Parents in Camden City Schools Have Janet Jackson’s ‘Control’ on Their Playlist
Graphic by Habib Salami.
OPINION
BY RANN MILLER
Janet Jackson’s discography spans from 1982.
But for most Janet Jackson fans, her run of albums begins in 1986. It’s not because her first two albums weren’t any good. But her third album, and every album since, was markedly different. The difference: she took control of her artistry and the music it produced.
She aptly titled her 1986 album, Control.
Control was a personal and commercial success. But it was also a public declaration. Always under the direction and careful eye of her father, Control was Janet Jackson’s declaration of independence. She says in the song:
“Got my own mind / I want to make my own decisions / When it has to do with my life, my life / I wanna be the one in control.”
Last month, Camden parents made their public declaration for control. Camden City parents, frustrated with the current situation in the school district, have urged the state board of education to restore control of the district’s schools to residents.
Their reasons include (but are not limited to) the compounding of budget cuts—resulting in less satisfactory student outcomes, budget reallocation to charter schools, and declining enrollment.
The Camden City School District (CCSD) lost control of its schools in 2013. Then-Gov. Chris Christie, with the support of then-Mayor Dana Redd, announced the takeover of Camden schools, which were under state financial monitoring at the time.
Precipitating the takeover were poorly performing schools and various scandals involving school leadership, including a cheating scandal and the unauthorized sanctioning of bonuses by one superintendent, followed by their predecessor’s record of absenteeism.
As a result of the takeover, staff reductions, budget cuts, and school closures ensued. The takeover also allowed the state to appoint a superintendent, removed governance control from residents—the school board shifted to an advisory board with no decision-making power—and welcomed charter management organizations to take over specified schools.
Making all of this possible was the Urban Hope Act. The Urban Hope Act, passed a year earlier in 2012, allows charter schools and charter management organizations (CMOs), referred to as “renaissance schools,” to take over struggling traditional public schools in Camden, Newark, and Trenton.
In the original legislation, these schools had to build new facilities. An amendment to the law in 2014 allowed charter schools and CMOs to use existing facilities, provided they promised to renovate them.
A 2017 amendment to the law—allowing private entities to fund charter schools and CMOs’ facilities costs—failed to pass due to heavy opposition. School takeovers target and harm Black and brown communities.
Additionally, they typically do not work on improving the educational outcomes of Black and Brown students. And yet, the state of New Jersey has used its authority to take over school districts in traditionally Black and brown municipalities.
Before Camden, the state took over the districts of Jersey City, Paterson, and Newark. And certainly, where Camden is concerned, the data shows that the takeover hasn’t improved matters. Enrollment in Camden City schools has declined precipitously, and it impacts the education of students within the district.
According to data from the state department of education, CCSD’s enrollment has decreased by 45% from the 2012-2013 school year, before the state takeover of the district, to the 2023-2024 school year.
Meanwhile, charter school enrollment—encompassing both independent charter schools and CMOs, commonly referred to as Renaissance schools—has increased by 354% over the same period.
Renaissance schools, enabled by the Urban Hope Act, accounted for more than half of the 2012-2013 CCSD totals by 2023-2024, even though they did not exist during the 2012-2013 school year. The per-pupil cost per Camden student in 2023-2024 was $28,230.
According to the state funding formula, charter schools receive 90% of that cost. Theoretically, if all students in Camden in the 2023-2024 SY were attending CCSD schools, CCSD would have $499,021,710 to spend on student instruction.
But because of charter enrollment, the city had only $195,182,220 to spend on student instruction, with the difference (90% of the student per pupil cost) going to charter schools.
The evidence for school choice or “competition” in Camden, and thus the reallocation of funds—contributing to budget cuts in CCSD—in the argument for charter schools, specifically Renaissance schools, is state test scores.
According to the NJ Department of Education, in the last three years of testing data that’s available (2021-22 SY to 2023-24 SY), Renaissance schools (created by the Urban Hope Act) and traditional charter schools (created by state charter school legislation) outperform CCSD in both English language arts proficiency rates and mathematics proficiency rates.
The data is likely the same, dating back to the school district takeover and formation of Renaissance schools.
However, here’s the thing… all of these students, regardless of where they attend school, are Camden City school students. Their competition isn’t with each other.
It’s with students throughout the state, and in the last three years, all schools in Camden (public, traditional charter, and Renaissance) have had a lower proficiency rating in both English language arts and mathematics than the state proficiency average.
That tells me that Camden’s charter schools are underperforming, and like CCSD, it’s not good enough.
The counterargument is that outperforming CCSD is better than reverting to the status quo before the takeover and the Urban Hope Act.
My response to that is if suburban South Jersey school districts like Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Evesham, or Haddonfield were underperforming, I can guarantee you that legislation like the Urban Hope Act wouldn’t be the solution for those districts. If government officials were to propose such legislation to the residents, it would be flatly rejected.
Residents in those communities would likely demand an improvement plan from their district leaders, and if nothing changed, leaders would face the risk of being voted out in favor of new leadership. The Camden parents requesting control of its schools aren’t acting any differently. The difference is that Camden’s parents are Black and Latino.
According to Rutgers University professor Domingo Morel, author of “Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy,” state interventions—including the one in Camden—often accomplish their intended purpose, serving as a political power play by the state to control the political and economic destiny of districts in traditionally Democratic cities led by Black and brown people. As I expanded previously:
“While justification for such a power move by the state is often cloaked in language of rescuing children, another likely explanation for taking over Camden, Morel suggests, is in retaliation for the court-ordered redistribution of public monies out of suburban schools into urban schools. In a series of rulings beginning in 1985, known as the Abbott Decisions, the New Jersey Supreme Court mandated that state funding for impoverished school districts be equal to that of wealthier school districts.”
What state intervention in Camden—with the Urban Hope Act and the takeover of CCSD—has done is strip governing power of schools from parents in exchange for schools that, like CCSD, struggle to meet state proficiency standards, employ lower percentages of Black and Brown teachers, and disproportionately suspend Black students. This situation confirms what the research has already shown: state interventions don’t work.
What Camden’s parents need and deserve is the autonomy to govern their children’s education. If that means having options amongst public schools and traditional charters or going all in with CCSD, Camden’s parents should have the autonomy to make that decision for their children, rather than compete with interest from outsiders who think they know what’s best for the people of Camden, when they only know what’s best for their pockets.
Whether or not that happens will depend on how hard Camden parents are willing to out-organize the white power structure to get it back.
BIO: Rann Miller is a writer, author, and educator. A graduate of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Rann teaches AP United States History, is the author of Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids, and is an opinion columnist, featured in various news outlets exploring the intersections of race, education, politics, culture and history. You can follow on “X” @RealRannMiller, on IG, and TikTok @realrannmiller.
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