alberghi aeroportuali BesenovaAt a large rally on a grassy bank overlooking the Hudson River, Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler and speakers from a range of religious, business, academic and political backgrounds held a four-hour rally to whip up support for a Whitman administration plan to provide vouchers to parents of Jersey City children.
The plan has already been met with an icy response from the state Board of Education and has been condemned by the state's largest teacher union 144,000-member New Jersey Education Association.
In a statement, the NJEA has called the voucher proposal "insulting." Citing Gov. Christie Whitman's and Schundler's support of the plan, the union charged that "political influence is once again taking hold in the Department of Education in an attempt to institute a private school voucher scheme."
The NJEA recently raised member dues to fund a $10 million publicity campaign aimed, among other goals, at killing the voucher experiment in the Legislature, which is expected to take up the issue after the Nov. 8 elections.
Under the experimental voucher program, parents would receive "certificates" from the state redeemable for full or partial tuition at private schools.
The proposal, as described by state Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz, would limit the program to a five-year pilot plan involving only children entering the first and ninth grades in the city.
Although some early discussions have set a target estimate of $1,000 per voucher, the amount of the voucher has not yet been set but could be prorated according to family income.
Parents of so-called at-risk children would receive vouchers or certificates more valuable than those provided to wealthier parents. The plan would be evaluated every year and would automatically expire at the end of five years.
"Jersey City is not a Third World nation," Schundler said. "This is our hometown. We owe it to our children to fight for them every day. They deserve the best possible education. It is time to be honest with ourselves. It is time for the system to change. It is time to put money into the classrooms. My education plan for Jersey City has the potential to save our schools and save our children. That's why we are working hard to put together a huge grassroots army of Democrats and Republicans who are ready to show New Jersey and the rest of the nation that the time for school choice is now," said the first-term Republican mayor.
Among those joining Schundler was former Tennessee Gov. And U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, a Republican who is testing the political waters for a run at the White House in 1996.
"Nobody's child should be forced to attend a bad school-public or private," Alexander said. "The world has changed, and I believe that 20 years from now school choice will not even be an issue but accepted."
A mile up the road at the only intersection leading into the park, several hundred parents, teachers and police officers staged a noisy and equally energetic demonstration on their opposition to the plan. "When the Dust clears, vouchers will fail. Public education built this nation. This is a bad idea, always has been and it always will be," said NJEA President Daniel Testa before leading the crowd in a cheer to "defeat vouchers."
hotels in MalmoSeveral Jersey City parents at the anti-voucher rally charged that the program would largely benefit children from middle class and wealthier families already attending private schools as the vouchers might fall short of the thousands of dollars needed by poor families to send children to the private schools of their choice.
"Where am I supposed to get the money for the rest of the tuition and uniforms, books and computer discs and all the other stuff a child needs to attend a private school?" asked Gerald Haseltine, whose stepson will enter Dickinson High School next year.
Noordwijk accommodationKlagholz has emphasized that his intent was to determine whether such a plan could improve student achievement in a district where children have lagged behind state standards for decades. Both sides in the voucher debate agree Jersey City schools remain among the worst in the state.
Whitman has already endorsed the idea of a voucher pilot program in Jersey City. Schundler has closely linked his own political fortunes and future to the concept, serving as the honorary chairman of and central force behind the Save Our Schoolchildren organization.
In his remarks and in statements released to the press yesterday, Schundler repeatedly referred to the proposal as "my idea," "my plan" or as "Mayor Schundler's proposal."
In addition to organizing the rally yesterday, Save Our Schoolchildren also held a $1,000-per-couple black-tie "Victory Gala" last night at the Liberty Science Center with all the proceeds going to help pass what Schundler yesterday kept calling "this historic legislation."
A mile back up the road, Marilyn Morheuser had a very different term for the plan and legislation: "an unconstitutional and politically motivated move by right-wing Republican extremists."
Dubrovnik hotelsAs the featured speaker at an anti-choice rally sponsored by the Jersey City Community Advocates for Public Education group, the Parents Council of Jersey City and the city's teachers and policemen, who are feuding with Schundler over proposed work rule changes, Morheuser ripped into Schundler, Whitman, whom she called "Christie Witchwoman," and the plan itself.
She charged that Schundler and Whitman are failing to "comply with their constitutional oaths, and aided and abetted by the radical right...they are determined to kill public education.
Morheuser, an attorney and executive director of the Education Law Center of Newark, is best known for winning the landmark Abbott vs. Burke school funding case that changed how New Jersey funds public education. Also opposing the voucher plan are the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP and the New Jersey chapter of the ACLU.