Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On The Prize 20151114

Im so thrilled to see all of you here in centennial hall. Also id like to welcome all of the people in the overflow area which is in the back of the second floor. And if any of you get tired of standing, there are seats Still Available there. Actually, i am just absolutely thrilled that Dale Russakoff chose the Newark Public Library to launch her brand new book, her muchanticipated, her absolutely fascinating, brand new book, the prize, with the subtitle, whos in charge of americas schools. This is the very first event that she will be doing. Shell be doing a series of programs and interviews as she travels across the country to introduce her book to the public, so we are really honored to be the first. And were also honored to be the venue where an extremely Important Community conversation will be taking place tonight. After all, a Critical Role of libraries as you know is to invite Community Members to engage in discussions of important issues to that community. There is no doubt in my mind that tonights discussion will deal with one of the most pressing issues facing our city. But not only our city, cities across the country. There will be many questions, there are many questions, but i would bet there will be some answers emerging from tonights discussion can as well. I want to thank two people in particular for organizing this program, and id like them to stand up. The first is our president of the Newark Public Library, dr. Timothy crist. Please stand. [applause] and the other person is a newer member of our board of trustees, rosemary steinbaum. Please stand up. [applause] and there are other members here on our board, i wish they would stand up too. I see sandy king in the back, trish, our Vice President are, jeremy johnson. Thank charles is here as well, and i thank you all for your tremendous support. [applause] and to our staff, because its really a job to pull Something Like this together. So i have to say thank you to heidi kramer, lita breaker and all of our npl staff who have had a part in making this program come together. [applause] and a very, very, very special thank you to the wonderful Victoria Foundation for their donation of 100 free be books as giveaways to newark residents and educators. [applause] some of you have asked if additional books would be available, and they will be available at the end of the program, and dale will be available to sign them. So you can line up after the program. As you know, this is the panel format tonight, and i have the pleasure of introducing Richard Roper who has agreed to moderate tonights panel. Few people know as much about or have been involved as long in public issues in newark and in new jersey as a whole as Richard Roper. A graduate of rutgers newark, mr. Roper has held government positions with the city of newark, the state of new jersey and the federal government. Hes also taught at princeton university. Here in newark, among his many, many roles, he has been a deacon at Bethany Baptist church. He also serves on the Rutgers University board of governors. So i will turn the program over to you [applause] thank you very much. I must begin by apologizing for holding you folk up for almost 20 minutes. Now that newark is revitalizing the traffic at this time [laughter] it is impossible. But thats a good thing, i think. So while i apologize, im also happy that i got caught up in newarks overflow traffic tonight. Its my role to lay out the ground rules for our conversation. We will begin with the author, dale russ cough Dale Russakoff, making a presentation. She will then be fold by the three panelists who have joined us to, in effect, comment on what dale has written and what she will say to us tonight. Dales comments will be about, about 15 minutes. That means that the panelists will each get about ten minutes to respond. Is that all right, panel . Okay. We can have ongoing conversation after those initial remarks have been made. After they have made their presentations, then we will open the floor for comments, questions from the audience, and i think we have a microphone here, we may have another mic somewhere in the room, but i dont see it. Im assuming then that folk who are interested in posing questions should approach the microphone, and your questions will be entertained by either the author or the members of the panel. So lets get into this conversation as quickly as we can given the time ive wasted getting here. Dale russakoff spent eight years as a reporter for the Washington Post covering politics, education, social did i say 8 28 or 20 years . [laughter] 20 years, forgive me, dale. Covering education, social policy and other topics. She worked for four years on the prize which is her first book. Jelani cobb, a frequent academic guest, says that with the prize, dale has brilliantly rendered the hopes, complexities, pitfalls and flaws of the efforts to reform american education. This is not simply the compelling story of a single conflictridden school system, it is a metaphor for the faming institutions failing institutions that have betrayed an entire generation of american children. With that, Dale Russakoff. [applause] thank everyone for coming tonight. I would like to start by telling you why writing this book became so important to me. It began for me literally the day that the zuckerberg gift was announced. I had seen an article in the star ledger saying this was going to happen on the Oprah Winfrey show. I had never watched oprah in my life. On september 24, 2010, i was absolutely electrified to see this 26yearold billionaire pledge 100 million to the Newark Schools and also to cory booker and Chris Christie talk about using the money to transform education in newark, Public Education work for the nations poorest children. To me, 100 million sounded like all the money in the world, and booker, christie and the reform leaders who praised them beginning with education secretary arne duncan on behalf of president obama sounded so sure of themselves. We know what works, was their phrase. They would take the best ideas of the education Reform Movement, bring them all to newark, and in bookers words, they would flip a district. I didnt believe they would achieve change on the miraculous scale they talked about, but i did expect to see dramatic advances, and i wanted to get as close to this process as i possibly could because this is exactly the reformers and their opponents [inaudible] this impassioned National Debate had a huge hole, and the majority in newark and and around the country were stranded in that hole. Ill give you two illustrations of this from my reporting early on. If you remember for most of the first year after the gift was announced, Cami Anderson had not arrived to become the superintendent. A group of consultants were calling the shots within the district which was being run by the state department of education. They did some very important work, in particular getting a handle on the tenure process, but the most public thing they did was to identify which of the absolutely worst District Schools to close to make way for expanding Charter Schools one of their primary goals. One school they identified was 15th avenue where for years barely 20 of children had been reading at grade level. Very little was going right for kids at this school, so they designated it to close, and North Star Academy one of the highest performing charters in the state was to move n. North stars model was starting with kindergarten and would grow one grade each year, so no one currently at 15th avenue would be eligible to go there. The consultants decided that the 330 children at 15th avenue from grades k7 would be transferred to a k8 school just across Westside Park. Now, if you were looking at a map, this made perfect sense because the Second School was gee graphicically close, and it was also underpopulated, so it had plenty of room. But if you knew the neighborhood at the ground level, which the consultants did not, you would know Westside Park is a hangout for be drug dealers and gang members and that children should not be walking through it every day to get to and from school. I attended a pta meeting at 15th avenue, and the parents were terrified. They wanted to know how people who professed such concern for their children would come up with such a plan. Moreover, the school where they were going wasnt much were betr than 15th avenue. It, too, was detz nateed as a failing school. One father said theyre just taking the problem and moving it across the park. So the reformers had a really powerful diagnosis for all that was wrong with the existing system, but they didnt have a formula for fixing it without causing stress on the schools where the majority of kids were still being educated. One thing i learned in cities in particular, its an ecosystem. Changes in one area have consequences in another, many of them unintended. Okay, scene two. I attended a public forum that was held one saturday morning on a new Alternative High School graduation test rlt for the past several years, students who failed the regular High School Test had taken an alternative test that was much shorter and easier and was graded by their own teachers, so almost everyone who took it passed. The state was proposing to use a new test that would raise the bar and be graded by a disinterested party. A number of civil rights organizations participated in the forum, and they argued strenuously against the new test. Some 3,000 students who would have passed the test under the old system would fail it under the new one. As they put it, one of the most consequential things you can do to students is to deny them a high schooldiploma. This is undoubtedly true, but i also found myself wondering how about denying them a High School Education . If students couldnt pass this very basic test, what did a High School Diploma mean . Again, here was a forceful, impassioned voice in the education debate talking past some of the biggest problems children navigated in newark and cities like it every day. It seemed clear this was an opportunity for journalism, to write a full story of how both the status quo and the reforms were affecting all Newark School children in Charter Schools and in District Schools. I wanted to see education from every perspective in the debate, but most importantly, from the eye view of children and the teachers who worked every day to reach them against incredible odds. If i could write a story, a book about education in newark that was indisputably true and thorough, essentially filling in the holes that existed in both sides of the National