Can Cory Booker save Newark's schools?

Though the Fall issue of Education Next isn't out yet, an advance copy of this article entitled, Home Is Where the Heart Is. Can Cory Booker Save Newark's Schools?, is posted on the web site at www.educationnext.org. Here's an excerpt:

In a recent interview with Education Next, Booker offered one of the most complete accounts of his views on education. He said he wanted to improve relations between the mayor’s office and the state-appointed superintendent when he became the city’s chief executive. But he also said that his first priority would be to make the schools safe--an uncontroversial but essential promise. Citing a newspaper article that described children being afraid to stay for afterschool programs, Booker says, “We’re going to come in immediately and secure all of our school zones and put in whatever necessary personnel in and around our schools to protect [children as they travel] to and from school.”

He also hopes to expand tutoring and afterschool programs and create more “linkages” between students and potential future employers. Health, well-being, nutrition, and early child development are other areas where he sees possibilities for mayoral leadership. “We want to make sure that every child, by the time they’re six years old, arrives in school healthy and ready to learn.”

Booker says he will also pursue mayoral control of the school system after the state returns control of the schools to Newark in 2007. And if he gets a new slate of Booker-friendly members of the city council with the election, he will have a good chance of getting it. He is critical of “school boards that are elected with a fraction of the vote in voter turnout” and “special-interest groups” that lack a “unifying vision” to reform the system. “To really leverage change,” says Booker, it is necessary to “centralize control under one person.” This is something Anyon and other local education experts oppose, so it will be interesting to watch the new mayor maneuver his way through this minefield.

An Agenda for Reform

The question of vouchers will also surely resurface, but it will not be one of Booker’s top priorities.