Education Privatizers LOVE Steve Fulop

Leave it to PolitickerNJ to write an important story, yet skip all the meaningful facets:

Following up on his endorsement of Steve Fulop, Bishop Reginald Jackson did a robocall tonight for the Jersey City mayoral candidate. 

"Steve is the only candidate with a real jobs plan for Jersey City residents," Jackson said in the robocall to targeted voters. "Steve will also work to clean up the dirty streets and end political corruption at city hall."

Jackson urges residents to vote for Fulop, "a real Democrat." [emphasis mine]

Let's fill in a few relevant details, shall we? Starting with the woman Jackson is married to, who happens to be the CEO of the reformy outfit Excellent Education for Everyone (E3):

Christy Davis Jackson, award winning entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker and attorney, has been tapped by Fortune 100 companies, non-profit organizations and small businesses alike to develop, manage and execute strategic, leadership and diversity management programs to increase company performance. 

As President and CEO of E3, Christy’s leadership and management skills have helped energize the Urban Education Reform and School Choice movement. She understands the value of a quality education and is leading the charge to see to it that every child in New Jersey’s receive’s an excellent education. [emphasis mine]

E3 has been at the forefront of the choice "movement" in New Jersey for years; Davis Jackson, the controversial wife of Reginald Jackson, is currently E3's CEO. Reginald gave up his position on E3's board when Christy took over as CEO, but his fellow member of the Black Ministers Council, Therman Evans, has stayed on to chair the board of E3.

Of course, the BMC is deeply involved in charter school expansion and voucher cheerleading. Reginald bragged on how he was able to get charter applications from his fellow BMC members approved by the NJDOE; his political connections to the Christie administration and the NJDOE were no doubt helpful.

The most (in)famous of these charter applications was brought forward by Pastor Amir Khan, who sought to open a charter school in Cherry Hill. The community fought hard against this charter and eventually stopped Khan's plans. As I've said before, I don't understand why men of the cloth are so anxious to open up secular charter schools. Khan, caught in a moment of candor, gave us a clue:

Khan already operates an approximately 85-student private school on the property. 

But the opening of the larger charter school is essential to the church's plan to buy the land from the diocese, he said. 

"We were anticipating the charter school to get additional income to carry us," he said. [emphasis mine]

Oh, my...

Jackson and the BMC are also big voucher pushers; they supported a lawsuit brought last year by E3 and others that would have forced Camden's already underfunded school district to come up with money for school vouchers (the lawsuit was dismissed).

So there isn't a reformier couple in the Garden State than the Jacksons - and they are backing Fulop as mayor of New Jersey's second largest city. Remember, Fulop was the one who orchestrated the secret meeting with Education Commissioner Chris Cerf to install Cerf's preferred superintendent. Fulop has also been working hard to get slates of candidates elected to the JCBOE that are loyal to him, using money from David Tepper, the sugar daddy of B4K, New Jersey's reformiest lobbying outfit.

Why is Fulop paying all this attention to the schools? And why would Fulop align himself with an education privatizer like Jackson?

Perhaps Jersey City voters ought to ask themselves these questions when they go to the polls.

Preferred by school privatizers throughout New Jersey!