It's the Parents' Call -- Newark Public Schools

It’s The Parents’ Call

It is unfortunate that things have come to this in the Newark Public Schools.  A few days ago it was announced by a parent-led group that there would be a boycott of schools in the early days of the new school year. There is a good chance the polarized situation we see now would have been averted had those who govern the schools heeded warnings of the potential harm that would be caused by the One Newark plan. Trenton, which by court order assumed power over Newark schools in the spring of 1995, has exacerbated feelings of frustration by publicly expressing disregard for local voices.

As decisions were being implemented that appeared to render One Newark a fait accompli, it became evident that local community leaders who were not parents of school-age children, were less and less in a position to call the shots about what should happen next. Whether a child goes to school next week, and thereby accept what is being handed to them, topdown, is after all a very personal, family decision.  

Never mind what “leaders” may think of what ought to be done, they are rightfully placed in a support-role at best. To get out ahead of parents and presume to tell them what actions are appropriate, when one has little or no direct skin in the game, would be arrogant and misguided.This one is the parents’ call. Leaders who want to support parents should respond to the parents’ expressed need for help. 

So far, organizers of the announced boycott have successfully appealed for federal intervention in the school crisis; now they are organizing parents to express their dissatisfaction with what is about to happen to their children and their neighborhood schools—all without high-profile leaders.

This is as it should be.

Bill Howard

8-31-14