Conversation, i hoped that it could spur a more Honest Exchange about what children and schools in newark truly need to succeed. What should this conversation look like . I have a suggestion. Newark and cities like it desperately need to get more resources to classrooms to support children and their teachers. The Reform Movement has a mantra. It goes poverty is an excuse for failure in District Schools in newark and across the country. That is unquestionably true for some people in some schools. But poverty is also a root cause of failure for children who literally are traumatized from growing up amid violence, family strife and constant instability. Here is another example from my reporting. Avon Avenue School is located in one of the poorest areas in newark. I attended the kindergarten class there of whom 15 out of 26 had Child Welfare cases open; alleged neglect, exposure to violence and drugs. Some of the children in that class were already so angry at age 5 that they routinely would hit other children and throw chairs at them and the teachers s. So not only were these children unable to learn, they frightened some class mates to the point that they couldnt learn either. That class had one of the best teachers in any Newark Charter or District School, but on many days her extraordinary skills were not enough to overcome those challenges. She needed help. I also p spent time in spark academy, a kip elementary school. Spark had some students although not as many who were equally troubled. They also had way more resources to support them and their teachers. They had two teachers or in classrooms from kindergarten through grade three. They had a tutor for every grade to support children who couldnt keep up even with two teachers. They had three social workers who did therapy with a total of 70 children a week while avon had one social worker, one teacher per classroom, and if they had a tutor, they had one for the whole school. And spark had a dean of students whose job it was was to make sure there was an adult in every childs life to support the childs learning if not a parent, a family friend, a god parent, a neighbor. The principal of spark said there was no way the school could have had the academic results it did without those extra resources. In other words, avon couldnt possibly compete. Spark had these resources because kip gets more than 12,000 per student gives more than 12,000 per student to spark whereas the Newark Public School got less than 8,000 per student to avon. Have been used for generations to do more than educate children. They have been a patronage pick for local political bosses and also an Employment Agency to counter poverty and instability in the city. The district has jobs and sweetheart deals with contractors that no longer serve the schools or the education of the children, if they ever did. Every stakeholder in education from the state to unions to parents to politicians to local Community Organizations ought to figure out how to get as many of these resources to children and the teachers and principals who know their needs best. Secondly, as the state actively supports the expansion of charters in newark, it would share responsibility for the upheaval and stress which is placed on Newark Schools. A prominent education reforeman at the university of washington reformer at the university of washington actually said she believed there should be a pottery barn rule for the proponents of changing of existing School Districts. You broke it, you bought it. Id just like to touch on one more, and thats the role of private philanthropists. For generations the foundations of deceased early 20th century industrialists dominated education philanthropy, but since 2000 living billionaires have displaced them. Bill gates of microsoft be, the Walton Family of the wall mort fortune. Walmart fortune. They are making targeted, very large donations in hope of disrupting the existing Education System which they see as antiquated and unequal to the task of educating the next generation. Thats the context in which Mark Zuckerberg came to pledge 100 million to schools in newark, a city he had never visited. He was 26 at the time, the richest millennial on the planet, and he hoped to transform the education world. He came to the cause of education through personal experience. His girlfriend, now his wife Priscilla Chan had worked as a teacher for a year after college, and when they socialized with friends in silicon valley, he felt their contemporaries treated her as if she were doing charity work. Yet, in his view, teaching was one of the most important jobs in society. His hope was to create a teachers contract that would raise the status of Teachers First in newark and then in america. His hope was to pay very large bonuses to the very best teachers, up to 50 over and above their base salary. These were the kinds of rewards paid to facebook, and he believed a similar system would attract the best College Graduates in the country into teaching. Booker and christie added to this a plan to expand Charter School is the and radically restructure District Schools. They thought they would arrive within five years at a mold, a proof point that zucker berg with his philanthropy could take to cities across the country, solving the education crisis in all of urban network. As we all know urban america. As we all know, that did not happen. But Mark Zuckerberg did end up spending 100 million in newark, and Charter Schools have grown to serve more than 40 of newarks students. More than a third of the schools have been removed, repurposed, redesigned or taken over by charters. Most of this process has taken place without Public Participation because philanthropy, for all the good it does, is one of the least Democratic Institutions in american life. Wealthy donors and their privatelyappointed boards decide where the money goes. If people are unhappy with the philanthropy of bill gates, they cant vote them out. The staff of the foundation for newarks future tried hard to bring more voices to the table, but the board of the foundation insisted on calling the shots. There are signs that zuckerberg is learning this approach is not only disrespectful, its actually not smart philanthropy. There are many, many skills and passionate people on the ground in cities where reformers are at work, even local foundations who have worked in education for decades. And all of these people and organizations know intimately what children and schools need in order to improve. I think almost everyone, regardless of their views on education, hopes that the next chapter of change in the city draws deeply from all the accumulated wisdom that newark has to off. Thank you. [applause] has to offer. Thank you. [applause] okay, okay. Were off and running. We have three panelists, the first of whom is shah nay howard, she will be followed by mary bennett and then ryan hill. Shah nay harris serves as Vice President of Corporate Giving at the Prudential Foundation which she oversees 50 million in grants and charitable contributions for prudentials Corporate Responsibility program. Prior to joining prudential in 2004, she was the director of the philanthropic arm of the new jersey innocents and the new rsey be nets and the new Jersey Devils organizations. Before that she was director of Community Schools in newark where she was responsible for brokering Community Resources to key schools in the Newark Public Schools. Harris serves on the board of trustee of jersey can, an add advocacy organization, and is also chairperson of the newark trust for education. Thank you. Be. [applause] can everyone hear me . Be so when i was asked to do this panel, i had to pause a bit because in many ways, i think, you know, the last four years has been a real opportunity to reflect on a National Conversation that is happening about Public Education. And from where i sit and the experiences that ive had as a newark native, as someone who started their career working in the Newark Public Schools not as an educator or teacher, but as a nonprofit leader that provided supportive services, utilizing a Community School model. And its, its very interesting to see kind of the multiple perspectives and the complexity of this problem. But before i kind of give my reflections on the role of philanthropy which i think dale kind of [inaudible] and the observations that she experienced, i want to, one, thank the Newark Public Library for hosting such an important on screening. I think the reflection of diverse stakeholders in this room demonstrates that there have havent been a lot of opportunities to have a democratic conversation about this issue. So im excited about the opportunity to continue this conversation, because we all are accountable to insuring that our children have what they need in terms of the best opportunity and the best preparation from our Public Schools. So in terms of the book, i think the book outlined in a very clear way the complexity of this problem, the community needs, the challenges thats okay. [laughter] but the challenges of addressing the needs of children in high poverty areas and especially the limits of what schools can do and the need to really look more holistically, looking at the intersection between school and community to really look at institutions for the problem. And it also, again, talks about the role of my land though by philanthropy x. From my role as the executive director of the prudential upon thation and acting as we do, in many ways, as a local funder and local partner to Many Community people in the room, i think that its an important conversation to have about what are the limits of philanthropy, who could my land throe be by be utilized effectively to advance change and advance outcomes. And we can debate the approach that philanthropy collectively has provided in the context of education over the last four years, but i think there still is a very Critical Role that philanthropy does play in this conversation. Philanthropy can help build capacity. It could really support innovation. And i think it does play a role in catalyzing change. It cannot replace public dollars and the kind of things that the public system needs to do, but it can encourage and support and really advocate for changes. But i think equally important to what philanthropy can to in this space can do in this space is how and the approaches that philanthropy utilizes to be one voice, one member in this important conversation but requires a broad set of participants talking about [inaudible] so ill just highlight three reflections. I know theres going to be a q a and a good dialogue that were hoping to have, but