Trenton, New Jersey Educators’ and Citizens’ Standoff with Cartel, Gov., Mayor, and School Board

May 15th is D-Day for public education in Trenton, New Jersey. A rally of pro-public education advocates will take place at the New Jersey state capitol to take a stand against the pro-privatization initiatives of the Trenton Public Schools by the corporate Cartel, Gov. Christie, the Trenton School Board, Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson (who appoints the Board), and the “money lady,” Jayne Howard, the business administrator for the school district. There will be a “souls to the rally” caravan shortly after the conclusion of Sunday church services throughout the city.

What is at stake here is the future of Trenton’s system of public education. There is a mad rush by the Christie administration to privatize and dismantle it before the end of his term in 2017 in payment for the Cartel’s support (more than $50 million) of his three political campaigns: two for governor and one for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Gov. Christie has already turned Newark and Camden into essentially corporate charter districts where corporate charter schools have pushed public school budgets into significant deficits.

Christie has also placed Broad superintendents (who have led and/or are leading school privatization efforts) in Jersey City, Newark (twice), Highland Park, Bellville, Montclair, Trenton (twice), Camden, and most recently in South Brunswick (Dr. Jerry Jellig not only slashed school services but also acted inappropriately with the district’s female employees and has been suspended until further notice.) These superintendents are a multicultural group, including males and females of Caucasian, African American, Asian, and Hispanic ancestry. Together, they have presided over or are presiding over districts with substantial majority-minority student populations, most of whom qualify for free/reduced-price lunch and reside in disproportionately dysfunctional social, economic, and family environments.

In Trenton, which manifests these demographic realities to a major degree, it was believed that it would be easy to take over the district because educators and citizens would be so overwhelmed by these challenges. Aided by a succession of state monitors from 2009 to the present—Mark Cowell, Les Richens, Emily Capella, and Les Richens, again–these individuals have worked to privatize school services. Collaborating with the district business administrator, Jayne Howard, they apparently manipulated school budgets by shifting money around budget categories to show shortages that did not exist.

The Trenton NAACP education committee chair has called for a forensic audit of the district’s budget which would reveal these accounting tricks. Howard, who has survived multiple superintendents, has maintained cozy relationships with the state monitors sent in by the Christie administration to upend the district. In a nifty “bait and switch,” Howard would under-fund budget categories (e.g., custodial services, etc.) from previous year expenditure levels in order to declare fiscal emergencies in the following year. Former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, employed similar tactics in 2009 and used the ploy to terminate more than 400 teachers and paraprofessionals. She then hired 400 Teach for America teachers when the money miraculously reappeared. Trenton is using a similar strategy to get rid of more than 200 paraprofessionals, teachers, secretaries, and others.

What is interesting about this maneuver is that it will reallocate these budget cuts to pay private companies for the same services and then increase their compensation via bonuses and guaranteed payments. Thus, the district, which alleges to be short of cash, will somehow find a way to spend more money while claiming to have less! And the paraprofessionals, teachers, and secretaries are bearing the brunt of this financial scam. By continuing the community’s pressure on Mayor Jackson and the school board, money will be found to restore the positions recently eliminated by Howard by moving the money back to where it belongs. (The forensic audit that has been called for could expose unethical, and perhaps criminal, violations.)

Jackson now has to think about his political future. Having served as a Cartel and Christie surrogate since the start of his term in 2014, he recognizes, as do Trenton’s citizens, that Christie leaves office in 2017 one year before the mayoral election. With at least five would be candidates circling Mayor Jackson like buzzards soaring over road kill, he has placed himself between a rock and a hard place. The community is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Jackson’s leadership as it is beginning to view him as a tool of the corporate establishment and as Christie’s African American puppet.

He cannot survive a reelection bid if he continues on this privatization path. The Trenton public has now determined that the school system is being blown up with Jackson’s permission and assistance. Interviews with numerous community leaders and rank-and-file citizens have documented this observation. Moreover, several have reached out to long-term and still popular former Mayor Doug Palmer for support in saving the schools and district jobs. They remember the time when the school board actually supported public education, when Palmer appointed Board members who were reflective of the community’s educational concerns, and when district jobs remained in the public sector.

The May 15th rally at the state capitol will make it abundantly clear that Trentonians, and their allies from around the state, are opposed to all efforts to dismantle and privatize public education. Mayor Jackson has done everything in his power to block the rally to no avail. He will stand in judgment by the community on Sunday and will be forced to decide whether he will serve the Cartel and Gov. Christie or the people who elected him to office.

The political ball is in his court!