Friday, September 24, 2010

What Do Oprah, NJ Governor Chris Christie, and Facebook All Have In Common?

Earlier this week Oprah did a show on Waiting For Superman, and again today her show had a definite educational angle:

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will make a surprise appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show Friday to announce an unprecedented restructuring of Newark's school system and the gift of $100 million from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, two officials with direct knowledge of the plan told The Star-Ledger tonight.

Christie and Booker will proclaim that the long-troubled Newark schools, which have been under state control for 15 years, are going to be placed under Booker’s authority. Together, Booker and the school system will embark on a massive program of educational change long opposed by teachers unions.


Here's to hoping that the children of Newark now have a chance at a better education than they otherwise might have had.

4 comments:

scott mccall said...

this is definitely an experiment. it's going to show whether more funding can really have a bigger impact than the family environment at home. i hope it does.

Unknown said...

This is the school system that spends upwards of 24K per year per student on education. Just how much money is enough? And isn't their graduation rate something like 50%? Is the failure because of lack of money? I don't think so.

Why couldn't Newark just shut down the schools and pay for all of the kids to go to private school - wouldn't it be cheaper?

Darren said...

Then what would happen to all those union jobs?

Unknown said...

I would say what they could do with the union jobs...but I'm too much of a lady! :0)