The Usual Suspects

It's like Groundhog Day:

NEWARK — The state has narrowed its search for Newark’s next superintendent to two candidates, both with extensive credentials as reformers in tough urban school districts.

Former Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and a New York City schools superintendent, Cami Anderson, are the two finalists, according to five sources involved in the search who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

The individuals and their status as finalists were also mentioned in an audio recording, reviewed by The Star-Ledger, of a meeting earlier this week between acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf and the Newark Public Education Task Force — the group set up to screen the finalists.

Anderson, who was a paid consultant in Mayor Cory Booker’s first mayoral campaign, is currently a senior superintendent for alternative high schools and programs in New York City. Before going to New York she headed several non-profit educational foundations including New Leaders for New Schools, a national firm that recruits principals, and Teach For America, a national program that recruits teachers to work in urban school systems. She declined to comment today. 

Joel Klein, former chancellor of the New York City Schools, said Anderson is an ideal candidate for Newark, calling her leadership exemplary.

TFA? Joel Klein? Those are her endorsements? Two of the biggest tools of the corporate reform movement?

I suppose next you're going to tell me the other candidate left her last job under a cloud...

Goodloe-Johnson was fired from Seattle following a $1.8 million scandal involving a district business development program, according to a report in the The Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Oy. Well, I'm sure it's not like she's tied up with Broad or something...

Like Cerf, Goodloe-Johnson is a graduate of the Broad Foundation’s superintendent’s academy.

Oy. Broad graduates are like kryptonite to sanity.

Cerf blamed some of the delay on politics.

"We put this thing off until after the school board elections because there were political forces in the city saying don’t make this a campaign issue," he said. "I’m embarrassed at myself for yielding to that."

Join the club.

He said two other potential finalists had been lost in the process, including Jean Claude Brizard, who was recently tapped to run the Chicago schools and another, "who just gave up."

Gosh, too bad we missed out on a guy who received a vote of "no confidence" from his own teachers.

Cerf stressed that the final decision will be made by him and Gov. Chris Christie.

Assemblyman Alberto Coutinho said on the tape he was disappointed in the lack of choice among finalists adding that "rising star" candidates were likely discouraged by "the circus between the governor and the mayor taking all the oxygen out of the room."

Yeah, who wouldn't want to work for the two biggest egomaniacs and media whores on the Eastern seaboard?

Welcome to Newark! (Just stay out of our spotlight...)

Of course, when these fools, tools, and petty thieves mess things up, they'll just move on to the next town or the next political job or the next whatever. The deserving children of Newark will be left, once again, to fend for themselves.

[Correcting: got the wrong scandal on the wrong candidate]