with i think in reviewing the book and thinking about, you know, the last four years, i think the first lesson that would be important for all of us to learn is that, one, i think early on philanthropy could have played a broader role in investing more resources to create a shared understanding of the problem. Be i think even today while we all collectively know that were not happy with the outcomes that were getting in our Education System, i dont think there has been enough investment of time and conversation and discussion on having a complete, shared understanding of the problem, you know . There hasnt been a tremendous amount of transparency in sharing information, there havent been a tremendous amount of trust that the collectoff Community Collective community could receive that information and have a real dialogue about these issues. And, unfortunately, that was a missed opportunity and one that i think that we could reflect on and really learn in terms of how do we move forward in this next chapter. I think the second lesson is that there needed to be better alignment and collaboration within the Philanthropic Community. I think dale has talked a lot about the Philanthropic Community really changing in terms of the actors and the players. And in many ways its not a monolithic community. Its very diverse, and its made up of, you know, i could think of a number of tensions, you know, National Funders and local funders, institutional donors versus individual donors. Players and actors that were supportive of the foundation for the future can to this with the first understanding of how this work played out in other communities. And it could have benefited from that intelligence, from the dialogue that came from it. And benefited from the problem solving, that was a missed opportunity to leverage those and build on that so we could have avoided the missteps that may have occurred and was outlined. The positive thing is i am seeing a shift in that. There is more dialogue, local funders are starting to look at this on the systems level which i think is important as we think about how we solve the problem collectively and i also feel like the number of the National Funders particularly north future under kim mcclains leadership looked at broadening the solution and investments in having more multifaceted approach to solving this problem and in some ways which that could have started very early on, there is a progression and an opportunity to shake the next phase of the conversation. I just want to say and lastly in my reflections at one of the challenges of setting up this commitment that was so publicly kind of heralded and communicated with this idea of a five year time frame to for the District Court turn things around is in what happened years prior in all the efforts folks collectively made, it set up unrealistic expectation that these problems that were deep and systemic would change in a short period of time. That is an unrealistic expectation, these problems didnt starts, it will take a lot of work to collectively move the barn creating improvements within the district and figuring out what system and Service Delivery for Public Education do we need as a community. Robert and it will take more than just one sector, one body calling the shots and ultimately it will require our collective voices working to develop a shared understanding of the problem but also shared vision of what we want with our children and really developing a collective action process on how we start to solve these problems. In many ways for all the challenges, dialogue and debate that has occurred over the past few years i am pretty optimistic that we can learn from this opportunity, though we have actually the benefit of having someone make an account of what has occurred. Some people may argue the full story, the story is accurate, in many ways it aligns with my recognition of some of the events but because we have this opportunity to review and to reflect, how does that in form of a path forward . The path is not done and those of us given how proud of this room and how committed everyone has been in working at this issue for many many years, how do we collectively move forward . One of the things i worry about is the National Conversation concluding that this work has failed and the chapter is closed and i dont think that is the case. This is a chapter but how do we write what the next chapter is going to be in our efforts to improve educational outcomes . Thank you. [applause] thank you. My next panelist is married bennett who in Public Education circles looms pretty large. Mary bennett as a child attended fifteenth after attending Douglass College she returned to newark and taught english and Language Arts at berringer has the land became an assistant principal at west side and malcolm x high school. She kept her distinguished career by serving ten years as the principal of malcolm x. Since retiring mary bennett has continued her passionate advocacy including serving as executive director of project grad which sponsored 1,000 Newark High School students in achieving their goal of attending college. Mary bennett. [applause] i should warn you in advance, i am told by too passionate and be forewarned, connected to the local community. [applause] i want to thank Dale Russakoff who i have gone to know over the last six months and i believe this is book one. She doesnt know what she is going to do next. From my perspective there has to be a book ii. There has to be a book and ii. You say why does there have to be a book ii . Because there are children who have been harmed. There are children who have been harmed. They have been harmed as a result of very bad decisions by adults, they have been harmed by people who are very selfserving, they have been harmed by people who took into no account who they are, who their parents are and what this community is. [applause] wind you go into military encounter, and i am thinking about president obama for who my voted twice even though i dont always agree with his politics in education, but before it he sends the First American soldier out of this country, he knows there are going to be casualties, somebody is not coming home. That may be acceptable in a military situation but from where isis with 42 years of experience is not at all acceptable in education. [applause] there was an opportunity here that was missed and it is criminal that it was miss, so much more could have been done to help throughout newark. There should have been no group of schools targeted, that there were people in those buildings, that they were not top priority. Public schools should not have been pitted against Charter Schools, Charter Schools were here and they should have followed the law and grow naturally overtime. [applause] people should have been talks with, the conversation needed to be much broader. The Philanthropic Community may have the dollars that doesnt have the answers. People coming to get a can find the answer. That is not the opportunity the city of newark was given, and that is criminal. We have harmed children, taken students from k12 who come through difficult circumstances because they live in a large urban cities struggling with lack of resources, economic resources, in some of their homes they are troubled but going to schools where in every school they talk about princess williams and avon break and i told her i got news for you. There was a princess williams in every building in the city of newark. [applause] there are teachers who have cared and nurtured and substitute parents for our children, for time and e. Eternity. There were good programs in our schools. There was a lot that was positive. However, i will say time and time again there was and continues to be great need for improvement, and that is where the groundwork should have begun. What is working, out where is it working, how is it working and what else do we need to do building by building to make the school that everyone of us would send our child or grandchild to. We did not get that opportunity. We are now meeting to be in a recovery mode. The damage has been done, we cannot change what happened yesterday so we certainly cannot change what has happened to the last four years, but we cant stop now because as i said, there are children who are not well and i still in our schools. We have a moral, legal obligation to pick ourselves up, rolled it up and get to what do we do next because children are counting on us, they are counting on us. I feel like i was speaking to a dear friend and she said i am Hart Senate Office building. We have been fighting nonstop for four years. Of voices crying in the wilderness, people told us we were crazy. If one more person says just four five people stand on a corner jumping up and down trying to save a job i may have to reach out and touch somebody because that is not what it wants about. It was about we need all children to be taken care of. All children. I have met and dealt with thousands of parents throughout my career, many of them facing major major major challenges and not doing what i necessarily thought they should be doing but one thing i knew, i have never met a parent doesnt want the best for their child. [applause] we have missed an opportunity, but we need to move forward. After 20 years july 19th, 1995, today is september 10th, 2015, now is the time. Weekend bling, people because people dont want to make it real. People do not want to make it real. It is incumbent upon us to look at this situation and for everyone to come to get there. At the beginning of the conversation, i can tell you why it was hard to get people to the table because people didnt want to be labeled as going to the other side because you know who those people are. That is just the truth. People try to get people there were conversations. Dont go to that meeting because you know what they are going to do, because truth has not been a part of what we have been dealing with the four years. We have been dealing with spin, distrust, disenfranchisement, people could leave newark can talk about those who came to our city and walked on water, and drown them in that water. We need to attend to what we need to do here, all of us. We need to stop working in little silo class, this group over here and that group over there. We need to bring all the groups together. Because the children are not well. We are obligated to do better. To the Philanthropic Community, we thank you for your dollars, we need your dollars, we really do need your dollars but just because you have the dollars, dont think you have all the answers. Bring us into the conversation. When somebody comes to you