Cory Booker on Education Mayor of Newark; N.J. Senator; 2020 presidential contender (withdrawn)

Government should not profit from student debt

Investment in education helps the whole society

Support public education including some charter schools

Free community college; loan forgiveness; apprenticeships

I am just as determined to have apprenticeship programs. If I am president, we will have robust apprenticeship programs for kids to learn the skills of a 21st century economy, like advanced manufacturing, to learn and earn at the same time. If you're a person that's older and lose your job, this country should say to you there is a place for you, as well, to get a midcareer apprenticeship.

New public school models & more public education options

ANALYSIS: Booker's rhetoric misuses standard liberal pro-public school phrases. "Empowering teachers" to liberals means "empowering teachers' unions"--exactly the opposite of what Booker did. His subtly-worded "options" line did include "new models"--charter schools and, later, vouchers. This is the education policy equivalent of a pro-choice advocate saying "I'm pro-life for the mother"--which everyone would recognize as misleading.

2010: Make Newark the nation's charter school capital

In pitching the plan to donors, Booker portrayed the Newark schools as a prize of a very different sort: a laboratory where the education reform movement could apply its strategies to one of the nation's most troubled school districts. He predicted that Newark would be transformed into "a hemisphere of hope," catalyzing the spread of reform throughout urban America.

OpEd: community engagement or public relations?

Despite Booker's public promises of "bottom-up" reform led by the people of Newark, he quietly hired a team of educational consultants--none of them from Newark--to create a "fact base" of the district's needs and to lay the groundwork for the changes that he and Zuckerberg had agreed on over the summer. Booker raised [$1 million from private sources]. With no public money involved, no public notice was legally required, none was given. The merging of public and private business only progressed from there.

Radical reform needed for youth to move forward

Booker delivered a ringing call for radical reform in his State of the City speech. "Bold action and change are difficult, and take great sacrifice, but we must move forward for our children," he said.

The school board elections [dealt Booker] a historic upset: [Booker's reform opponents] won two of the three races, the winning message: "We went door to door telling people 'If you're against what Mayor Booker and Governor Christie are doing to our schools, this is your team.'"

Urban school districts are beholden to public worker union

Booker warned that they would face a brutal fight with unions and machine politicians invested in the status quo. Whatever their political differences, Booker and Christie agreed completely on public education. Both viewed Urban school districts as beholden to public workers' unions and political patronage rather than children.

Star fundraiser for Democrats for Education Reform

These "venture philanthropists" and called themselves investors rather than donors, seeking returns in the form of sweeping changes to public schooling. President Obama incorporated many of these goals into Race to the Top [with] single-minded focus on what was best for children, even at the expense of upending adult lives and livelihoods.

In the beginning, Democratic politicians almost universally spurned the cause, as did many African-American leaders, perceiving these efforts as threats to the Democratic base in cities: unions, public sector jobs, and politicians who doled them out.

Ensure that college tuition is not a long-term burden

As your Senator, I will support access to the education our kids need to succeed by doing all I can to ensure paying for that education is not a barrier or long-term burden.

Pre-school for 3-year-olds; more teacher empowerment

• More kids in preschool: 61 percent more 3 and 4 year olds enrolled in public preschool;
• Tackling illiteracy: Raised philanthropy to provide 120,000 books for nearly 12,000 low-income students at 20 Newark public schools to help build home libraries;
• Options: Attracted new public school models, leading to families having more quality public education choices;
• Healthier families: Newark doubled the number of schools served by school-based health centers.
• Places to play: Expanded acres of school athletic fields and playgrounds;
• Empowering teachers: Establishment of a "Teacher Innovation Fund" that pays for ideas teachers have to improve student outcomes;
• Rewarding good teachers: Facilitated a groundbreaking teacher's union contract that made the district the first in New Jersey to offer performance bonuses to effective teachers, and holding accountable ineffective teachers who are failing our kids.

Fundamental right to high quality public education

Newark Workshops got $1.3M in Pell Grants

As Mayor, I established a program at Newark's Financial Empowerment Center that reached more than 1,000 college-bound Newarkers through financial aid workshops. It has helped Newark students receive approximately $1.3 million in Pell Grant awards.

Supports "Race to the Top" education reform

Supports school voucher proposal, like other Democrats

When Booker responded that he, too, believes in public schools and that he helped bring $100 million in philanthropic funds into the city's school system, Booker said both Pallone and Holt had voted in favor of the Washington DC Opportunity Scholarship Program--a voucher-like program that gives scholarships to low-income children. "While they're criticizing me I'd like them both to explain why they voted for the same position I have," Booker said. The vote Booker referenced was actually a much larger appropriations bill that included the program.

