New Jersey Students, Teachers in Class Struggle

Newark, NJ, October 20 — A new school year brings new lessons for those involved in the class struggle around education. The first lesson is that the bosses are increasing their attacks on students and teachers. On top of shutting down schools, laying off more aides and support staff, forcibly transferring teachers, and keeping students from attending their neighborhood schools, the latest round of attacks are the budget cuts imposed on schools in the beginning of this school year. Principals were told to plan on spending only about 25 percent of their budget from June, which was already the result of another round of cuts. Former Superintendent Cami Anderson helped create the crisis by taking a $40 million surplus and turning it into a $70 million deficit.
As a result, class sizes have increased, special needs students are neglected, and older, decrepit buildings are becoming more dangerous for students and teachers.
Which brings us to the second, and more important lesson. Having the correct political line in these struggles will strengthen the working class, while an incorrect line can set us back. How could we be in this terrible position after students, parents, and teachers put up a courageous fight against the proposed reforms by then Superintendent Anderson?  Mainly because of the popular line of the movement: Get rid of Anderson and get local control of the schools.
There is no question that Anderson, and state control of the schools, is a problem. But without a bigger picture of how capitalist schools against the interests of working-class students, the ruling class is able to pacify workers. Regardless of who runs them, schools do not exist to give workers’ children a real education. In reality, the bosses set up students to drop out because they need a reserve of unskilled workers to maintain unemployment and keep wages low.
More specifically, the bosses underfund and under-resource Black and Latin schools. It should be no surprise that these budget cuts are especially intense in Newark, a city where 85 percent of residents are Black or Latin and where one-third of the population lives in poverty. Under capitalism, schools are just another tool for the bosses to maintain racism and keep their profit system running.
Replace One Foe With Another
Cami Anderson was just a figurehead fulfilling the capitalist bosses’ needs. At the end of the last school year, to pacify angry parents, teachers, and students, Governor Chris Christie fired Anderson and replaced her with Christopher Cerf, the one who hired Anderson in the first place and supported her anti-student reforms. Even so, the fightback against budget cuts died down. With the exception of one rally calling for local control, the streets were empty. There were no rallies from the Newark Students Union, the Newark Teachers Union, or any community groups. In fact, the teachers’ union sent out an email shortly after the cuts that their meeting with Cerf was “positive” and “productive.” This shows how unions, the politicians, and bosses work together to attack the working class.
Despite the lack of fightback, there are still students and teachers looking to organize against these budget cuts. PLP’ers distributed CHALLENGE and held study groups to win workers to the outlook that it doesn’t matter who runs the schools and to see the need to organize for communism. One teacher said, “We need to reach out to parents about what is happening.” Groups of teachers put out a flyer distribute at Back to School Night. Parents who came to hear about their children’s classes were informed about the latest attacks. Many have promised to attend the first PTA meeting.
Students are getting more politicized by sharply worsening conditions. As a result of cafeteria workers being fired, students are now leaving lunch 15 minutes late because they couldn’t get their food in the 40-minute lunch period.
In short, many are beginning to see that things have not gotten better, and that relying on politicians or the union leadership will not get them anywhere.
PL members are holding student study groups and actions to increase the level of class struggle that temporarily died down. With our political ideas and our experience with our co-workers and students, we hope to increase our base and membership so that these lessons become clearer to the millions affected in Newark and beyond.