with a proposal if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Mark zuckerberg did not know, 26 years old, more money and god, and Oprah Winfrey talking to him in one ear and cory booker quoting mohammed hadi in the other year, he didnt know what to do. Iron to not think he had any real intent. He did not know. He drank the koolaid. We know what happened to the people who drink the koolaid, dont we . That experience having been had, what do we do . What do we do . We have found, because money is unfortunately but realistically at the core of some of many issues, the public versus the charge, the charter versus the public and i am saying all children deserve the best. All children deserve the best. We find ourselves in a situation where public School Children right now have been stripped, stripped. [applause] will not have an art teacher. Will not have a music teacher. The former superintendent came to allege of 40 million reserve, it is gone. Where did it go . Who benefited . Wear or what the children should have gone with that money . Whatever we do from this point forward we need to be able to stand in the daylight and tell it all because people have become so distrustful because we have not been told, we have questions, we didnt get answers. I gave the one in six months of maybe it will be okay but when i went to three meetings with her and we asked the same questions over and over and got nothing. I go to the next meeting by yourself. Because by the end of six months, we knew it would not be a collaborative process. If you are doing the right thing for the right reason you should be able to take the heat. You are a Public Servant being paid with public dollars, you should be answerable to the public. We need to take ourselves, dust ourselves off, all the new superintendents feet to the very hot fire, find a way to move forward because the children are not well. [applause] [applause] thank you. The third panelist is ryan held. He is the founder and chief executive officer of a network of public Charter Schools in camden. Kit, as you may know, stand for knowledge is power program. Eight Charter Schools in collegiate academy and steen and academy, a graduate of university of wisconsin, serves on the executive committee of new jersey Charter School Association Board of directors and is chair of the Advisory Board of democrats for education reform in the new jersey region. [applause] i will follow mary bennett. Anybody want an intermission or anything . So in the book dale did an incredible job in general and also speaking just for the chapter about one of our schools of telling a story that is way more complex than the story that is usually told, the district versus charter story or any of the reformer versus status quo, any of those stories that are way too simplistic and i for one appreciate that about the book because it is frustrating to us to get lumped in with ideas or people we dont always agree with. To give a sense of where we come from, since i was the principal of team i academy, first principle back when we started 14 years ago, 13 years ago, i was a brand new teacher in new york a few years before that in the District School in washington heights, 164th street, i was there from wisconsin, the university of wisconsin, my dad and a teacher for 30 years, was retired but in different circumstances, what i saw when i got to new york, what i saw was so different than the education i had gotten or anybody i knew had gotten, it shocked my sister and i tried to figure out why and i looked around the school and a lot of Great Teachers in that school but they were not getting the resources and getting in the way of the great teacher is trying to do what they wanted to do to the point where we were the only program in the district, the only school that didnt have a Basketball Team so she wouldnt let us so we went to the district and asked if we could pressure her to let us and eventually we did and we had practice after school, the only place in the building, teachers, hardworking folks who wanted what is best for their kids would have to bring their students into the gym to the tutor them around the sidelines. That was my experience with the district in new york city and at that time i said we have to find a better way, Basketball Program was set up to help the kids who had no fun in the school, nothing to look forward to, wanted to do something and the principle is getting in our way. Teachers started to look for alternative programs, got to look at cit, a good school in new york at the time of only two schools so i called the founders and i heard all these things about Charter Schools, the kids who have the most investment, you kick out all the kids, this and this and this, i want to learn how to start the school and they said those are myths, come check us out, we are training principals to open new schools. I went to the school in the bronx, visited the one in houston and i was like i have a lot to learn. I spent a year training and came to newark in 2002 and started with four others, fifth graders and one grade level at a time and over the years 5 through 8, about 400, parents would come to us and say we started to accumulate a wait list and came to us and said what you going to open another school, what we going to do for i have a daughter, she is 5 years old and when a you going to open elementary so we did all that and we have 8 schools, a huge frustration for us over the years has been schools with a representative cross section, there has been progress over the last few years, a huge frustration for us has been that people dont understand, people say poverty doesnt matter, these are kids who are doing well, as you see in the book, poverty matters a lot as you have seen in your lives or teaching or whatever, poverty matters a ton and you have to get resources, these the lessons we learned through experience, you have to get resources into the classroom, you have to. We get 90 , more of that money makes it in the classroom. This is something i didnt understand until we did research for the book the we get more money into our classroom and the District Schools often do. How can you address all the needs of our students, and those teachers, i want to put the mall in one place and get out of their way and it would be better than this limas and at the time, you have to have Great Teachers, an amazing teacher and all these amazing features to exist throughout the city, you have to be empowered to do their job and that is often not the case. It is not the case where i taught. The critical lesson i didnt understand until three years ago another lesson i learned 3 years ago, i became a parent for the first time and learned a lot of lessons, my classroom management of my two kids is worse than my classroom management of 30 kids, i hope when they get to fifth grade something will kick in and i will be better. We spent my daughter went to 3 k. This last tuesday and for the last 3. 5 years, we are looking for the right school and would do anywhere and do anything. And when my wife and i had zoe, parents know best, they know what their kids need. It wont be the same thing at every school with every kid, theres not a 1sizefitsall model, we have to meet the diverse needs of all our kids. Every parent in newark, when folks ask me why i believe in choice whether it is district choice, Charter Schools, whenever i get to exercise choice for zoe and i would do anything to exercise the right choice for zoe and i think i know every parent in newark is would do anything to get their kids the best education they can. Now is an opportunity for the feeling we need in this city, i think we have the right people in the city to do the work that needs to be done to it is host five your job to get all our kids the education they deserve but we have People Like Us who have been here 14 years and people like mary who have been here much longer and a lot of people in the city who can put as much as we can ever put the last two years behind us we can begin to move forward to a new day. [applause] thank you. It is now time for the audience to step to the microphone and pose questions. Please put your remarks in the form of a question. We have a lot of people and a lot will want to get involved in the conversation. Lets keep a focus on questions. The mic is there. Could i have your attention please . You dont want to hear those, in 1946, mother and father went to normal school, teachers, 1930s, served their whole lives in 1995 but Dale Russakoff has written some book here, it is alleges, sometimes you take a book and digested. Would you please pose your question . What i would like to say just ask a question. The idea or question. My question is this. And newark was greeted with great corporations, colleges and universities, you cant deal with a tiddlywinks Mark Zuckerberg wanted to offer, you need credential, public service, all the great corporations back as because if they dont i would quickly extend ebenezer scrooge to bring those goats, jacob marley to visit goats of his past so that they could see the light. We are disgraced because today we have a Great American city that has all the infrastructure but we are not on the same page. I worked over 30 years, in springfield avenue. Please ask your question. What do you think about this, that newer could do so much as a Great National city of all our corporations were backing us for programs at 3 00 using our youngsters and colleges and universities, how about creating a high technological job we can have at our factories . Poverty as the mayor said, we have a tough time convincing. We are in world war iii ended even know it. What do you say to this and what can we do to encourage Corporate Responsibility . Thank you. Dale . [laughter] there should be lots of Corporate Responsibility. I guess you are talking about trying to answer the issues of poverty, it seems corporations that are here. And linda. My question has to do with urban schools and the north Public School system, i never hear certain things and wanted to get a response. The impact of caucasians sites, federal housing policies, that would light it. The impact of caucasian fight in the city and the Great Migrations of black people from the south is the systematic stripping of adequate resources, talking about people in school, and reject book from belleville to give an example. The completion of the tax base from certain flights. Point intentional and purposeful crack cocaine epidemic in central courts and the black and puerto rican power movement. The history, impact and consequences of epidemics and socialization of the parents with less than 40 years old, consequences of