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TANISH ABLE loves her daughter’s teacher, but is not happy with her school. According to a leaked proposal, Dr Martin Luther King Junior Elementary in Newark’s grim West Ward may soon be closed and replaced with an independent charter school. Ms Able is delighted at the prospect: “They should be in here already,” she says. The plan, though still in draft form, is said to call for some of Newark’s failing schools to be phased out and others to be consolidated. Existing and new charter schools might even share buildings. As cities wrestle with falling budgets and poor results, similar things are happening across America.
Newark’s school system, under state supervision since 1995, is failing its pupils. Pupil performance lags the rest of New Jersey by over 20 points. Dropout rates are abysmal only 22% of students finish high school in the normal four years with the pass in a state exam needed to graduate. But a $100m donation to the city’s schools by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, is helping to fuel change.
Cory Booker, Newark’s mayor, though not in charge of the system (it is in effect run by the state government), devoted nearly half his recent state-of-the-city address to education. “There will never be a great Newark unless there is a great public-school system in our city,” he declared. He proposed a longer school day and more control for school principals as a way to improve pupils’ performance. He and Chris Christie, New Jersey’s governor, who wants to end teacher tenure, are working together to improve Newark’s schools.

A. 어휘
leaked 漏出(누출)된. proposal 제안. grim 엄한, 무서운, 불길한.
charter school 예산은 국가에서 담당하지만 학교경영은 학교장에게 일임하는 독립학교.
prospect 전망. draft 草案(초안). call for 요구하다.
phased out 철수하다. consolidate 강화하다, 鞏固(공고)히 하다, 합병하다.
wrestle 씨름하다. supervision 감독. performance 학업성적.
lag 처지다. Dropout rates 중퇴자 비율. abysmal 深淵(심연)의, 끝없이 깊은.
donation 기증. founder 창설자. devoted 헌신하다.
state-of-the-city address 신년에 행하는 市政(시정)연설.
declare 선언하다. governor 주지사. tenure 終身(종신) 재직권.