LOS ANGELES — N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will make a surprise appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show Friday to announce an unprecedented restructuring of Newark's school system and the gift of $100 million from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, two officials with direct knowledge of the plan told The Star-Ledger tonight.



Christie and Booker will proclaim that the long-troubled Newark schools, which have been under state control for 15 years, are going to be placed under Booker's authority. Together, Booker and the school system will embark on a massive program of educational change long opposed by teachers unions.

It will include an expansion of charter schools, new achievement standards and methods for judging which schools and teachers are effective, the sources said.

The announcement was confirmed by a third person with knowledge of Booker and Christie’s arrangements. The sources detailed the plans on the condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to go public before Friday's show.

The reordering of the state's largest school district will be made possible by a challenge grant of $100 million from Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old billionaire who co-founded Facebook.

The grant is an invitation for others to become donors - with a goal of raising another $100 million, bringing the total gift to $200 million. The grant from Zuckerberg alone amounts to more than 10 percent of the district’s annual budget.

Zuckerberg is expected to join with Christie and Booker at Winfrey’s studio in Chicago for the announcement, according to the sources.

The announcement is scheduled to air live Friday in Chicago at 10 a.m. EDT and then rebroadcast at 4 p.m. on ABC Channel 7 in North Jersey and Channel 6 in the southern portion of the state.

The school plan calls for Christie to use his authority as the official overseer of the Newark district and name Booker a "special assistant to the governor" for education in the state’s largest city.

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Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said tonight she was pleased the money would be going to Newark schools but was concerned with any strings that might be attached to the gift.

"The devil is in the details," Oliver said. "We have to be very careful in terms of the intrusion into the public system and any donor that would provide funding to the Newark schools system, but I do want to examine what strings come with it."

The move was designed to "circumvent the local community and local control," Oliver said, adding that in order for the mayor to achieve control of schools by traditional means, the matter would have to go before a public referendum of Newark voters. "They probably know the mood in the Newark community is not one that would want to give the mayor appointing authority."

Oliver also noted the irony of Christie’s recent push to eliminate the practice of holding dual offices in New Jersey.

"Last week the governor said he didn’t want people to have two jobs," Oliver said.

Bruce Baker, an associate professor in Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education and an expert on education spending, said "open questions" abound about how Newark will use such a large donation.

"We don’t know if it’s $100 million all at once, spread out over time, with conditions and strings attached," Baker said. "These circumstances are certainly interesting if not bizarre."

By Josh Margolin and David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger

Jessica Calefati contributed to this report.

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