our culture in a community of folks turning children over to those who may not have respect or value for any culture outside their own, whoever controls your childrens mind controls your community, your culture and your economics. Profits derived from assessment, negative and back from subjective and cultural bias, tests, not people who are learning to take tests, they are being tested. Modification of black and brown children, failure to engage black and brown children, history of Public Education and connection to chattel slavery particular lead the oldest universities exist in africa at. And this is the last one. I want to know why this is never discussed. Black children receive education resulting from instruction and teaching techniques in the segregated black schools by black teachers and some results arrive from chicano studies and education curriculum of the state of arizona chicano Public Schools so when we talk about things we never look at the cultural techniques that could be used, always looking for something outside that are not so profitable. [applause] who wants to tackle that one . Request and in part was why it wasnt talked about, this was not the issue. And what happened to the recommend how has been pared down, it has become much too much about the common core state standards, if you were doing curriculum the right way and whatever you are planning and developing the curriculum, looking to integrate as much as possible and definitely make every effort to have components of your curriculum reflect the faces in front of you. That is if you would doing curriculum planning away the Research Says it should be done. In this community during these recent two decades, that does not necessarily all the way through and especially in the last five or six years the way the curriculum has been looked at. Go ahead, i am sorry. The most basic answer to your question, your question is if i could paraphrase, why dont we talk about the racism that has caused a lot of the problems we face and the answer to that is because it is uncomfortable. It is especially uncomfortable for people in power who are often not directly impacted by that and that is the real reason why, a conversation that needs to happen. Anyone else want to comment . Your question . I am presently a member of the north board of education, i grew up in the city, went to the schools here and two questions. I want to preface by saying i dont believe what happened in newark is a series of mistakes. I believe it is a well orchestrated disaster that has the fallen us. Given all of that. [applause] two questions i want any of the panelists or dale with like to address, the situation we are in out, north Public School in out, north Public School district, has basically been stripped, in the worst financial crisis i can ever remember, we are in the present situation where they are being cut and cut again, and only spend the budget operations, not salaries or anything like that but what to spend on students that they can only spend 25 of it and there is no one who can say where many more might come from, living out a lot of details. Would like to see all the folks who say theyre interested in these conversations and one is not as mary bennett said we must recover, but who is willing to sitdown and talk about this because this crisis is the immediate. That is my first question. Think about the fact that in all of this there has o, ay really been one type of reform that has been allowed to be at the table, that there is another t, aye of reform and it is a reform but it is the reform that has proven to be very successful nationally in communities with the same demographics to newark, but never allowed to bring to the table, people were involved in education with our own research and desperation reached out and found out and full service Community Schools and if you google it as they say there is an rintion we need to to talk about, i would like to know who else is willing to engage in that, those two conversations, how could we recover, can we put Community Schools which have been proven to work in our type of communities on the table, who wants to be first . How do we recover . I think it is starting with having civil discussions like we are having now. And building specific infrastructure to do so. For many years, many of you around the room participated in the coalition called community of advocates for north children, something that was done in reaction to the state taking over the School District and allout Civic Leaders and the dialif youe about current date issues, allowed ar i do believe that there is a willingness to have that dialogue ends to be engaged in that and that is happening right now. Anyone on the panel want to respond . I am a member of the alliance for Public Schools and i served as chair for the coalition of Public Schools which preceded the alliance. So Deborah Smith gregory, if you are part of an organization, sorry about that, if you are part of the organization, institutions that would like to be part of the dialogue, before you leave tonight, give her your contact information. This may refer to the new superintendent and moving around a community trying to get to know people, but we know there are people who have concerns so that being the case there is an alternate route to getting to be part of the conversation so you dont feel you have been that it out somehow. I am not saying that is necessarily something he would do but i respect the distress as blend price may he rest in peace says theres a lot of history of people giving people reason to be distrustful. That being vote reality, if you are serious about wanting to be part of the conversation, we convene and the conversation begins. Then we work with the other side of the street to see how we could possibly meet in the street and nobody get run over. The next question. I want to say hi to ryan, one of his original parents. And wouldnt say hi to miss bennett. Born and raised in newark, educated in newark. In your experience, my question, team and north star, you can implement the curriculum. This Reform Movement and this plan was really one plant to come into a new work and to save our children so that they learn, because if that was how the plan was, could have implemented the north star plan curriculum, all of these is a curriculum they teach. We could have implemented the kit curriculum into our neighborhood schools and took the Mark Zuckerberg 100 million and in those schools evaluated the children that were failing or had from all or crisis tend to implement the services into our Community School and not shut down our Community Schools, lose 5,000 children, still right here today we have special Needs Children that need to be placed that is not placed in school, and children on waiting lists to get in school and school had started. I want to understand in your travels in that book, do you understand if kept at north star are such Great Schools with great curriculums, why we didnt implement those curriculums can bring teachers on for 12 months of study, train them in their curriculum, partner with team and north are so we didnt have to shed down our schools and displays our children . Thank you. I dont think there was a coherent plan for the District School as part of this process but i do think in order to raise the performance of the District School is not just curriculum. It is having enough teachers and aides and tutors and social workers to support excellent teaching and so i dont think the curriculum even if they implemented it would have changed the situation in the school. The issue was saving minuscule spend what was the true issue of the one we are playing . Was it to make sure charters got fully funded and schools in them or was the true plan from your experience to shed down our Public Schools because everything you say we already have. She laid off attendance counselors, social workers, guidance counselors, parent liaison, we had all of those famous in our schools and they took those services out of our schools and then gave a misperception to the public that more Public Schools are failing. I am graduate of north Public School, i have a degree in education, i have friends and graduated with me all over the place, a full scholarship at in cc right now, basketball scholarship and kids did graduate from all the schools, academic and other scholarships, schools were not selling but we were not selling some and we needed a new curriculum to employment and we needed resources put into our school, not shutting our Community School. Thank you. Next . My daughter is a product of the pre k curriculum and went to st. Phillips academy. After graduating she did two years only to come back to the north Public School system. She attended American History i. At the Masters School they taught the hard implement of teaching, come back to newark and a Magnet School and the advanced french book that they used at American History high, the book she had in 6 grade at st. Phillips academy, said talking about creating a sustainable model, looking at best practices and a prominent day schools and boarding schools across the country, our children cannot compete and become global citizens. When you look at best practices i would strongly suggest you research the hardness met the. Are there things we could pull and create a curriculum that allows our students to compete globally in the sense that they can compete globally . Thank you. I want to ask a question about the conversation. Dale russakoff and i think you referenced having a broader conversation, what is happening in newark is bigger, incredibly important to what is happening to people who live here and the children and families to live here but this is not the only place we have failing schools and i would really like to know how we can get a National Conversation going, as a dedicated subscriber to the New York Times paper of record, i actually did research and discovered there had been nothing on the new rePublic Schools until your book. I would really like to see National News organizations, National Newspapers and so forth talking about this and getting into what we can do to take what we have learned about school reform, the good, the bad and the ugly and bring it out more nationally. You want to try it that . I am not sure what the question is. How do we have a National Conversation about education . I am hoping there will be a lot more coverage nationally in newspapers and on television and radio because there are so many things happening i feel, education is much more contentious and a much hotter issue that has been and it has been building for years and pennsylvania