Steven Fulop on Education

Returned city public school system from state control

This is a story about policy & public education. It's a story about returning control of public schools to where it should be: local. But it's also a story about something more fundamental--about remembering who our schools, our community is supposed to serve: kids.

In 1989, when the papers reported on why Jersey City schools were being turned over to the state, they said the schools were "crippled by political patronage and nepotism, weak administration and management, fiscal irregularities, and indifference." And they weren't wrong. We had schools that didn't put students first. Someone said we were suffering from "academic bankruptcy."

We have rebuilt "our academic credit." Of course, this is just the beginning. Local control does not mean our schools can't improve. They can. They will.