Competition works in New Jersey.
The Star-Ledger reports:
The test scores at Discovery and several other Newark charters — including North Star, Robert Treat and Gray — are far above those at public schools run by the district. Drawing from the same pool of children who are failing state tests in droves in public schools, Discovery has found a way to teach students so that every one of its eighth-graders passes the language arts proficiency test. Schoolwide, 80 percent of its children passed the same test, and 71 percent passed the math test.
Some of the best-performing charter schools in urban New Jersey actually posted test scores that were higher than their wealthy suburban counterparts in the most recent round of results released last month. And they were doing so in some of the most impoverished districts, where the test scores have traditionally lagged far behind.
Predictable union response: Joe DelGrosso, president of the Newark Teachers Union, said he is negotiating a bill that would limit charter schools from drawing more than 10 percent of a district’s budget.