school, some people did not have enough money to open, there is a problem with state funding during the recession, states come back and with money flowing there is no increase, didnt even open this week and that is about state funding. I do feel it is the National Conversation. I want to keep writing about it. It is evident to me there is a real appetite for people to read about it and write about it and try to challenge some of what is going on right now. Anybody else want to respond . In terms of two or three people back around newark, what we have to be candid about because we are going to try to have a dialogue, we dont want to dwell on the past and if we dont remember the past we had doomed to repeat it. From the very beginning, there was no intent to save the Public Schools in total. There is the quote that says newark would become the Charter Capital of the nation. If you come out of the gate with that premise you are not looking at schools and what is working but looking at the process, the spin you are going to use and the resources you systematically removed it takes the schools that are struggling and whittle and down to nothing and the best opportunity for the children is to go elsewhere. That is one thing. There was never a plan and i think theyll deserves credit for capturing it almost in the first chapter that there was no plan to save the Public Schools so the funding across the country. [applause] is the other issue. We know in this state districts have not been funded to the level that they are supposed to be for consecutive years so in addition to needing more resources we are not even getting resources we are entitled to by law. Thank you. Next questioner please . My name is nick strauss, i am a music teacher. I am product of the trend in Public School system and we always had a question growing up in school, in the streets, whatever in which i think i actually want to ask everybody, in general what are you going to do about it . I hear a lot of this and that, but that is off to decide. What has happened to the arts in Newark Public Schools is incredible. Since i came here in 1988 and it started i wont give the whole history. Since the facebook thing started it really got me thinking. Not what are you going to do about it, write about it or whatever, something needs to be done because you talk about parents wanting what is best for their kids, every kid i have ever seen wants to play some instrument and there are thousands of instruments, thousands of instruments throughout Public Schools that are just sitting there and it is not because the moneys not there but the time is not fair. Which brings me to my real question. How can you talk about all the schools we havent heard the word test at all which is the testing is the bottom of everything. You talk about Excellent Schools, what you are talking about schools could do well on tests, right . Excellent teachers are teachers whose students do well on these tests. What is your question please . How is it you have this discussion of this time and testing is not even mentioned . Very good. I am not sure the panelists are prepared to address this question. You want to try as a former teacher . You are absolutely right that the focus is too much on the test and test prep and that is why we have seen the pushback with the opt out, we have gone through one regime or another around testing and we are one of the few states still tied into the park and i said earlier that if you were designing a curriculum and if you were really giving teachers good pd and if you trusted that your children could learn you would not have to spend the three months before testing begins the golan three more months. And use the content we have shifted and abandoned the arts and abandoned integrated education for the sake of testing which is totally wrong. Totally wrong. One of the challenges we have not just in newark but everywhere, theres not a good definition of what a good school is and when i was in an Excellent School i dont mean high performing on a test exclusively, the school i would send my daughter to. I would not send my daughter to school that sends all its time tests prepping or one that didnt have the arts. And i dont think most people would. We need a more robust definition but we cant abandon testing either because one of the things almost every parent would put on their list is they do want a school that is adding value academically in a way that they can confirm somehow and that is what the test provides. You dont want schools to overfocus. Next questioner please . Go ahead. I dont speak english very well. I do speak english for those who dont understand, bear with me. I dont understand sometimes lose speak slowly and we will understand you. Can you hear me . My question is did or do you, your area have part of it in education to educate a young girl, human children about Human Trafficking. Number 2, what is your agency work in your area can do more to contributes or participate in to cumin trafficking to make them aware, understood them. Number 3, your area, your agency, whatever your name is can do more to help them, the children to the better understanding of Human Trafficking . That is three questions. We will go with three questions. Anyone wants to respond to any of the three questions . I am not done. There are two more questions please i am not sure we fully understood. We heard the question about Human Trafficking but not sure the panelists are adept at responding to that issue. I am not sure that is an issue the book addresses. What are your other two questions . Human trafficking can happen to anybody, any country. What is your question about Human Trafficking . My question is can you in your area of educating the minority of cuban trafficking dont become a victim . Thank you. Very good. Very good. Very good. What is the answer . I am still here and waiting for the answer. We are going to get to it. Can you give a shot at that . I said i was very connected to the community. I didnt say i was the only person. If i am understanding your concern it goes back to that particular piece and instructional peace that in but social studies class, that would be a topic that could be included, explained to help children understand because your first question is are you teaching, if i understood, are you teaching about Human Trafficking. It is a curriculum question if you are saying how do we get that information into schools . So that given your concern about the problem, if we look in our own context and it is a community where that has some standing and concern, should definitely be included in the curriculum somewhere. If you are doing Curriculum Development the way it is research to be done . In your own experience is that come up during the course of your work in education . In terms of Human Trafficking. Am i right . [applause] im under impression that your work didnt answer my question. So ill make it clear one more time [inaudible conversations] so no education in america to educate the younger, but to awareness about the Human Trafficking. Human trafficking is not about Human Trafficking to another country, but its about [inaudible] i just want to make sure in this area in what youre let me try to reiterate. I agree with you whole heartedly that it should be taught yes, thats what im saying. But what im saying to you is extracurricular work is done well, it would be in the curriculum probably in the area of social studies, it could even be touched upon to some degree with facts and information in health classes. It should be there. I cannot tell you that it is there, but i do agree that it definitely should be there. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] next questioner. Question, please. Good afternoon. Im very glad to see this conversation has finally opened up to the community, because it takes the community to set the pace. I see some of my former colleagues. And my question is open to all of you. We need to go back to a unified School District. Curriculum need to be same across the board. Thats my question. I think that would be the apex of trying to fix this situation that were in. Thank you. Comments, please. Thank you. Mary . Unified schools . One more time. [laughter] and i see our former superintendent here. There was a time when you had an office of curriculum and instruction, and the more recent, you know, label became teaching and learning. And you had an assistant superintendent, and that individual had staff with individuals responsible for each of the eight key content areas. And so no matter which of the five wards you lived in, there was a curriculum that reached across the city east, north, west, etc. , so that if you moved and we know that theres high mobility rates because children have different home situations when you got from, when you went from chabazz and you went to boehringer, you would be taught the same curriculum correct. And you would probably have the same textbooks. So that used to exist. I cannot speak to what exists now because of all the tumult it does not exist, thats why i asked the question. Thank you. That should be a focal point. Thank thank you. The next questioner or, please. Good evening, my name is martha barnwell, im born and raised in newark. Educated in newark. Have worked within the Newark Public School system for the last 24 years. And the changes that ive seen go on, its like you said, its completely been stripped. The city has been stripped. The Education System itself has been stripped. But i notice on your book you have those four faces. And we want a dialogue about, we want to talk about what we can do next and how we can reform it. But its really kind of hard to say were going to change things or were going to come together and have this conversation when people really should be tired of having the conversation, because thats all we keep doing is talking about it, and its not changing. Its really getting worse. [applause] so i want to know, those four people on the top of your book are the reason that newark is in this situation its in. Was its been a plan. Because its been a plan. They sat down and they decided, yes, were going to put charters against the public, were going to close newarks Public Schools, and were really not going to educate these children or this community because we dont give a damn about them. So it goes back to the statement about racism being the heart of it x people dont want to talk about it and people dont want to talk about it. I appreciate all these faces in this room, but now do we have a really vested interest in these children . Because i do. I teach them, and i love them, ask and i work with them as if they were hi own. And i put my own. And i put my own children through this system. So i want to dialogue, and i want to talk about it all with you, but i want to know what actually were going to do because it has to change before we cant do anything. [applause] all right. