Op-ed: Turning around Jersey City's schools

September 12, 2012, 8:07 AM
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
By Steven Fulop

When I was elected to the Jersey City Council, an old-time Jersey City politician offered me some advice. If you ever want to be re-elected, he said, ?do nothing, and then nobody will be mad at you. It works perfectly.?

Over the past several years, a group of volunteers and I have slowly been chipping away at the old-time political machine in Jersey City. We have made it our mission to change the mentality of self-service politics. Our idea ? and this still surprises and threatens the political class in Jersey City ? is that the goal of politics is public service. We operate on the premise that anything is possible if we work hard enough.
There is no better example of the possibilities for a better future in Jersey City than the recent changes in the city?s school system.

Over the past few decades, the story of Jersey City?s education system has been bleak. Jersey City was the first district in the country subject to state control, in 1989, and 23 years later, the district still has a disproportionate number of failing schools. Think of it: That?s two generations of kids moving through the system, entering at kindergarten and leaving, if they made it that far, after 12th grade.

Far too many of those children passed through the system without acquiring the basic skills they need to be employable and successful later in life. The parents and children deserved better. And the taxpayers deserved better than administrative leadership that found this mediocrity acceptable.

If Jersey City is to succeed, we know it starts with schools. And today, we are clawing our way back. The most tangible proof of progress came last month, when the Jersey City Board of Education concluded its search for a new superintendent and extended a contract to Marcia Lyles, who was the former deputy chancellor of the 1.2-million-student New York City school system under Joel Klein before becoming superintendent of the largest school district in Delaware. Lyles? talent and track record speak for themselves. Her hiring is an absolute coup for Jersey City.

Changing urban education is not easy, and a lot of what has happened in Jersey City has to do with partnerships. Over the past three years, we have seen alliances that have not happened elsewhere in the state.

The teachers? union partnered with reform-minded voting blocks to elect, with record numbers, an almost entirely new board of education that the governor has felt comfortable to work with on urban education issues. The dynamics have not always been perfect, but we can certainly say that parents, teachers and the governor have played crucial and productive roles in changing the course of the city?s educational system.

The new members of the Board of Education are professionals who are goal-oriented and for whom average performance is not acceptable. That is why they took the bold step of separating from past failures and conducting a national search for a new superintendent. The hiring of Lyles didn?t serve the interests of Jersey City?s political machine in the least. Instead, it served the interest of Jersey City?s families. Imagine that.

Twenty-three years ago, Jersey City was a national example for all the wrong reasons. Today, it can be a model for urban school districts all over the country.

This is doable: Jersey City boasts diversity like few other cities, greater parent involvement than most urban districts, proximity to the largest media market in the world to attract dollars and a district that is large enough to be noteworthy but small enough to be manageable.

And, finally, we start this next chapter with the powerful advantage of partnerships between the union, parents and the governor.

Jersey City has an opportunity and we don?t intend to squander it.

Steven Fulop is a Jersey City councilman who announced in 2010 that he will run for mayor in next year?s election. Join the conversation at njvoices.com

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