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Key areas of his plan include tougher standards, more school options, and improved accountability
Chris Daggett, independent candidate for governor, Wednesday unveiled his platform for overhauling New Jersey public education system, a plan that holds teachers more accountable by eliminating lifetime tenure and abolishing a controversial "back door'' policy that allows failing pupils to earn a high school diploma.
In the first of several major policy initiatives aimed at what he describes as taking back control of government from partisan politics and special interests, Daggett proposed a series of reforms for making schools, teachers and administrators more accountable. His plan revolves around three key areas: toughening standards, creating more school options, and improving accountability.
"It is time for change — a change that focuses on accountability and performance, and that reexamines fundamental assumptions about such institutions as high school graduation tests, tenure, and the public education monopoly,'' Daggett said at a Statehouse press conference.
As part of his platform, Daggett would revamp the system for tenure and increase supervision as part of an aggressive effort to heighten accountability in the public school system. In addition to teachers, the tenure proposal would apply to principals and other administrators."We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on teachers' salaries and benefits, but we do not do an effective job in supervising and evaluating them,'' Daggett said. A former state environmental protection commissioner, Daggett holds a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts.
Daggett said if he is elected, he will submit legislation for five-year, performance-based renewable contracts, with merit pay opportunities for new teachers and for teachers who do not currently hold tenure. Teachers will be observed in the classroom at least four times each year and given an opportunity to improve if their teaching is found to be inadequate. If a teacher is not recommended to have a contract renewed, that teacher may appeal the school board's decision. An arbitrator will be appointed to hear the case in a short, defined timeframe, and the decision will be binding.
"While there are superb teachers in every school district in New Jersey, there are too many teachers who are not performing,'' Daggett said. "Parents know this, school boards know this, administrators know this, fellow teachers know this, and students know it best of all.''
Daggett's platform also calls for abolishing the "back door'' process known as the special review assessment or SRA. The SRA is a program for students who three times fail the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA), which according to Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy is only an eighth-grade level test.
Daggett said, "If this back door route to a diploma is eliminated, New Jersey's graduation rate would fall from 1st to 24th, a shameful ranking given the fact that we spend more money per pupil than any state in the nation.''
Students in the SRA program can receive a high school diploma from a three member panel after what amounts to a cursory assessment of their basic skills that does not include a paper and pencil test. Daggett said that only when attempting to take college courses or to get their first job do students finally realize that the SRA program is a sham and that they have been misled by their former schools.
"This is a moral issue, not just an educational issue. No ‘back door,' no telling children they have the skills when they do not,'' Daggett said. "We cannot keep sending children into the workforce and colleges without the skills they need. This subterfuge must end."
Daggett also called for authorizing more school choice, including new and more adequately funded charter schools. At the same time, Daggett said he strongly backs the concepts outlined in the Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act, whereby students in failing schools could receive up to $9,500 to attend a school of their choice by using money from a fund created by corporations in exchange for a credit against their Corporate Business Tax.
The concept was proposed by the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey and the Latino Leadership Alliance, and is supported by a number of business groups, including the South Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Business and Industry Association and the New Jersey Taxpayers Association.
"In order to ensure that they receive a high quality education that prepares them for the future, students in failing schools should be given the same opportunities to choose a school as their wealthier suburban counterparts," Daggett said.
Daggett's plan also would establish a program to spur the creation of "Break the Mold" schools and programs to improve student learning. Daggett also proposed an aggressive program to recruit the best teachers to New Jersey and the creation of an alternate route program for certification for school superintendents and principals.
Additional details on Daggett's plan may be seen at: www.daggettforgovernor.com.
— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
