NJ PARENTS FILE CLASS ACTION SUIT SEEKING SCHOOL CHOICE OPTIONS FOR CHILDREN TRAPPED IN FAILING SCHOOLS

Contact:
Laura Devany, Alliance for School Choice
602/468-0900, 602/615-8897 (cell)
ldevany@AllianceForSchoolChoice.org

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View backgrounder document (PDF file)
Press Release

PHOENIX — In a landmark case that could test the vitality of states’ constitutional guarantees of public education standards, the Alliance for School Choice today joined the New Jersey Black Ministers Alliance, the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey and Excellent Education for Everyone in supporting parents filing a class action lawsuit. Seeking for the first time meaningful and immediate relief for New Jersey’s failure to provide essential basic education to thousands of its children, the lawsuit demands two remedies for children in failing schools.

“This is the first class action education case seeking a remedy not for the system, but for the kids. It is a milestone in the quest for educational opportunity,” declared Clint Bolick, president of the Phoenix-based Alliance for School Choice, the nation’s leading advocacy group for school choice programs for disadvantaged schoolchildren.

“A quality education is a civil right, and that is being denied to far too many of our children. While we continue to press to reform the public school, we cannot allow another child to lose the opportunity to a better and productive future,” said Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey. “The future waits for no one and neither must we wait. We take this action today not because we want to, but because we must. For far too many of our children it is already too late,” he added.

“The right to the education the constitution demands belongs to the students of this state, not those who run these schools who continue to demonstrate their inability to educate these same students. The denial of a constitutional right, a civil right, is a violation that demands immediate action, and an immediate remedy,” said Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey .

Like most state constitutions, New Jersey’s constitution guarantees a particular standard of public education—specifically, a “thorough and efficient” education. For 33 years, New Jersey courts have ordered massive funding increases and new programs to redress educational inequities in impoverished school districts. Unfortunately, thousands of children, both in and out of districts that received these court-ordered remedies, remain mired in abysmally poor-performing schools, in which fewer than half of the children tested demonstrate minimal proficiency in basic educational skills as determined by the state itself.

It is difficult to argue that the deficiencies are a result of lack of resources. The average per-pupil expenditure in each of the defendant school districts exceeds $10,000 — in many cases, closer to $20,000 — far above the national average.

Crawford v. Davy was filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Newark, against State Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy and 30 more defendants. The case represents a class of more than 60,000 students in 96 failing schools in 25 districts . The lawsuit argues that the denial of basic educational opportunities violates the children’s right to a thorough and efficient education under the state constitution, and to equal protection of the laws under the state and federal constitutions.

It seeks two interrelated remedies: an end to district-based residential school assignments, in which children are forbidden to cross attendance zone lines to attend a different state-supported public school; and a pro rata share of public funds allocated for the child’s education, so that the family can secure a better education in another public or private school.

“The lives of far too many children are at stake here. This inaction cannot continue. I have four children, and in each one of them I see hope for my community, for this state, and for this country. Too many of our children are having their chance at a good future extinguished in schools that persistently fail them. It’s been happening for far too long, and this lawsuit aims to put an end to it,” said Van-Ness Crawford, father of three sons who, by reason of residency and financial circumstances, are forced to attend Malcolm X. Shabazz High School, where fewer than one in five students tested exhibit basic proficiency in mathematics.

Crawford is a national test case. Nearly four million children are in failing public schools throughout the United States. The vast majority of state constitutions contain educational guarantees similar to New Jersey’s, or their courts have interpreted them to create a fundamental right to education, or both. By establishing a state constitutional precedent that children are entitled to leave failing schools with the share of educational resources devoted to their education, this case could establish a precedent of national significance. A successful outcome in this case can provide a beacon of hope for children in failing schools across the nation.

“For too long, education litigation has been aimed at securing more money for failing schools, in the hope that the remedy would trickle down to the students. This lawsuit seeks a real remedy, so that kids can obtain a high-quality education when they need it — today,” Bolick said.

Legal Affairs
Widespread Fraud Alleged in Camden, N.J. Schools
by Claudio Sanchez

LINK

All Things Considered, August 11, 2006 · School officials in Camden, N.J., have been under investigation for allegations of cheating on state tests, falsifying data and a cover-up. The results of that investigation are expected any day.

The alleged corruption is so pervasive and so blatant that New Jersey's commissioner of education has vowed to clean house. The two whistleblowers in the case say that's too little, too late for Camden's 17,000 school children.


Paula Veggian has worked for Camden, N.J. public schools for nearly 40 years, first as a math teacher and then as a scheduler at Brimm Medical Arts High School, the district's academic jewel.

"I have devoted my entire adult career to the children in the city of Camden, and what I uncovered was very damaging to children," Veggian says.

What Veggian uncovered and reported to her superiors was a grade-fixing scheme and the falsification of students' transcripts. She agreed to speak to NPR -- her first public discussion of the case -- at her attorney's office.

"This problem that I uncovered is now two years old," Veggian says. "I did exactly what I should do as a professional, and their answer was to demote me. So now, after two years, I want my side of the story heard."

Discrepancies in Grade Reports

Veggian says her ordeal began in the summer of 2004, as she was preparing the master schedule for the fall semester at Brimm High School. Veggian was responsible for compiling what's known as "the failure list" -- a list of students who will not be promoted to the next grade.

