I've met Cory Booker and couldn't disagree more with the article or the sentiment here. He has had a tough job. The crime rate is down in Newark, affordable housing is being added. He balanced the budget. Commercial development is taking place after years of little to none. I met Mayor Booker on a plane. I was on my way to the lavatory and had a conversation with him. I told him I was traveling with my daughter. He asked me where my daughter was seated and got up and walked back to her seat. He spoke with her for quite a while about education. My daughter teaches low income kids now but at the time was a college student. She was very inspired by the conversation.
I am so tired of this anti-Charter School harping. Public charter schools can be an excellent option for low income families. Some are terrific. Some aren't and those schools should be closed just as the low performing public schools should be. But if the family's neighborhood school is awful and there is an excellent public charter that is educating kids well, what is wrong with giving a child a chance at a good education that opens up doors to a future? Can we put the child first? Isn't that the point of education? We need to improve public education for all kids. That requires making public schools better and including choices like good public charters when the public schools haven't been improved quickly enough to meet the needs of the children now. When a child loses a year or two early on, they lose their future.
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