By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
You may’ve heard that West New York’s School #3 has be renamed in honor of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Dominican Republic), Save Jerseyans.
Another great role model for urban America’s youth!
And what kind of education are we providing to the children attending our senior senator’s namesake institution?
Meh.
According to the New Jersey Department of Education, Robert Menendez Elementary School (which is in West New York, an Abbott District) ranks in the 42nd percentile for academic achievement overall but in the 89th percentile among “peer schools.”
A peer school, for those of you not familiar with all of this bureaucratic jargon, “are schools that have similar grade levels and students with similar demographic characteristics, such as the percentage of students qualifying for Free/Reduced Lunch, Limited English Proficiency programs or Special Education programs.”
Translation: Hudson Bob’s new school is decent for an urban school but pretty sucky when compared to schools across the Garden State.
Oh and by the way, West New York is receiving $93,166,144 in state K-12 aid for the 2013-2014 academic year, representing a $2,389,186 increase over last year.
Chris Christie’s “failure factory” phrase is a pretty good descriptor.
Sen. Menendez should say “thank you” to his new school by abandoning his hostile posture to school choice reforms. This is, after all, the same guy who locks arms with the teacher’s unions and voted to defund the D.C. voucher program. I’m frankly not sure how he could look those little kids in the eye!
