Home Is Where the Heart Is: Can Cory Booker Save Newark's Schools?

Autor/in	Skinner, David
Titel	Home Is Where the Heart Is: Can Cory Booker Save Newark's Schools?
Quelle	In: Education Next, 6 (2006) 4, S.23-29 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-9664
Schlagwörter	African American Leadership; Grade 8; Grade 11; Mathematics Tests; Public Education; Educational Vouchers; Charter Schools; Affirmative Action; Educational Change; Grade 3; Accountability; Public Schools; School Districts; Urban Schools; New Jersey + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? School year 08; 8. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 08; School year 11; 11. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 11; Öffentliche Erziehung; Educational voucher; Bildungsgutschein; Charter school; Charter-Schule; Bildungsreform; School year 03; 3. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 03; Verantwortung; Public school; Öffentliche Schule; School district; Schulbezirk; Urban area; Urban areas; School; Schools; Stadtregion; Stadt; Schule
Abstract	Newark, New Jersey, once called "The Worst American City," is a city that has lost 36 percent of its population since 1930 (from 442,000 to 280,000) and is now more than half black and nearly 40 percent poor. It is a city, reported the "New York Times," where "budgeting is a Rube Goldberg morass with a deficit looming," and where the school system, the state's largest, with 43,000 students, was so bad that it was taken over by the state more than a decade ago. Today the schools are still a mess, with 70 percent of 11th graders and 65 percent of 8th graders unable to pass the state's math tests. This is the Newark that Cory Booker says needs more policing, more comprehensive child-welfare policies, school vouchers, and more charter schools. Booker defeated state senator Ronald Rice and two other candidates in the city's mayoralty race by a healthy margin. He now has the opportunity--some might call it the unenviable task--of effecting education overhaul in one of America's most troubled and beleaguered cities. This article describes the efforts of Newark mayor Cory Booker to reform the city's public education system. Booker may not be as liberal as some educators in Newark hope, nor as conservative as others fear. He is an explicitly religious, anti-bureaucracy politician who, when asked for his position on affirmative action, says, "there is still a place for it." Now that he is mayor, he begins the arduous task of making his wish list of education reforms a reality. Should he have even moderate success, it seems likely he will be in line to become a national figure representing the new generation of black leadership in America, a leadership that does not abandon race matters altogether, but seems less angry than previous generations and more in tune with the America of Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, and Oprah Winfrey. (Contains 2 figures.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10