or higher in four categories — 93 in finance, 89 in governance, 83 in operations and 94 in personnel. In instruction, it scored 64 percent.

Newark Public School documents show High School Proficiency Assessment test scores overall apparently increased within the past year — from 57.4 percent to 67.4 percent in language arts literature and from 46.5 percent to 50.5 percent in math.

In September, the advisory board filed an appeal with the state appellate court, saying the district passed QSAC and, therefore, the commissioner should allow local control.

But New Jersey Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said the state isn't relinquishing their power anytime soon.

"Their reading of the law is dead wrong," he wrote Monday night in an email to this reporter. "I have also repeatedly indicated that I am happy to engage in a discussion about an orderly transition to local control."

In the email, Cerf noted that fewer than 30 percent of students in Newark who start ninth grade graduate from high school, having passed a basic competency exam. "Approximately 98 percent of the students who enter Essex County Community College require at least a year of remediation in math, English or both," he wrote. "Even by their (city school officials') own inflated way of counting, only about half of Newark students even graduate from high school, many of whom without having demonstrated basic proficiency."

At Monday's rally, nearly a dozen officials lined up one-by-one for nearly two hours to tell the public they want the state out of the district.

In a passionate speech, Newark Councilman Ras Baraka compared the state takeover to slavery.

"If you see anybody who tries to justify why the state should be here, these are the people that want slavery," he said to applause. "The state has to go. They are the open and outright enemy. I'd rather the worst of us be in charge than the state."

Kandi Berryman, 26, of Newark, was in the crowd. "So far, the state hasn't been doing its job," she said as she left the mass meeting. "People have a lot of good ideas and we keep telling the state what we need, but they don't do anything." Berryman doesn't have children in the district, but called herself an "education advocate."

During the rally, New Jersey Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Essex) pointed to Jersey City's school district, which was under state control from 1989 until 2007, when it passed QSAC. "This isn't just about Newark, it's about education in New Jersey," he said. "It's like mocking us and saying because we're Newarkers, we can't run anything."

Cerf wrote, though, that's not true: "Let's all work together to make this a school system that launches every child into adulthood ready for college and career. Progress towards that goal is the only measure that should matter."