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, please. To your question, i think our mayor has tried to put a stake in the ground to start that shift and to be able to move from just all the talk and all the angst and all the anger to say that after 20 years things need to come back to putting us in control of our district. And i believe that while many people have criticized him, he has stepped out there on an opportunity that was presented whether it was presented genuinely or not to, it was presented, and it was public. So Everybody Knows it. So its incumbent then for everybody to work to try to make that happen on this governors watch. Thank you, mary. All right, next questioner, please. Good evening. My name is leah owens, and my question is kind of simple. Essentially, i would like to ask all of the panelists what is your, what do you think the purpose of education is, and what is your assessment as to whether were meeting those goals or not . So being an active participant in this education fight, you know, ive observed a lot of rhetoric, a lot of spin. But we never really dive deep into what we really see the purpose of education to be. So if you can talk about that. Thank you. Appreciate it. Ryan, why dont you start out. Give mary a break. [laughter] its a great question, and for me i think what the purpose of education is, is to prepare our kids, meaning all of our kids, for active and meaningful participation in our american democracy. And what that means is they have to have knowledge of their history, knowledge of history in general, and they have to be active, critical thinkers. They have to not just take whats given to them and regurgitate it. And i think they have to be rounded, wellrounded students. And in terms of whether were doing that, i think the answer is meaning we as a community or even as a country i think the answer is unequivocally no at least for the most marginalized folks in america. And i dont even think its a close call. I do think theres room for optimism. I think there are some schools where you see some great things in newark and elsewhere. And i think the Community Schools model has a lot of promise. But i dont think theres any way we can say that were doing this consistently for everybody. Lets skip over to dale. Do you want to comment on this . I actually agree with what he said. Very good. I dont know if anybody else wants to shanae, do you want to answer . The only thing i would add is the reason why we think its so important to invest in education and really focus on preserving Public Education is that it becomes a vehicle for be equity. It becomes a passport that allows particularly families in high poverty situations to change their outcomes and the outcomes of that family in one generation. It becomes a vehicle to allow people to compete for quality jobs and to fully participate in society. And i think thats why this is so critical, thats why its important for us to have this conversation on what is the best way to sustain Public Education and insure the promise of it which was to insure equity and everyone having a fair chance to excel in society. And, mary, do you want to add anything . I do. [laughter] all right. The next question, please, and then well take a couple more, because i think dale wants to sign some books before she gets out of here tonight. Yes, please. Be hi, good evening. I am a senior at [inaudible] here in newark. So ms. Russ ms. Russ a could have, you said experiences and neighborhoods had far more influence on childrens academic achievement than that which happens in their classroom and the things that theyre taught in the class room. So my school, being private and being an anomaly in the sense that its a prep school that serves predominantly minority, low income students has the leeway to provide transitional programs such as residential programs that kind of address these issues. But private Charter Schools understandably are in a different domain. So my question is what capacity, if at all, do they have to address these experiences in their homes and neighborhoods . What whats bety do the capacity do the Public Schools have . Yes. I mean, i know i sound like a onenote song, but this is why Public Schools need more resources at the school level. And im just judging by what i saw at arc in that they were really they had the staff available and the flexibility to address needs of children as they came up. And, you know, there were children who were they came to school, some of them, from the beginning with emotional problems, and others had crises in their lives pretty much on a regular basis. And because they had enough extra teachers and extra social workers and tutors to keep kids, to keep addressing the issues that came up daily because kids lived in difficult neighborhoods or in poverty, they were able to help kids who otherwise would have fallen off the tracks keep getting back on the track. And what i witnessed in the District Schools that didnt have the same amount of resources was that it just wasnt possible for one classroom teacher to do all of that, because the school wasnt equipped to help that class room teacher address all the issues that every kid had. Its a varying thing, you know . Situations change, crises come and crises go, but it was clear to me that spark was equipped to deal with those crises in a way the District Schools werent. Anyone else want to respond . We talk about the opportunities that youve had or that students at st. Benedicts have been afforded, and it makes a difference in the lives of students. So i had the good fortune for 12 years to serve as the executive director of project newark, and prudential was a funder more us for a couple of years. And we were primarily working with central and six feeder schools. And at the high school level, we start with the freshman class saying while its not all the money in the world, if you meet our criteria, when you graduate from high school, you get 6,000 going out the door to help you with your college expenses. But what we did starting with the summer after freshman year was get students onto college campuses, expose them to higher ed, have them begin to see themselves in a different mindset n a different setting and that Walking Around those campuses, being in those classes we asked that the College Professors rather than teacher assistants be their summer instructors. So we believed as father ed believes at st. Benedicts hes an institution unto himself [laughter] we believed that exposing those young people as they were moving through high school, one kept them in high school. We had extra staff person who was checking grades constantly, staying on their case, you know, just being a real nudge and saying college is in your future because it needs to be. You need some postsecondary work. So the Additional Resources are where the philanthropy can join arms and really work with you is those positive experiences that help young people see that theres more than living in their Immediate Community that may have a whole host of problems, and they can become productive, contributing members to their own self, to themselves, their families and their communities. Thank you, mary. Yes, the next questioner, please. Hi. My name is andrew sonya, im a senior at st. Benedicts prep, and before i started high school, ive been in the newark public system most of my whole life. Ive been in the Charter School system for about two years. And i was in, i was at 18th Avenue School around the time that Mark Zuckerberg donated, and i noticed, well, not much changed. And looking back thinking about it right now, theres not much things that, you know, donating 100 million to Newark Public School systems can change inherently in the school system. And, you know, you guys talk about having civic talks, you know, pta meeting style, and if you were given the money again, what exactly would you do with it . Wow, great question. [applause] [laughter] question for all the panel youve already asked the best question tonight, so [laughter] [applause] so lets give the panel a chance to respond, all right . All right. Can i i have a little bit more. [laughter] well, i believe because, like, you can give 100 million to the school system, but if there is no incentive for a complete 180 in the school system, whats the point . And if you have money, like, you need money to start whatever plans you have, but what if theres no plans in place . Thats my question. All right, good enough. All right, thats a very good question, young man, and dales going to answer it for us right now. [laughter] well, the first question of what would you do if you had the money and could start all over, i really would have tried to put as much time and energy into figuring out how to get more resources out of the Central Office and into the classroom. Because it seems to me that, you know [applause] because i just dont see how the schools can meet the needs of the kids without more resources. And there are a lot of, i mean, to tell you the truth, i think it would have been another whole book to try to understand where the money is going in the district [laughter] and so i tried very hard, but i dont have a budget and finance background, and i couldnt untangle it myself. But i really think that this is something that needs to be almost like a National Enterprise in Old Industrial cities where District Schools really are not efficiently getting money to the classroom because so much is tied up in the Central Office. And i actually felt that, you know, its clear that this needs to happen, and its clear that its going to be a very challenging political struggle to decide what money youre not going to spend anymore and the way youre spending it and how youre going to put it somewhere else and whos going to lose and whos going to, you know, lose a job or lose a contract as a result of that. And i feel thats something that could really be worth, you know, a Community Engagement process. They had ten Big Community meetings that they spent 1. 