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The following bio is courtesy of Jersey City Families for Better Schools.
Moshe Rozenblit
Moshe Rozenblit has been living with his wife in Jersey City for over five years. Their son attends a JC public school. Moshe has a PhD in Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, an MS in Computer Science from Rutgers University and an MA in Physics from the University of Brussels in Belgium. He has done research, teaching, and engineering at Tel Aviv University in Israel, University of Aachen in Germany, Bell Laboratories, Telcordia Technologies and L-3 Communications. He has two US patents, has authored a book on telecommunications, and has chaired national and international groups producing industry-wide standards in that field. He has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the Portofino Condominium in Jersey City.
- Identify two strengths and two weaknesses of the Jersey City Public Schools. How should these weaknesses be remedied and these strengths reinforced?
- Strength 1: early education - Abott program and Pre-K.
- Strength 2: communications with parents; in particular, workshops for parents.
- Weakness 1: abominable scores on standardized tests, not just at the bottom of the state, but well below average for districts with similar demographics.
- Weakness 2: defective financial controls - 1/3 of the budget is unaccounted for.
- The new school funding formula presents the Jersey City Public Schools with serious financial challenges. How do you propose to overcome the projected cut in state funding?
- The current budget provides more money per student than the state's average, even more than New York City's average. Surely we should be able to perform within that budget at least as well as NYC has done. (NYC has scored tremendous improvements in the last 6 years.)
- JC has more administrators per student than the state average, with higher pay than the state average. Surely there is room for improvement.
- By establishing strong financial controls we should be able to reclaim tens of millions of dollars.
- 11% of JC's children attend charter schools, but account for only 5% of the budget. Opening more charter schools would allow more children to benefit from better education at a lower cost. As more children move from current public schools to new charter schools, portions of the existing school buildings could be leased to the charter schools or independent schools.
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Friedman Foundation and others offer grants to support school vouchers, charter schools and similar innovations. We must tap those organizations to help us improve our schools.
- Do you support any form of school choice? What is your position on charter schools, magnet schools, vouchers, or district-run independent schools? It is outrageous that almost all JC parents have no choice, and are forced to send their children to failing schools. Tens of thousands of children are robbed of the quality education they deserve. Several cities with similar demographics (NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, and Denver) have managed remarkable turnarounds, with amazing improvements of standardized test scores, by promoting school choice. We are currently handicapping ourselves, with tragic results, by rejecting or limiting solutions that have worked wonders in similar districts. JC needs a superintendent that can do for JC what Arne Duncan (currently Secretary of Education) did for Chicago and Joel Klein did for NYC: close failing schools and promote charter schools run by management with good track record, open new magnet schools, provide vouchers that will allow even the poorest children to benefit from quality private schools, and encourage district-run independent schools.