Letter to the Editor: New Jersey Parent Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

As parent advocates working to improve educational opportunities not only for our own children, but for children across New Jersey, we believe that all children in our state should have access to a high quality public education. We write today to ask you to reevaluate the current Federal education policies that are detrimental to our public schools and the students who rely on them.

Our fight for public education here in New Jersey is not unique – we see the same things happening across the country – and we have realized that these problems stem from Federal level policies, that no matter how well intentioned, have run amuck on the ground. In New Jersey we work to ensure our state’s funding formula is fully funded, to reform our state’s broken charter law, to reject voucher schemes and to prevent for-profit management companies from making money off of our state’s children. We are fighting the policies that create inequities in our education system and diminish the opportunity every child in our state should have for an excellent public education.

It is evident that the policies of your administration have exacerbated already existing problems in public education across the country, and New Jersey is no exception. Race to the Top perpetuates and exaggerates our over-reliance on high stakes standardized tests as a means to evaluate teachers and schools, even though the methods for doing so have been shown to be inaccurate and unstable. Such rating systems de-professionalize teachers and administrators, and create competition rather than fostering cooperation and collaboration.

This overreliance on standardized tests encourages “teaching to the test”, and narrows the curriculum our children receive. In New Jersey, many districts have increased class sizes and cut programs to the bone in recent years due to unprecedented budget cuts. The children in our state will be ill served if, to make time for test prep, their schools are forced to further cut arts, physical education or extra-curricular activities. These are part of what makes school a place where children explore their world and use their minds for more than picking the correct bubble on a scantron.

The NCLB and Title One waivers New Jersey has been awarded will use these very same test scores to label the schools that our most vulnerable students attend, threatening them with closure and charter conversion if their scores do not improve in two years. Schools targeted for closure will also be subjected to reductions in funding, setting them up for failure. Charter conversions will further increase segregation in our public school system, as charter schools tend to serve fewer disadvantaged students than traditional public schools. Yet charter schools have been shown, on the whole, to perform no better than public schools. In addition, charters are less accountable for the tax dollars they receive, and are increasingly being run by for-profit management companies.

Mr. President, you have the power to reverse this dangerous path that will lead to an over reliance on high stakes testing, increased segregation, further competition and the privatization of public education. Please look closely at how your education policies are impacting our children, especially our youngest and poorest children. Your focus on competition and market-driven reform is resulting in greater inequities in our education system and undermining of our public schools. We know you are aware that a vibrant, flourishing public education system is the cornerstone of our democracy.

As parent advocates working in New Jersey, and as parents educating our own children in the public schools of this state, we ask that you please re-examine and reverse the direction of your approach to education. Please help us stop the dismantling of our state’s successful public education system. Please don’t let it be replaced with a system where a thorough and efficient education is no longer the right of every child, but rather something they must win a lottery to receive.

-Deborah Cornavaca, East Brunswick
-Darcie Cimarusti, Highland Park