8 million facilitating, and they didnt give the public any information because they didnt intend to. And i felt that had they really tried to figure out what is it going to take to get money from the Central Office to the classrooms and had the public decide, you know, these are tough choices, but which ones are we willing to make so that we can get these resources to our kids because our kids need more help at the classroom level, i think that would have been a great, you know, a great debate to have had in newark, and it might have actually led to some changes at the school level. Thank you, dale. Any others . Any other commenters . Shanae . I think the only thing i would add is i think that theres a difference between engagement and collective action. And what we need and what the opportunity is, is to have a collective action process to discuss how we move forward. I think understanding the problem and i still believe that we do not fully understand the problem and we havent had a civil conversation about framing the problem. And then figuring out what tough decisions we collectively have to make. Because its one thing to say that we need to get more money out of the central district, but there are inherent tradeoffs and choices that we have to make as a community in order to make that happen. And that conversation and that dialogue was not allowed. Those decisions were made not with all the stakeholders at the table, but understand that even when we get local control and we as a community have more control over, you know, decisions that need to be made for Public Education, there are tough decisions that need to be made. I think that were empowered, and i believe that the community has the ability to make those discussions, those tradeoffs and make those decisions, but we have to make tradeoffs. And i think that thats going to be the challenge, thats going to be the work ahead. How do we make informed decisions that keep, you know, the best interests of Children First and foremost, but understanding there are going to be pain points given the legacy of this investment in Public Education that didnt start in 2010. Thank you. The next questioner, please. And the gentleman in the white shirt will be the last questioner, okay . Yes, please. Good evening. My name is lauren wells, and im the chief Education Officer for the city of newark in the office of the mayor. And this conversation and the book have been waves of emotion. I did have the opportunity to read the book before today, and i think that its a great piece of work. And as mary said at the beginning, you know, you turn the pages, and it is testimony that youre not out of your mind, right . That there were these things that were happening around you and that you were experiencing them, and they were being done to you, and you were being excluded from them. And so i really appreciate that. And as the question about testing came up and mary was answering it, a couple of things popped into my mind, and i do have a question. You were talking about the instructional and assessment points of the testing industry, and its profitable, right . And its tied to all of this. Its tied to privatization, its tied to how we train and credential teachers. Its tied to a whole industry that came to newark and embedded itself in a very deeplyentrenched way through the organization of something you might call an iron triangle; the mayor, the governor and the superintendent, right . And theres this policy bloc that you cant break through. And the book is called the prize. And as you said at the beginning, our children are not well, and there are winners and losers. And so when i think about the children, and i think about testing, and i think about privatization and i think about whats happened here, it comes back to money and to power. And this young mans point about 100 million doesnt really do something structurally with the district, but it mobilizes resources, and it mobilizes power. And thats exactly what happened with this 100 million. It came here, and it mobilized things so that things in this district could be organized so that we are where we are today. And so my question to each of you from the different points of view that you sit, the Charter School world, the advocacy world, a longterm educator and philanthropy, how do we go Going Forward organize ourselves as a community so that our power is not taken from us and we are accountable for making sure that it is not possible to come here and to destabilize the district, to take the resources and to leave our children not well and losers . [applause] and i think from every point of view theres a response to that question. And you dont have to answer it now, but i really ask you to think about that, because that is the task that lies ahead as we move forward. Thank you very much. [applause] our next questioner, please. Good evening. Good evening. Im a product of Newark Public Schools, probably one of the first prek students in the head scatter head start program. I didnt have a full day of school until first grade, because we had half days. But to say all that, ive a parent, ive been in private schools, Public Schools, Magnet Schools, parochial schools in newark, so ive seen a lot. But my question is, three graduates from Charter Schools, my question is, i think mr. Ryan . You mentioned that youre a parent now. And it was enlightening to me as i had found on my own terms of being in the process is that it took for you to be a parent to see the process of the parent. Because we have been locked out. But my question is with teach for america, to me its kind of a peace corps kind of a project because we get all these 22yearolds that really dont get it, and our kids are under [applause] to where it doesnt even matter anymore because they didnt [inaudible] or they were slouching. And a lot of teachers who are seasoned and [inaudible] yes. You mentioned the services that arent there. The social workers and the tutors and the seasoned teachers that understand the children and where theyre coming from. So my question is to you is teach for america, how can that change so that they are benefiting the children and the children just dont feel hopeless and be helpless and helpless . And they are a big part they have no choice because theyre shut down. All right, thank you. Ryan, why dont you give a shout out on that one. When i was a 21yearold teach for america teacher in new york, i definitely did not have a clue, so youre right about that. [laughter] and its probably debatable whether i have one now. [laughter] that said, there are and i know teach for america has that reputation. I think theyre Getting Better at keeping people in the corps and in teaching, i should say, longer. I also think that we have a lot of Great Teachers who are from teach for america who have lasted, you know, many, many years in this [applause] in this work. [laughter] and we have, and we have teachers, Great Teachers who did not go through that program. I dont think its beneficial to sort of cast teach for america in one light or the other. I think what we need is great educators who are committed to our kids and are committed to staying here and typing the hard work and doing the hard work for a long time because this is not a twoyear project, its not a fiveyear project. [applause] yes, sir. Be your question. Good evening. Okay. My name is charles love, im a north resident, lifelong north resident. Actually, i was ms. Bennett she was my principal when i was in high school. [laughter] so i remember walking into ms. Bennetts office, 1994, and she said, mr. Love, i have a [inaudible] for you. I said, what happened . And she said youre not doing too well, and she transferred me to central high school. People didnt realize i was living in my grandmothers onebedroom apartment. My mother was in and out of situations, drugs and alcohol. My father was in and out of situations. I was living with three brothers well, two brothers. And my grandmothers born 910. 1910 in alabama with a third grade education. And she taught me that life was about working hard and going to school, but there were some things. I had kids driving bmws in high school, 1994. There was drug, crack epidemic ran rampant through the city. Ran rampant. I lost friends, families. I lost so many people, one year i counted on facebook, i had lost 200 of my closest friend in a five block radius. Central ward whats your question, young man . I taught in the Public School system for 15 years, and now im a parent. I dont see charter, i dont see public. I see newark students. Where is the collaboration tool . When are we going to come together and put kids first . Playing political games as kids are are dying every day, suffering. Thank you. And from my experience, i want to know whats going to happen after this, you know . Everybodys in the room and, yeah, but whats next . Thank you, sir. We have to collaborate. Okay. Lets answer your question. Collaborate. [applause] and take one further. Whos going to take the first step . Because we already know that theres a whole, you know, the whole board is lined up, right . But whats going to happen when these kids come out like, these kids, they dont just need teachers. Listen, ryan hill . I salute that dude. Coming into newark and doing what hes doing . At least hes doing something. [applause] all right. Lets answer your question. Thats fine, lets try and answer your question. God bless you. Okay . All right. Who wants to try . Well, i saw dr. Jackson, who is at George Washington carver, sitting over there next to Joanna Belcher who shared, who was the principal of spark and who and they shared a building together and had one of the best, most collaborative relationships ive ever seen educators have. And i think that, and i think thats a model. I dont think its the only model, but i do think that steps have been taken. And i think that whether its when you talk about Community Schools, for instance, a lot of the tenets of Community Schools, empowering educators, getting them resources and connecting the schools to the families in meaningful ways, those are things that a lot of Charter Schools do too, and thats a natural place where we can learn from each other as those start up. And so, so i dont know what the very next step is, but i think those are some ways we can do it. Anyone else want to comment . I think, again, i go back to my fist reflection is first reflection is what can we learn from this opportunity of having the last four years captured in the book. So, one, i would encourage everyone and those of us who have not yet read the book to read it, to reflect. And then also, how do we come together and at least have a starting point, develop a shared vision of what we want the citys Education System to look like. I think if we havent even as a community done that. And i think as we do that work, then we can backwards map on what are the right strategies that we need as a community, need to take in order to reach that goal. And thats something that were committed to coin