When his political foes deride Steve Adubato as a Renaissance overlord who controls his fiefdom through a bruising combination of ego and Machiavellian panache, Adubato offers as a counter-argument the work of the North Ward Center.
They may argue with the man, but no one argues with his life’s work – at least not here in Newark where the effects of poverty are up close and all too personal.
Tuesday was special for Adubato. The 74-year old political boss and executive director of the center welcomed child advocate Marian Wright Edelman to Newark to officially open the Casa Israel Child Development Center, and Roseville Child Development Center. These buildings are two of four schools that compose the North Ward Child Development Center, which serves 600 students and is the single largest Abbott School-funded provider of pre-school education in the state.
Recipients of the bulk of the state’s education dollars, New Jersey’s 31 urban Abbott school districts are a favorite punching bag for suburban politicians looking to identify the source of the state’s fiscal problem.
Adubato’s point is that his Abbott-funded charter schools engage at-risk children early, and focus them on learning as a foundational alternative to poverty and crime. Dollar for dollar, he says, high quality preschool is the best investment in education.
"I’m criticized for using politics," says Adubato. "So what? Who says that? They’re right. It’s the vehicle I use. The reporter who writes about environmental apocalypse still drives a car to get to work. He’s contributing to man’s demise even as he cries out a warning, even as he does something constructive. If politics is what we must use to educate our young people, we will use that vehicle."
Amen, said Edelman.
Founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund and a veteran of the Civil Rights movement who famously helped showed Bobby Kennedy the other side of America in the late 1960s on his poverty tour, she applauded the center’s commitment to battling child poverty in a city where 36% of the children are poor.
"Serving children is not about a job, it’s about a mission, and it’s the most important mission in America," Edelman told a crowd of mostly North Ward Center students, educators and local politicians who over the years have secured state funds for the center.
"I’ve been on the tour about 800 times," admitted Assemblyman Kevin O’Toole, who joined U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Assemblyman Thomas Giblin, and others for a ride-around inspection of the center’s facilities with Edelman and Adubato.
Where money might be better spent on pre-school and early education funding, the country loses half a trillion dollars in adult incarceration and associated costs, Edelman said. There is a one in three chance that an African-American boy will end up in prison, and a one in six chance that a Latino boy will do prison time; part of that cradle to grave pipeline, in Edelman’s words.
"Every child in America must have healthcare and education, and must have the community behind them," said Edelman. "Every child is special. Every child is sacred."
The ceremony included the participation of Lucille Davy, the state’s commissioner of education; Marion Bolden, superintendent of Newark Public Schools; and Leonard Coleman, former MLB National League president.
"We are seeing the fruits of the investments we have made," Davy told the crowd.
No one escapes politics here in the North Ward, where Adubato says he’s backing Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.
"I don’t technically endorse anyone, but I’ll be supporting her," he said.
Edelman, a close personal friend of Clinton’s, wouldn’t say who she’s endorsing for president but when she was pressed on why former Sen. John Edwards’ anti-poverty campaign has apparently not stirred America in 2007, Edelman said, "Every politician, every person running for president, ought to be running on a message of fighting poverty, and especially fighting children’s poverty."
The immediate political goal for Adubato and Democrats in this 29th district is a general election victory for state Senate candidate M. Teresa Ruiz, a former preschool teacher at the North Ward Center and deputy chief of staff for DiVincenzo; and her Assembly running mates, Albert Coutinho of the East Ward and L. Grace Spencer of the South Ward.
Ruiz’s opponents are veteran Assemblyman William Payne, a Democrat who is running as an independent against the machine, and At-Large Newark Councilman Luis Quintana.
Deposed from the inner circle of the North Ward Democratic Party after he voted against a sales tax hike favored by Gov. Jon Corzine – a key contributor to the North Ward Center – outgoing Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo is aiding the Quintana campaign.
Embracing the alliance of Caraballo, Quintana says he doesn’t want to be bossed, and he rails against Adubato’s operation as a locus of power.
Still, he concedes that the North Ward Center is a marvel, and says if elected he’d ensure that it is well-funded.
Adubato, walking away from the event with Edelman on Tuesday at the Robert Treat Center, the base of the whole operation, said as the crowd dispersed, "What you have to understand is the wise use of political power, which this is."
