Minority Clergy/Leaders Gather to Release "State of Emergency" Exposé on NJ Urban Education Reform Failure

NEWARK, NJ (03/24/2009)(readMedia)-- Who: Reverend Reginald T. Jackson, Executive Director, The Black Ministers Council of NJ; Bishop Thomas Donato, Regional Bishop for Hudson County, Archdiocese of Newark; Martin Perez, Esq., President, The Latino Leadership Alliance of NJ; other honored clergy and leaders representing the state's minority communities; members of the NJ School Choice Alliance.

What: A press conference announcing the release of State of Emergency, a report on the failure of New Jersey's urban education reforms, and supporting S-1607/A-2897, The Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act.

When: March 25th, 11 a.m.

Where: New Jersey Statehouse, 125 West State Street, Trenton, NJ. Room 109.

Why: New Jersey has two education systems. One, often described by the Governor as the envy of the rest of the world, and one that has, and continues to, fail minority and low-income students despite some of the nation's highest per-pupil spending. The State of Emergency report explores how the New Jersey's education policies and initiatives conspire to keep our students ethnically separate, our standards and expectations low, and our public education systems lavishly funded despite their inefficacy for minority children.

While the Department of Education continues to tinker and watch its initiatives fail, minority communities are embracing substantive reforms, such as changes to teacher pay and tenure, and an expansion of school choice as with Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act, to give their children better educational options. The UEZ Scholarship Bill has been consistently blocked despite support by senior members of the legislature and leaders in the African American and Hispanic communities. The bill, which enjoys bi-partisan support, deserves its opportunity, and the children of the legislation's pilot districts deserve their chance to attend schools that work.

For more information, contact Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, Executive Director, the Black Ministers' Council of New Jersey @ 201-341-9865, or Derrell Bradford, NJ school Choice Alliance Steering Committee @ 917-609-3944.