Dive Brief:
- At a Tuesday hearing, New Jersey lawmakers and members of a joint public schools panel blasted Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson for her leadership style and her "One Newark" to overhaul the traditional school district.
- Anderson detailed plans for "One Newark," which include universal enrollment, budget cuts, and a facilities agenda, and was met with a call for her resignation from state Sen. Ron Rice.
- Rice is a former Newark City Council member, and he expressed frustration with Anderson taking a more than a year to meet with the public schools panel. According to NBC, if Anderson does not answer legislators' questions in writing, Rice will seek subpoena power.
Dive Insight:
This is not the first time Anderson has drawn fire. Interestingly, criticism of Anderson is bipartisan and comes from both sides of the school reform debate. Reform opponents dislike her plan's reorganization of the city's schools, and advocates struggle to get behind her, as she has been pegged as an ineffective leader. In November, about 40 Newark parents and students followed Anderson from New Jersey to DC to protest a speech she was giving on school reform at the American Enterprise Institute. In April, the Newark clergy penned a letter asking Gov. Chris Christie to place a moratorium on the One Newark plan, explaining that they were "concerned about the public anger" they saw "growing in the community." The current plan creates both instability and controversy, they wrote.