--- In [email protected], "Fred" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
I've been crying for this for years, but the State won't let it
happen. With the full Assembly of for re-election in 2007 white NJ
will fight this until the end. They won't allow their kids to be
forced to attend school with Black kids. Asbury Park should sue the
State right now let a judge decidse it. Unless this entire State
comes together on this issue a lawsuit is the only way to go.
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> End segregation in N.J. schools
> Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 12/3/06
> One of the most glaring failures of the legislative committee
> studying public school funding reform was the absence of any
> recommendations for reducing spending. In fact, it proposed pumping
> an additional $1 billion into the state's bloated educational
system
> next year.
>
> Perhaps worse, it failed to acknowledge the role New Jersey's de
> facto school segregation has played in both the inequity of school
> funding and the grossly uneven educational results. It had a chance
> to address both problems equalizing school aid and educational
> opportunities by recommending wide-scale regionalization and
> consolidation of school districts. But it decided to take the easy
> way out: Throw more money at the problem.
>
> The legislative committee studying government consolidation also
> backed off bold reforms. But it did suggest creating a pilot county
> school district. Monmouth County should step forward. It would be
an
> ideal place to test the hypothesis that school district
consolidation
> would save money and raise test scores of the disadvantaged.
Monmouth
> County is loaded with small school districts ripe for
consolidation.
> And it has enough wealth and resources to easily absorb the
students
> now floundering in underachieving districts, including one of the
> state's most dysfunctional Asbury Park.
>
> The committee's Democratic members and the state legislative
> leadership have been thumping their chests over a plan they say
will
> produce greater financial equity among school districts. But
they've
> offered no specifics and no clues as to how they intend to pay for
> it. And the plan ignores the fact that the flawed Abbott funding
> scheme and the huge amounts of money that have been poured into
the
> poor-performing urban schools was a response necessitated by the
> unequal educational opportunities afforded by New Jersey's highly
> segregated schools. Instead, legislators have again chosen to pay
> blood money to keep the state's schools segregated.
>
> A study by The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University earlier
> this year again confirmed the state's standing as one of the most
> segregated in the nation. On most segregation measures, New Jersey
> ranks fifth or sixth. Only 25 percent of black public school
students
> in New Jersey attend schools in which whites are in the majority.
> That's worse than Mississippi (26 percent), Louisiana and Texas (27
> percent), and Georgia and Alabama (30 percent).
>
> Only 28 percent of Latino students in New Jersey are enrolled in
> schools in which whites constitute the majority. Only four states
> have lower percentages California, Texas, New Mexico and New York.
>
> If Monmouth County officials don't volunteer to become the pilot
> county, state education commissioner Lucille Davy should take it
upon
> herself to throw a lifeline to the children trapped in the Asbury
> Park school district. She should carve out a regional district from
> neighboring towns and develop a plan to distribute children from
> Asbury Park into other schools perhaps turning one or more of the
> city's schools into magnet or specialty schools.
>
> The Abbott districts aren't working. The school funding formula
isn't
> working. And despite the legislative committee's bluster about a
new,
> equitable funding formula that will better serve the needs of all
> schoolchildren, it doesn't address the two basic problems: the
notion
> that more money will solve everything, and the adverse impact
> clustering children disadvantaged by race and class has on
> educational performance.
>
> New Jersey's constitution is just one of two in the nation that
> specifically prohibits segregation in the schools. Instead of
pouring
> more money into the state's poorest and most segregated districts,
it
> should start talking about ways to desegregate them. It would save
> money, improve academic achievement and give more than lip service
to
> the notion that all kids deserve equal educational opportunities.
>
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