Last May I wrote about the mayoral election in Newark, New Jersey, because it was, among other things, a referendum on the “education reform”/privatization movement. The former mayor, now Senator Cory Booker, is pretty much in the ed reform camp. So was one of the two candidates, Shavar Jeffries. On the other side was a somewhat radical Ras Baraka, a public high school principal who grew up in the city and is a firm believer in retaining, restoring and improving public education.
Baraka won.
Newark has one of the most interesting education stories in the country. A weird triumvirate came together to “reform” the Newark schools: Republican Governor Chris Christie, who basically ran the school district because it was under state control; Democratic Mayor Cory Booker who worked together with Christie at the same time he hoped the schools would eventually be returned to local control; and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who contributed $100 million to Newark schools. The result was underwhelming, to say the least. Most of Zuckerberg’s money was wasted and very little was accomplished. The details are interesting enough, they’re the subject of a new book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools,” by Dale Russakoff (If you want a shorter, online version, Russakoff had an excellent article on the subject in the New Yorker last year).
So how are things going now that Baraka has been in office for a year? According to the New York Times, they’re going surprisingly well.
Mayor Ras J. Baraka came into office last summer practically taunting his doubters.
“Yeah,” he said in his inaugural address, “we need a mayor that’s radical.”
They had predicted that he would be anti-business and anti-police, that Mr. Baraka, the son of Newark’s most famous black radical, would return a city dogged by a history of riots and white flight to division and disarray.
A year later, Mr. Baraka is showering attention on black and Latino neighborhoods, as he promised he would. But he is also winning praise from largely white leaders of the city’s businesses and institutions downtown. He struggles with crime — all mayors here do — but he has also championed both the Black Lives Matter movement and the police, winning praise for trying to ease their shared suspicion.
Supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and the police isn’t incompatible, he’s shown. As many people in black communities have said, they want a visible and effective police presence, but they want it there for help and support, not to intimidate and incarcerate.
Here’s what a recent Occupy march looked like in Newark.
[It was] an Occupy the City rally the mayor held in early August, blocking off streets at the city’s crossroads for thousands of residents who marched against violence. “We’re used to them blocking off streets because someone got shot, not someone blocking off streets for a positive thing,” Ms. Awadalla said.
Baraka is encouraging city residents to join him “occupying” a block a week to lessen criminal activity. Instead of jumping into the controversy about who’s most to blame for problems in the inner city, society at large or the people living there, he wants everyone to work toward solutions.
“Everybody has a responsibility,” he shouted to the thousands gathered at the intersection of Market and Broad Streets for Occupy the City, wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “We Are Newark.”
“The mayor has a responsibility, yes,” he said. “The police have a responsibility, yes. But so do our fathers, so do our mothers, so do our brothers. The question is, are you living up to your responsibility?”
What about education? Christie said in June that he would return the Newark schools to local control. It’s going to be a tough transition. It’ll be awhile to see how well it works.
Newark is a city with lots of problems, and that will continue to be true into the indeterminate future. Baraka will be walking a political and economic tightrope as he tries to effect positive change. But he’s giving the city reason to hope there can be a slow movement toward a safer Newark which respects the rights of all its citizens, and a growing economy which will bring more jobs as well as more money in the city coffers to keep the improvement going. The schools will be a slow pull—educational improvement always is—but Baraka was considered a successful high school principal who lowered gang activity and raised test scores, so unlike most politicians, he has an insider’s understanding of how schools work and how they can be improved.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.
There really is no definition of the group “black lives matter,” other than opposition to law enforcement efforts to remove criminals from the street. At least the rioters and the marchers that have been shown on television.
Do they have a spokesperson?
So little time for so much white guilt. Fortunately there are uber liberals like Safier that soak in it 24/7.
The New Yorker article you link is excellent. Here’s what I like about Baraka, and what gives me hope that he may be able to help turn Newark schools around when local control is reinstated:
1) He comes from a family of educators, not businessmen.
2) He grew up in the city where he will be trying to lead — his understanding of the problems they face is deeply grounded and his local networks are extensive.