But when Veggian cross-referenced the failure list with more detailed records, she noticed that kids who had gotten "Fs were still being promoted. She pointed out the discrepancy to the school's new principal, Joseph Carruth, who agreed that something was amiss.

Carruth recalls going over the results with Veggian. "We're talking about some seniors and I say, 'Well, the way it looks, Paula, these seniors don't have enough credits to graduate.' And she said, 'That's what I thought, too,'" Carruth says.


One student had failed all of her math classes in her sophomore, junior and senior years. But that, says Carruth, was not what her transcript said.

"Her transcript was changed," he says. "The grade was changed to a C. And so at that point, I had to tell the superintendent. I left a message asking that she call me back."

Accusations of Grades for Greed

The next day, Assistant Superintendent Luis Pagan showed up. By that time, Carruth and Veggian say, they had uncovered more bogus transcripts. They say it appears that administrators had been keeping two sets of books for some time. One set of transcripts was accurate; the other was doctored for college applications.

Veggian and Carruth say Superintendent Annette Knox and Pagan told them to keep quiet about what they had found -- and made it clear that their jobs were in jeopardy if they didn't.


Knox and Pagan did not respond to NPR's request for comment. Veggian's attorney, Morris Smith, believes the motive for falsifying grades and transcripts was greed.

"It's my opinion, based on what we've seen in this case so far, that there were attempts to boost grades, and that those kids got out on time because it meant more cash for the superintendent in performance bonuses," Smith says.

A performance-incentive clause in the superintendent's contract allowed her to earn thousands of dollars in bonuses if students' academic performance improved.


Retaliation for Whistleblowing?

No one has been charged with a crime. But five months after coming forward, Veggian was demoted, with a cut in pay, and transferred to another school against her will. The Camden school board later voted to give Veggian her old job back at Brimm High, but only after her attorney, Morris Smith, filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against the school district.

"My client had done nothing wrong except discover the information and turn it in," Smith says.

Assistant Superintendent Luis Pagan, meanwhile, is now under investigation by the state education department -- not for the bogus transcripts, but for allegedly asking Principal Carruth to cheat on the math portion of the state's high-school proficiency exam. Carruth says Pagan approached him in January 2005 and showed him how it could be done.

"I knew it wasn't legal," Carruth says. "I mean, is this what everybody does? Am I the only one being singled out? Those things went through my mind. Am I being set up? Does this mean I'm going to lose my job if I don't?"

Test Scores Not 'Legitimately Achieved'

In local press accounts, Pagan has said Carruth is lying. The school board has taken Pagan at his word. And that, says Carruth, allowed the cheating at Brimm High to continue up until the spring of 2005, even though he refused to be a part of it. Scores that year jumped 21 points, the biggest increase in two years.

Finally, in January 2006, Carruth contacted the New Jersey Department of Education. The state responded by sending monitors to oversee the testing throughout the school district. By then, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other local newspapers were raising questions about big jumps in test scores at other schools in Camden --scores that state investigators now believe are not genuine.

"We know that, with respect to the test scores, those scores were not legitimately achieved," says Lucille Davy, New Jersey's acting commissioner of education. "There was manipulation of the process."

Davy says the crucial question in the state's investigation is whether there was an organized decision to cheat on state tests.

As for the alleged falsification of transcripts at Brimm High and Paula Veggian's lawsuit, Davy won't comment.

For now, Davy says, her focus is on the 2005-2006 test scores at Brimm High and two other schools. Last year, fourth graders at HB Wilson Elementary School had among the highest average math scores in New Jersey. US Wiggins Elementary posted high math scores and the third-highest science scores.

This year -- with state monitors presiding over the testing -- math and science scores at both schools plummeted. At Brimm High, scores dropped sharply, too.

A Widening Scandal

Camden School Board President Philip Freeman and District Spokesman Bart Leff both declined to discuss the matter with NPR.

Nor would school officials discuss their treatment of Principal Carruth. The Camden Board of Education fired him at the end of the school year, well before the state wraps up its investigation. Carruth, now unemployed, says he's going to sue.

And so, what started as a grade-fixing scheme in Camden's top high school is now a growing scandal -- with so many twists and turns that nobody knows where it'll end.

New Jersey's attorney general is investigating former Superintendent Annette Knox, namely, because she gave herself almost $18,000 in unauthorized performance bonuses. And the principals at HB Wilson and US Wiggins elementary schools have been suspended -- not for cheating on standardized tests, but for allegedly submitting thousands of dollars in phony expense vouchers.

Parents Demand the Truth

What are parents supposed to make of all this?

"We have gotten no answers to the test scores," says Camden school district parent Candy Causey. "I mean, we only know the allegations, but not the results."

Causey is part of a small group of Camden parents who are demanding answers. The group recently met in a cramped downtown office with community activists and lawyers.

Evelyn Acevedo says she has no idea how her daughter is really faring academically.

"My daughter is an honor-roll student. But is she really an honor roll student?" Acevedo says."What test scores did she have? Or were they altered? That's my question."

Causey says she finds it hard to believe that students might barely pass tests one year, only to "pass with flying colors" the following year.

"My son is in special education," Causey says. "You can't tell me he got 100 percent [on the state test]."

These parents say the state of New Jersey has to take responsibility for the mess in Camden's schools.

Acting Education Commissioner Lucille Davy says she can't be held responsible for the actions -- or inaction -- of her predecessors.

"But I will say this," Davy says. "There needs to be a change in leadership, without question. These children have one shot to be prepared, and if we fail them, then they don't have much hope."