A new book, "The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools", recounts a recent big philanthropy effort to reform schools in New Jersey, and what happens when they fail.
"In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie went onto Oprah Winfrey's show to announce new efforts to reform schools in Newark that would be funded by a $100 million donation from Zuckerberg. Journalist Dale Russakoff has followed the story of the donation and reform efforts, and their ultimate failure in her new book "The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?"
"On how Booker and Christie began their work together:
"When Christie was the U.S. attorney, he got involved in checking allegations of intimidation against the campaign workers for Cory Booker when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002. And so the two of them got to be friends and stayed that way in spite of the huge polarization that developed between the two parties, and as it turned out, they had the exact same views on education. This is really common; you’ll find Democrats and Republicans who both agree that charter schools, and much more accountability for teachers, and rating teachers by test scores, and laying off the weakest teachers and rewarding the best ones — that all of those ideas that came out of the education reform movement are the same agenda that you find in a lot of Republican and Democratic camps, and Cory Booker and Chris Christie were examples of that."--Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace
