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On Wednesday, my car radio was telling me Gov.-elect Chris Christie was going to spend a quiet, restful day with his family. But an e-mail alert said Christie was going to visit the Robert Treat Academy in Newark in about an hour. There had to be a back story.
So I called Steve "Big Steve" Adubato, the North Ward political power broker who prefers to be known as the founder of one of the best schools in the state, the Robert Treat Academy Charter School. I said I was coming over for a pre-Christie visit. He said sure.
I arrived about the same time as a box of 200 whistles that had been purchased, along with small flags, to give the kids who would greet the governor-elect. Then Robin Labb of Uniformity, a school uniform company, came in with a blue shirt that had Christie's name and "Governor" on it. "Is the ink dry?" I asked. "It's embroidered," she said. Everyone was running because Christie's decision to visit was made only that morning, Adubato explained.
His lunch guests included Ryan Hill, executive director of TEAM Schools, a group of high-performing charter schools, and Deborah Terrell, principal of Harriet Tubman, a pre-K through 6th-grade Newark public school. Robert Treat Academy and Harriet Tubman were named national blue ribbon schools by the U.S. Department of Education last year. The group talked about the need for charter schools and regular public schools to cooperate for the good of all the kids. I agree. Robert Treat, however, has been around for more than a dozen years. Redbook magazine named Harried Tubman one of the best schools in the state in 1993. Why does it take so long to spread educational goodness?
Adubato said public schools are often employment centers, not education centers. Yes. He said black leadership has hurt Newark kids because - although he likes the current Newark school superintendent, Clifford Janey, who is black - black leaders concentrate on hiring other blacks, more than on hiring the "best."
And no white guy ever passed better candidates over for just another white guy? Sometimes blacks come to power after things are so messed up, it's hard to straighten it all out - consider the White House.
We moved on to the Robert Treat where a gauntlet of young kids in red shirts were waiting to greet Christie. A phalanx of old-line Democrats also waited.
Some of them feared Christie would keep his promise to cut taxes and spending at the expense of the cities. They worried Christie would push charter schools and publicly funded vouchers for private schools, solutions that might help kids by the hundreds, but leave less money than needed for the tens of thousands in regular public schools.
There is a growing urban-vs.-suburban schism in New Jersey. The suburban side blames its high taxes on the others' neediness. Urban aid, including that earmarked for education, has not always been spent wisely or produced the kind of results we expect. That must change. This state, however, will not prosper until its cities do, and the cities won't prosper until their kids get the education they need, by the tens of thousands.
Christie came, flags waived, whistles chirped. He talked to the media about how much less charter schools spend to get better results than public schools. He said he will direct money to the things that work in education. He said he is a former Newark kid, and is sincere about his urban agenda. I'm praying that's true.
When the visit was over, I asked Adubato if there were more to the story of Christie's visit. That's when he told me that on election night, when it was clear Christie had won, Adubato went to pray with the Rev. Edwin Leahy, the headmaster of St. Benedict's Academy, a private boys school in Newark, that the new governor would not hurt Newark and Newark's kids. And lo, the next day, the governor-elect called and said he would go to Newark amongst those who had just tried to smite him mightily - in the political sense.
"You prayed?" I said. Adubato looked at my expression and said, "There you go being cynical."
I try so hard not to be.
