The intent to harm vulnerable young people inherent in Christie’s new educational initiative begins to reveal itself. We have to look for this in every move Christie makes: even when his PR buzz makes it look like he’s doing something good for low-income students, the reverse is always true. Using the new federal system of tracking high school graduation rates as an excuse, Christie announces plans to expand the number of assessment tests students get in their high school years.
Where’s the harm in that? Athough this tool will clearly make it harder for our state’s highschoolers to graduate, it comes with no thoughtful companion plan on how to improve education. As one poster comments in a Facebook page on education, it’s unfair to wait until students are in high school to start rigorous testing for academic readiness: those evaluations need to start much earlier in their academic careers.