Brother runs a charter school in inner-city Memphis

Arranged $100M school grant from Facebook founder Zuckerberg

Newark mayor Cory Booker was there. A year before, a chance meeting in a conference buffet line led to Zuckerberg's offering a $100 million matching grant for Newark schools. It was announced on Winfrey's show amid much hoopla, which some say was to drown out the opening of a movie, "The Social Network," that showed Zuckerberg in a bad light.

"We had lunch, and just gave him a quick update on the progress," Booker said. He also said Zuckerberg was pleased with progress being made in Newark schools.

Supports school vouchers

2010: Appointed to oversee $100M donation to Newark schools

What is disturbing, however, is the ease with which celebrities and national figures have disparaged public education. What do they know about the issue other than what the read or hear? The last time any of them probably stepped in a classroom was when they attended high school.

The money Zuckerberg donated to the Newark schools came with certain restrictions. The biggest restriction was that Zuckerberg wanted a say on how the schools were run. And his first demand was that Booker be put in charge of the schools. Of course, NJ state law prevents that. So Christie had to get creative, and named Booker as his representative to the Newark schools.

OpEd: $100M gift to Newark schools was a publicity sellout

Zuckerberg's monumental gift was played for all the publicity it could get on Oprah Winfrey's show and it certainly did help the public forget about the Race to the Top fiasco. But the fact that Christie and Booker were selling out to Zuckerberg in order to get their hands on his money did not sit well with many educators.

Supervises Newark schools by gubernatorial appointment

No, Booker doesn't have certification as a school administrator. Perhaps that's why Governor Christie is pushing, as one of the staples of his education reform agenda, to make it easier for principals and school leaders to gain certification by going through an alternate route. Alternative route programs generally mean that prospects are not required to earn college credits by taking courses in education or to have the appropriate educational experience that would be needed to run a school system.

$120 million for "Teachers Village" where educators live

Founded the Newark Charter School Fund

A: The City and school budgets are separate, and the schools are under State control. The Mayor and the Council have no say over school personnel decisions. There is no question, though, that we should be concerned about the education afforded to Newark's children. The Mayor has spent much of his energy and focus on improving the educational environment in the City. He has founded the Newark Charter School Fund, identified financial support for five new alternative schools, launched the Teacher Next project, create the YES Center, and runs the annual Mayor's Achievement Challenge.

Charters & alternatives for persistently failing schools

We have recently begun a small school initiative for our high school students who are at risk of dropping out. Further, among other things, our new superintendent is looking to expand our magnet schools of excellence which have long waiting lists and completely reorganize our persistently failing schools.

Vouchers and charters can work in inner cities

I challenge anybody to come into my city and walk with me and simply talk to these inner-city single mothers. You will see that they care more about the education of their children and are more informed than suburban soccer moms are in the towns where I grew up. They know what it is going to take to help their children achieve the American dream. They believe in [education and vouchers], and they still hold onto it.

Make two years of community college free.

Excerpts from press release from Tammy Baldwin, Senate sponsor: The America's College Promise Act makes two years of community college free by:

• Providing a federal match of $3 for every $1 invested by the state to waive community college tuition and fees for eligible students;
• Ensuring that programs offer academic credits which are fully transferable to four-year institutions in their state;
• Establishing a new grant program to provide pathways to success at minority-serving institutions by helping them cover a significant portion of tuition and fees for the first two years of attendance for low-income students.

Opposing argument: (Cato Institute, "College Courtesy of the Taxpayer? No Thanks," Jan. 9, 2015): One look at either community college outcomes or labor market outlooks reveals free college to be educational folly. Community college completion rates are atrocious: a mere 19.5% of community college students complete their programs. Meanwhile, the for-profit sector has an almost 63% completion rate. And [about 70%] of the new job categories in coming years will require a high school diploma or less.

Opposing argument: (Heritage Foundation, "Free Community College Is a Bad Deal", July 15, 2016): Free college proposals would subject community colleges to the same types of subsidies-induced inflation endemic at four-year institutions. And low-income students already have access to federal Pell Grants, which can cover the bulk of community college tuition. By contrast, a more open market of alternative schooling models, such as online or vocational education programs, could better tailor degrees at a lower cost.