New York Times Looks at Charter Schools in Suburbia

The tension over charter schools is the focus of a Sunday New York Times article on the shift of the debate to "affluent suburbs."

The story features the who started to block approval of so-called "boutique" charter schools many say will drain resources from already successful school districts.

As Patch readers know, the story has been unfolding in the suburbs for months. In Millburn and Livingston, parents have collected about 800 signatures to to deny the applications of two Mandarin-language immersion schools. Last month, ljoined Millburn and protestors from other suburban school districts in a “Save Our Schools” .

Sen. Richard Codey told the crowd that the fight over charter schools is a “watershed moment” in education. Codey said if ike the Mandarin-immersion charter schools proposed for Livingston, Millburn and neighboring districts are approved, the “the domino effect would be mind boggling.”

The issue caught the interest of the New York Times, which on Sunday carried a front page story, on the debate in the suburbs of Jersey.

The Times reports on issue being played out in suburbs around the country, focusing mainly on the battle over — which could start in 2012 with kindergarten through second-grade students drawn from Livingston, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, West Orange and Union. The applications have and prompted calls for to require l to open charter schools.

Millburn Parents Against Charter Schools' leader and Millburn Superintendent of Schools are featured in the Times story. The NJ Department of Education is expected to this September.

In its report, The Times also looked at the situation in other states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Georgia and Maryland and Virginia.

Jutta Gassner-Snyder, ’s lead applicant, tells the Times: “This is not just about the education of my child. If we just sit back and let school districts decide what they want to do without taking into account global economic trends, as a nation, we all lose.”

Read the entire story in The New York Times: Charter School Battle Shifts to Affluent Suburbs; July 16, 2011.