Newark, NJ — The struggle over education is sharpening in Newark.  In a show of resistance to the Superintendent Cami Anderson’s rule, more than 1,500 education workers forced Anderson to close school for two days this month so they could attend the New Jersey Education Association’s annual convention.  
The NJEA is the largest teachers union in the state. Nearly every New Jersey school district closes during the convention — except for Newark.  When workers submitted forms to go to the convention, most principals were telling them not to go.  Some even told the workers, “I will approve this on paper, but the superintendent told me to discourage workers from going.”  
To support workers who have been harassed, more than 1,500 other education workers put in paperwork to go to the convention, forcing the superintendent to shut down Newark schools.
Teacher Action Exposes Racist Anderson
In an attempt to divide teachers and parents, Anderson sent out a letter blaming the teachers for closing school.   The letter backfired.  Anderson doesn’t realize that she won’t win parents over by implying their children are criminals.  In an early draft of a letter, Anderson wrote that the workers’ action “forced us to once again close our doors, hurting schools and making our city less safe.”
Racism at the Heart of Attacks on Students and Teachers
Every now and then the working class gets a glimpse into the minds of the ruling class and its foot soldiers.  Anderson rose through the ranks of Teach For America, the New York City Public School System, and the Broad Superintendents Academy. Her allegiance is to the capitalist class.  She had already shut down a number of schools and cut $56 million from the budget last year. She has spent millions more pushing the common core curriculum.  
Anderson’s policies show that the main contradiction within public education is between the capitalist class and the students.  For the last three decades, the ruling class had less of a need for black and Latino workers.  As jobs were sent overseas, prisons and schools became the holding cells for many of these young people.  Anderson’s language exposes the bosses’ conversion of schools into warehouses for youth who are marginalized by capitalism. But as the bosses need to win a new generation of students to fight in inter-imperialist wars and to work for low wages, they may need to change their strategy.  
It’s Not Just Anderson —It’s Capitalism
From the rise of industrialization in the nineteenth century until now, schools have been organized to meet the changing economic, political, and social needs of the capitalist class.  The current situation in Newark is no different.  The Newark Teachers Union and Newark Student Union and a number of community groups are fighting back against Anderson and her boss, Governor Chris Christie.  But getting rid of Anderson or Christie won’t stop the assault on students and education workers.  From the U.S. to Mexico to England, attacks on workers are escalating as bosses prepare for a wider war.  As we struggle with students, parents, and teachers to fight for communism, PLP has the opportunity to give the working class the political education it needs to create a communist world.