Newark’s Facebook Friendship Faces Legal Snag

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Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker publicly accepted Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million dollar “friend” request on the Oprah Winfrey Show. But the friendship- in the form of Zuckerberg’s brand new education reform effort, the Partnership for Education in Newark, comes with strings attached- the kind of strings that might make the $100 million in stock options offered to reform the city’s public schools against the law.

Due to abysmal academic performance and mismanagement, Newark’s schools have been under state control since 1995. No legal issues there- except that a condition of the $100 million gift is that the state has to cede some control of the school district to Mayor Booker. Giving decision-making power to a mayor violates New Jersey law.

Although the state will technically still be in charge of Newark’s schools, New Jersey governor Chris Christie plans to give Booker the power to choose a new superintendent and school board, saying that Booker will be “the lead person on my behalf.”

David G. Sciarra, the director of Newark-based Education Law Center says that regardless of the technicalities, such a change would be “improper and illegal” since moving to mayoral control requires a vote in the state legislature. His organization plans to sue if Booker is put in the drivers seat. Sciarra says his concerns are shared by community members. “We’ve had numerous contacts from parents and community and parent leaders concerned over giving any kind of power to the mayor,” he says.

continued at - http://www.letsredu.com/2010/10/newarks-facebook-friendship-faces-legal-snag-image/#fbid=91R-Cx17eRS&wom=false