New Jersey 'Roiling' Over Charter Schools, Save Our Schools Founder Tells Audience at Lawrence Library

People trickled into the meeting room. A young man in a college sweatshirt lounged in the back row. A woman gripped her pad and pen, ready to jot down notes. Some sipped complimentary bottles of water. Most people sat patiently waiting. The crowd consisted of various backgrounds, but that night they all had one common interest: education in New Jersey.

Dr. Julia Sass Rubin, associate professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, visited the Lawrence Township branch of the Mercer County Library Wednesday evening (Dec. 7) to present “Keeping Public Schools Public,” a lecture hosted by the Lawrence Township chapter of the League of Women Voters.

As a founding member of Save Our Schools NJ, Rubin gave an informative public talk on the current state of education in the Garden State and how the Save Our Schools NJ organization is working to strengthen public school systems.

Rubin emphasized that public schools are continually being undermined. “This is happening across the country,” she said. “It’s a national phenomenon.”

A grassroots campaign made up of concerned parents and residents who advocate for equal access to high-quality public education for all children in the state, Save Our Schools NJ is widely known for their efforts to reform New Jersey’s charter school law. The current law does not allow communities to decide if they want to allow a new charter school to open in their municipality even though such schools receive public school funding.

“Local communities should have a say if they want a charter school,” said Rubin. Schools districts throughout the state – including Princeton, South Brunswick, East Brunswick, New Brunswick and Highland Park – have taken steps to oppose charter schools they do not want to have to fund..

 “Busloads of suburbanites are supposed to have an Occupy DOE [Department of Education] on Dec. 16,” Rubin said. “The state is roiling over charter schools.”

Save Our Schools NJ also has an issue with the way many charter schools are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. According to Rubin, this is “cream skimming.” Since most disadvantaged families don’t have the resources to get the information needed about how to enroll their children into these schools, charter schools end up with children from the most affluent voters in their environment, who are able to access the necessary information first.

Rubin defended charter schools in one respect. “Charter schools aren’t discriminating, they can’t control it,” she said. “It’s an institutional problem.”

To correct this form of segregation, Save Our Schools NJ has proposed the Opt-Out Lottery Bill, which would require charter schools to automatically include everyone in their communities that qualify and give families the option to opt-out if they do not want to be considered for enrollment. The bill is designed to level the field for parents who don’t have easy access to information or are restricted by language barriers.

Rubin expects action on the opt-out legislation and other proposed bills will come soon. “This has become a headache for the administration,” she said. “There will be something done with the bills.”

Save Our Schools NJ is working to maintain the current school funding formula and is adamantly opposed to school vouchers, which are funded through corporate tax breaks, Rubin said. She compared the current voucher bill, the Opportunity Scholarship Act, to money laundering.

“If you give me a dollar and I give that dollar back, have you actually given me a dollar?” Rubin asked.

Save Our Schools NJ also wants to stop additional segregation in schools. According to Rubin, there are 500 heavily segregated school systems in New Jersey and the ones that are mixed are being targeted by charter schools.

“We want to see suburban children going to urban schools and vice versa,” Rubin said. “It’s good to mix it up.”

Several members of the audience agreed there is a need for more integration in schools.

Nicole Plett, former president of the Lawrence Township chapter of the League of Women Voters, said New Jersey is third or fourth among the states in the nation in terms of having the highest economic and racial segregation in schools. She emphasized that diversity is a necessity for a “successful public school classroom.”

Retired teacher Lloyd Fredericks, who taught at a high school in Newark, said the state has forgotten the benefits of being a melting pot. He added that without public schools there is no nation.

“Education is politics. It’s all about the definition of politics,” Fredericks said. “And that definition is who pays and who benefits. That’s what it’s all about.”

Others like West Windsor resident Karen Siracusa were unsure about the effectiveness of vouchers and charter schools.

“I support reform when it truly improves the educational outcome for the disadvantaged,” Siracusa said. “It’s not clear to me how vouchers and charter schools would help do that.”

Save Our Schools NJ has come a long way since its founding almost two years ago, Rubin said, noting that the organization’s original tight-knit circle of six members has now grown to 4,000 across the state. The campaign has little money and what money they spend is from their own pockets, but they are running strong on sheer willpower, she said.

“We are coming from the suburbs, a place rarely heard from but which contains a lot of power,” Rubin said. “The more of us there are the more powerful we are.”