3) He has solid experience working as a professional educator in the same troubled urban school district that, as mayor, he will be trying to help turn around.
4) He has a democratic leadership style, knows how to motivate and involve the base, and knows that he needs to earn the trust of his constituency if he is to lead successfully — he doesn’t assume the right to lead is something given to him together with his job title.
5) He seems to know how to work with the business community without letting them set the agenda — I doubt he will sign off on policies that exploit labor or policies designed to turn the public school system into a low wage, low entitlement employee training program.
(Don’t want to get off-topic, but the thought does come to mind that we could use someone like Baraka to head up our most troubled local urban school district.)
BLM is a joke. Their organizer don’t take it seriously, so why should we?
You are seriously, completely delusional, trying to feed us a feel good Newark story.
As someone who was stationed at Fort Dix, this place is the cesspool of humanity. I haven’t been to Detroit, but I have been to Oakland and Newark was just as scary.
All money and time invested there is wasted. This is a fact. Nothing will change.
Stop trying to make reality bend to your narrative, David. Some of us have been in the real world, and actually preform research.
Take your white privilege and go back to Portland.
Sorry to butt in here, but am I the only one whose eyes gloss over when I read comments posted by What, Again, Bisbee Boy, Rat T, and Old Pueblo Independent?
Most of their comments are personal attacks on Mr. Safier. Rarely do they discuss the topic at hand.
Can’t. Portland outlawed white privilege. Along with common sense and decency.
David S. you write about many facts that demonstrate uniting and not dividing is the answer to severe problems. You write about a way of thinking that many do not have in our culture. I just read a post on FB about a police officer being shot. The poster wrote something like: -I am so sick of reading about how awful our police are. This is the reality-. That person obviously can not see as others who post here, that killings, poor schools, and generally crime is not good for anyone. It is not us against them. This article states facts about how all can be helped. All can respect and be respected. The ability of this mayor to unify is amazing and show be applauded. There is progress … which is the point. Is he finished? Is it perfect? No and it never will be. That is life. Progress towards respecting all humanity is happening.
I think it is in the interest of some money groups to keep everyone divided. They come in and take over. As unity and progress is happening in Newark, Christie is returning power to local control. There are big money groups who do not want that to happen. In fact, they work hard at proving as some do here, that it can’t happen. This is not true as Newark, and Baraka are proving. They are working together. THey are making progress and I am very happy for them.
Guardians – “I think it is in the interest of some money groups to keep everyone divided.”
Boy, there’s a leap – it’s the rich white guys.
The people that have the interest are the race hustlers, Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan, Wright, Obama and the entire democrat party who exploit division and spread the hate at every opportunity.
Obama and Holder incited this mythical race war when they dispatched Sharpton to Furguson to light the fuse.
Yes, Guardians, we get the point you are trying to make: “There is progress … which is the point. Is he finished? Is it perfect? No and it never will be. That is life.”
But you missed this point: a significant part of “life,” properly and thoroughly understood, is that some people are better suited than others by virtue of their previous experience (both life experience and professional experience) to lead in certain contexts than others are. Sometimes “leaders” are put in positions where they are doomed to fail and / or where they are allowed to mismanage their constituents business and damage the institutions they administer. Baraka has a fair chance of succeeding, in part because of the qualities and characteristics listed above by “Pro Baraka.” I would add another significant characteristic not mentioned above: from what I have read of Baraka, he seems to be HONEST. Honesty is essential for winning the trust of your constituency.
As for the local implications, readers can draw their own conclusions.
Reminder that the black shooter who killed the reporter and camera man was a member of BLM.
Well, Joaquin, what would you expect when each and every topic David puts up is his version of Limbaugh?It’s really nonsense intended to incite which he thrives on. David has no intention of effecting change anymore than Rush. Look at the number of articles and then look to see which has been effective in any way. We’re all just passing time here while getting on each other’s nerves. The only difference between Dave and some of the other contributors here is the others are original when they tell us about the great leisure time locales in Tucson and area.