Parents Unified for Local School Education

P.O. Box 22645

Newark, New Jersey 07108
Making the difference by being the
difference

December 3, 2015
Arne Duncan
Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave SW
Washington, DC 20020
Dear Secretary Arne Duncan,
As you prepare to leave office after seven years, you are likely using your
last few days to tie up loose ends and reflect on your tenure as the Secretary
of Education for the United States of America. Perhaps you are even looking
on your years with pride, and congratulating yourself for accomplishments.
We are not sure if you have a performance review, but because you are
charged to serve those in Americas public education system, we would like
to provide you with a review of the effects your education policies have had
on the people of Newark, New Jersey.
As parents in Newark, we would be remiss if we did not specifically speak to
the devastating effects of policies like Race to the Top. Unfortunately, our
children and community will be experiencing the residual effects of these
policies for generations to come. The policies you supported caused harm in
our community and your education experiment caused long-term trauma for
our children.
A Newark parent stated, Our children are anxiety-ridden. They have seen
their neighborhood schools close down, and they do not know if the school
they are currently attending will remain open. The children have had a hard
time adjusting to new neighborhoods, new teachers and administrators. We
try to calm their constant anxiety, but many of our children have been
moved around two or three times and have seen the closures of the schools
in their neighborhood. The lack of stability has contributed to the adverse
childhood experiences of our children. This is how we define trauma. There
is plenty of research to support that the prevalence of traumatic life
experiences in the first 18 years of a persons life impacts not only brain
development, but their overall well-being in their later years.
In many ways, we should not be surprised. This is how we have come to
know our United States of America; a country that experiments on its most
marginalized, particularly Black, Native American, and Latino people. From
the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, to the Contraceptive Trials of Puerto Rico,
to the Indian Schools that sought to impose Euro-American education policies
PULSENJ | 973 544-8359 | Info@pulsenj.org | www.pulsenj.org

Parents Unified for Local School Education

P.O. Box 22645
Newark, New Jersey 07108
Making the difference by being the
difference

on Native Americans, marginalized people in our country have been stripped

of their agency, voice, dignity, and humanity. The state-sponsored and
inflicted trauma on our people

continues on through our education system. Will we also look back at this
time in history and identify it as a trauma point in the lives of Black and
Brown people?
We see with your education policy that history is repeating itself. Different
actors. Different stage. Same play.
In 2009, when Race to the Top took form, many educators, school districts,
and politicians looked on the new policy with great expectations while others
questioned the ways it would be implemented at the local level. It did not
take long for us to realize how quickly the community would be excluded
from the implementation of the policy. It was as if the community was seen
with disdain, and treated that way at every juncture. Schools were closed,
and charters opened. Schools were turned-around, renewed and
transformed leaving our students without their teachers, school leaders,
and the support systems that were initially in place when they started the
school.
From New Orleans, to Chicago, to Philadelphia, to Detroit, and to Newark,
these policies and reforms have disproportionately affected Black students
and their families. The people in our community were moved around with no
thought or consideration for the relationships that were built or destroyed.
This disregard for the relationships our children have formed in their schools
and in their community is indicative of the way that our country values the
education of Black and Brown children.
Secretary Duncan, history will remember this moment in our countrys past
as one that once again contributed to the plight of African-Americans on a
level that rivals that of Jim Crow. Our nation is experiencing school and
community segregation levels that are at an all-time high. Our mass
incarceration level has been fueled by the school-to-prison pipeline, and the
overuse, misuse, and obsession with standardized tests that are disrupting
the natural flow of true authentic learning, while labeling our children and
communities failures. These same tests scores are also being used to
justify the closing of schools in areas that are highly concentrated with
students from low-income Black and Brown communities. It is a devastating
cycle.

PULSENJ | 973 544-8359 | Info@pulsenj.org | www.pulsenj.org

Parents Unified for Local School Education

P.O. Box 22645
Newark, New Jersey 07108
Making the difference by being the
difference

It is not enough to say, I did what I thought was right for them. or My
heart was in the right place, or even I had good intentions, because those
good intentions have left us hurting, divided, torn, broken, and
traumatized. Too many politicians and leaders treat low-income Black and
Brown people and our communities like holiday gifts given to them to play
with.
We all recall being a child and opening our gifts during the holidays or special
occasions. We all remember what it was like playing constantly with that one
particular toy, yet abandoning them once we grew bored with the excitement
that toy brought us. The people of Newark are not action figures or toys. We
are actual living human beings with an array of feelings, histories,
identities, and ideas, who form human connections and relationships. We
have been left with the mess your policies have created for us which allowed
Superintendent Cami Anderson free range to control the fate of our children,
their teachers, and administrators. Collaborating with billionaires to funnel
public funds into private companies and charter management organizations
has exploited and destabilized our communities and schools. Race to the Top
favored charter school expansion, top-down decision making, high-stakes
accountability, school closures, and the influx of unqualified teachers with
little to no experience in education or familiarity with our children or
community.
Although our best efforts to halt much of the damage were met with disdain,
we are demanding our parents be allowed to create the schools that we need
and want. History has taught us that change happens from the bottom up. To
think otherwise would be negligent, and at worst hubristic. Anything short of
true community, parent, and student engagement is bound to fail and goes
against the principles of democracy.
Secretary Duncan, before you leave office, we are asking you to
acknowledge the important role that community members should play in the
creation of education policies. As a community, we have been advocating for
the creation of three Sustainable Community Schools in the South Ward of
Newark, but very few decision-makers have listened to us. As a result, we
were forced to file a Title VI complaint demanding that your Office for Civil
Rights investigate the One Newark Plan, which was imposed on us by our
former Mayor and former Superintendent. That complaint was clear in
declaring that we are not simply asking for Sustainable Community Schools,
but rather to be included in the design and implementation of any education
policies that will affect our children.

PULSENJ | 973 544-8359 | Info@pulsenj.org | www.pulsenj.org

Parents Unified for Local School Education

P.O. Box 22645
Newark, New Jersey 07108
Making the difference by being the
difference

Today, we ask that you honor our concerns and our complaint in a way that
allows us to create our schools for our community. Any resolution reached
without us at the table is unsatisfactory. Any announcement made by our
school district without our prior input is similarly unsatisfactory. We are
counting on you to be on the right side of history and the right side of
democratic principles. Use this as an opportunity to right some of those
wrongs.
Sincerely,
Parents Unified for Local School Education (PULSENJ)
cc: Loretta Lynch, Attorney General of the United States
Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary, Office for Civil Rights

PULSENJ | 973 544-8359 | Info@pulsenj.org | www.pulsenj.org