theyāre giving away our schools
I was hoping to keep my posts here semi-regular, but time has gotten away from me and itās been a while. So, hereās something new.
Letās start with something startling: Camden City School District now enrolls nearly 10,000 fewer students than it did in 1999. Thatās right, a district with nineteen public schools enrolls just 8,888 for the 2016-2017 school year, compared to 18,536 just before the new millennium.
Now, some of that loss can be attributed to population decline; the 2000 census recorded 30,566 children aged 0-19 and the 2010 census just 26,924. Without employing any fancy statistical modeling, I would estimate that there may be between 22,000 and 23,000 children in the City now, but again, Iām just pulling that number out of the air.
But letās get back to these enrollment numbers. Where have are students gone? Well, according to school enrollment data, about 30% of them attend charter schools (5,014) and about 14% attend Renaissance schools (2,195). Last year, charter school enrollment was about 28% (4,401), and Renaissance was about the same (2,189). In 2014-2015, the first school year that Renaissance schools were operating in Camden, an estimated 26% were in charter schools and just 3% were in Renaissance schools.
So, we know where theyāre going. But why are they going? And why is the district fostering the growth of privately managed schools and allowing its own enrollment to shrink? Iāve had a lot of conversations regarding that first question, and for many parents and their students, the answers are the same: the Renaissance school took over their neighborhood public school, so they chose to stay, or; there are no more public schools within walking distance, or; the charter or Renaissance facility is newer and better, and the school offers more activities, better classroom management, etc. Overwhelmingly, the reasons have nothing to do with classroom education, which could mean that the quality of instruction at each type of school is similarly good, or similarly bad, or, worse, that people are not truly concerned with their childrenās educations. I refuse to believe the latter point not only because of my naive optimism, but because the parents I meet and know care deeply about the quality of education in this district. Truthfully, I think there are talented educators and administrators who work in Camdenās Renaissance and charter schools and I know they believe they are doing their best for their students, and parents see that. They also see new facilities, and an inaccessible, washed out school board that neglects the 100 year old school buildings peppered throughout the City--why shouldnāt they make the switch?
Onto the second question: why is the Camden City School District self-destructing like a Voltorb? To answer this, I can only speculate, though given the current socio-educational political environment as of late, it isnāt too hard to make an educated guess.
New Jersey has nearly 600 school districts, and each district relies on some combination of local, state and federal aid. Camden City, despite having one of the highest tax rates compared to income in the state, requires a lot of aid from the state because its tax base is small; median income in the City is just $25,000, and thanks to the Economic Opportunity Act, a large chunk of its commercial tax base was simply given away and we wonāt reap the real benefits for at least ten years. On top of that, the district was plagued by corruption in the years leading up to the 2013 state takeover. It was ripe for a turnaround.
Naturally, they turned to charter management organizations. The Urban Hope Act of 2012, engineered by then-State Senator Donald Norcross and orchestrated by Democratic power elite George Norcross III, made way for the hybrid Renaissance schools, and Christie-era charter school expansion had already hit. Camden City School District once educated close to 20,000 students (and probably more before the population began declining) at more than 30 schools. Now, there are 37 schools (excluding the three parochial establishments) and about 16,000 students. What gives?
This year, two schools, Bonsall and Sumner will be closing, Camden Community Charter School had its charter revoked, and Sharp and Davis were nearly merged; concurrently, both Uncommon and Mastery schools are constructing enormous new facilities! At this point, it seems as though the district is willing to give up its schools, one by one, until we are managed by a strange and disconnected web of sneaky for-profits and nefarious non-profits.That shift would effectively dissolve the board of education here, though not the Stateās nor the localeās commitments to funding the schools. Good times.
That move would be drastic, and is perhaps a bit far-fetched, but for some reason I donāt feel like a conspiracy theorist when I talk about it. It could be stopped, if local control is restored and we push for traditional public enrollment and a moratorium on Renaissance and charter schools, and I think thatās what we need to do. I realize this post is a bit rambling, and much of it has already been said, but Iāve been poring over enrollment numbers recently and I need to get it out there. So here it is.
