It's not everyday that you see one of the rising GOP stars standing next to one of the rising Democratic stars, but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joined with Newark Mayor Cory Booker recently to announce that the city has raised $40 million of the $100 million it needs to qualify for a matching education grant from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Newark had been in free fall until Booker took the reins of the city and he is slowly turning it around. It is encouraging to see Gov. Christie on board too, not least because too many of his fellow Republicans do nothing but trash the public schools or see them as incarnations of the Devil. And, in the wake of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's loss at the polls earlier this month, perhaps Booker will emerge as the Democrat willing to take on the entrenched interests within the Democratic Party that too often stand in the way of school reform.
(H/T to Rick Garnett of Mirror of Justice)
