Celebrating 30 years of PEF & Irene Sterling

I’m so excited to celebrate PEF’s 30th Anniversary along with an opportunity to honor Irene for her dedicated service to Paterson children.   We wouldn’t be here without Irene’s stellar leadership. I thank her for the vision to start this organization and the work to effectively build

Read more

Gamechanging decisions require consensus

Changing the school board election from April to November will make a dramatic shift in who runs for school board and how much it will cost a candidate to run.  Moving to a November election will essentially give control of the school board to the county chair

Read more

Exploring charters for Paterson

PEF has observed Paterson charter schools over the years as a viable option for Paterson families, but hardly a cure all. Charters will never serve all of our students. Now, we have two new charter school applications on a fast track for Paterson.  Both come from charter

Read more

Look for the swinging pendulum

As I follow the education debates, I can’t help but believe that the pendulum is swinging back. It’s not a big movement yet. It’s a lot of small things. But that is how the pendulum swing changes. What are the small things? Chicago teachers strike over high

Read more

Waiting to Move the Election Makes Sense

On September 13 Paterson Education Fund’s Board of Directors unanimously passed the following resolution: “PEF will educate citizens as to the process to move the School Board Election from April to November.  This will include issuance of a timeline, Q&A and other pertinent information.  PEF will recommend

Read more

Ask Me!

On Wednesday June 13  at the Paterson School Board meeting, parents will once again come out to voice their dissatisfaction with  the school transformation plan.  At last week’s school board workshop, School 15 and New Roberto Clemente parents joined the discussion. They want more information about the details of

Read more

Out of the mouths of babes…

Last night the Paterson Board of Education and the community members wrestled with the latest version of Paterson’s school transformation plan. Of the more than three hours of comment and debate, the contribution of the children stands out for me. Faced with the proposed moving of the upper

Read more

Is ALEC in our future?

Hello, ALEC. No, not a person.  A conservative think tank whose legislative agenda for education includes vouchers, the expansion of charters, tax breaks for home-schoolers and private companies building and running schools. Want to know more about ALEC? Here’s the link to the Sunday Star Ledger story.  Knowing

Read more

Focus on outcomes for children

I agree with Acting Commissioner Cerf on education funding, it’s not just about the money.  After that, we part company. For me the question is: how do we get all our children to graduation with skills to make a good life for themselves and contribute to our

Read more