Bringing "Excellent Education for Everyone" to New Jersey: Dan Gaby
If you’ve ever played Monopoly, you know just how easy it is to rake in that pastel-colored cash when you control large swaths of the board. If your competitors have no choice but to land on your properties, you can force them, under the rules, to pay large sums of money—and, frequently, send them right to the poor house and straight out of the game.
Unfortunately, a real-life game of Monopoly is being played right now in our country’s public school systems—and it’s the students who are losing.
Dan Gaby of West Orange, NJ came to realize this when he embarked on a series of tours of urban neighborhoods during his bid for the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s US Senate seat in 1972. In fact, he has come to view these tours as the catalyst for an epiphany on the government’s penchant for forming and sustaining ineffective monopolies.
“Through these tours, I saw that government is an oppressive force through its position as a monopoly,” says Gaby. “Education wasn’t particularly the worst case of this oppression, but as a volunteer in public education over a period of years, I began to see that the way in which the government’s monopoly on education played out was far more threatening than its monopoly on things like low-cost housing.”
A former vice president of a New Jersey school board, Gaby is now the executive director of a group called E3, a group aiming to educate the public on the issue of school choice and press for reform in the state’s public school systems. Launched formally in 2000, E3 stands for “Excellent Education for Everyone,” which is exactly what Gaby believes the power of choice will bring for New Jersey’s underserved students.
“Everyone in America has school choice, unless you’re poor,” says Gaby. “The public education system in low income areas is a monopoly in which children are trapped. There is no pressure for these underperforming schools to get better, and because a quarter of New Jersey’s population are members of the urban poor, an inadequate education creates an enormous loss for society: a loss of productivity, increase in crime, and a jump in those on the welfare rolls.”
Through E3, Gaby directs several projects that educate people about school choice and provide legal representation to those who have been hurt by anti-choice policies. For instance, the School Choice Now project educates New Jersey parents on the choices they already have under current state law. E3’s Center for Education Justice is a public interest law firm that provides services to parents; and its Teacher Freedom Project informs educators on how to work outside of the oppressive union structure that has become a major roadblock for school choice.
E3 has focused much of its efforts on creating a diverse, bipartisan coalition of community leaders in order to have credibility with people across the spectrum—and with those who need school choice the most. “So many people seem to think that school choice is the evil god-child of right-wing Republicans, but once you have credibility with someone or a community, you can have lunch them and explain your ideas. Without regard for where that person is politically, socially, or racially, if they see a problem and are presented with a solution by a credible person or group, they are quite open to changing their mind,” Gaby says. “The messenger is frequently more important than the message. If you don’t have the right messenger, many people may not listen.”
Gaby’s efforts have not escaped organized opposition. In fact, although a bipartisan majority of state legislators supports expanding school choice options in New Jersey, the state teachers’ union is using its power to stall any progress. “In New Jersey, there is, arguably, the most powerful teachers’ union the country: the New Jersey Education Association,” Gaby says. “The new corporate tax credit scholarship bill has bipartisan support in the legislature, but is being blocked in the senate’s education committee by the teachers’ union.”
A former advertising executive, Gaby bases E3’s outreach on the theory of segmented marketing: that is, determining who is interested in school choice and differentiating marketing for different audiences accordingly. “For example, you can talk to parents about how schools fail their kids; businesses about how they’re not educating members of the upcoming workforce; and taxpayers about how their money is being wasted,” says Gaby.
When asked if he has any tips for other organizations advocating school choice or citizen-driven reform, Gaby has a simple tip: Don’t let down your guard. “Two things are needed for permanent achievement: grassroots support that will defend your ideals even when group isn’t around, and fostering a level playing field in order to reduce the power of the union.”
E3 continues to expand its efforts in New Jersey, supporting the groups who are pressing for legislative reform and expansion of school choice laws. “The current voucher bill is just the beginning. We aim to reform charter school laws for more equity in funding, to expand special education vouchers, as well as foster children vouchers,” says Gaby. “Once you break the ice on one project, all the others get easier.”
Visit E3's website at nje3.org.
