Christie's plan would allow for-profit companies to run 5 failing N.J. public schools

CAMDEN — With the enthusiastic backing of powerful South Jersey Democrats, Gov. Chris Christie Thursday announced a five-year pilot program that would allow persistently failing schools to hand oversight to private education companies.

"Transformation schools cannot be foisted on a community," Christie said at a press conference outside the Fetters Building at 3rd and Walnut.

"The community must come forward and ask to participate in the transformation school project."

If legislation creating the project becomes law, the state will permit five troubled schools to be run by so-called school management organizations (SMOs), generally for-profit companies that have been brought in by cities across the country to oversee underperforming schools. School boards must apply to the Department of Education to participate, Christie said.

The schools would be subject to the same standards and accountability as their public counterparts. The SMOs would be responsible for some costs; the transformation schools would receive 90 percent of per-pupil tax dollars meted out to traditional schools.

Christie and acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf have both been involved with EdisonLearning, one of the major SMO players, in the past. They dispute the notion their schools choice push is about anything other than improving public education.

"We're going to continue on the education front to do everything we can to break the cycle of failure," Christie said, as Mayor Dana Redd stood at his side and Cooper University Hospital  Chairman George E. Norcross III watched from across the street.

"It is unacceptable to me to have children in this city and other cities across New Jersey  continue to be consigned to failure factories that we have neither the will nor the guts to stand up and fight."

"If you look at the achievement gap in certain parts of this state you can draw your own inferences -- that creating different options and bringing in outside resources is a potentially valuable option," Cerf told reporters later.