file photo by ArtChick
Posted on February 27, 2017 at 7:11 AM
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
By Barbara Harris
I’m headed to Trenton this morning because I need legislators to know what my grandsons’ public charter school means to them.
I’m raising two African American boys in Newark and we all know in this country what can happen to African American men, especially if they drop out of school.
Uncommon Schools’ North Star Academy is providing my grandchildren with an education like nothing that I experienced for myself or for my own children.
When I hear my elected representatives speaking negatively about charter schools, I want to ask them if they have ever visited North Star Academy. If they did, they would quickly see how well it is serving my grandchildren and the other kids who attend.
There are too many lawmakers who have never stepped foot in North Star Academy, or a school like it. They have never come for morning circle. They have not met with our wonderful teachers. They have not seen how well our children are doing in class.
A neighbor and friend teaches at a charter school in Montclair. She is not paid much – her salary is nearly half of what a new teacher in Ridgewood would earn and she does not have a generous benefits package. But what she does, every day, is paramount to magic and her school’s mojo is similar to the one described in the article. Ridgewood’s whiney teachers should take note!