Gov. Chris Christie late last month announced that the state would take steps to surrender control of Newark public schools after 20 years, and appointed a task force to create a roadmap for the process. At the same time, he appointed former state education commissioner Chris Cerf to serve as the superintendent of schools in the state’s largest district.
The state is now going on 30 years of taking over school districts, starting with Jersey City, and has not yet fully relinquished its powers in any of them. The others falling under the state’s stewardship are Camden and Paterson.