Even in Days Like This, I Won’t Complain
“I’ve had some good days, I’ve had some hills to climb,
I’ve had some weary days, And some sleepless nights,
But when I look around, And I think things over,
All of my good days, Outweigh my bad days,
I won’t complain…
Sometimes the clouds hang low, I can hardly see the road,
I ask the question Lord, Why so much pain?
But He knows what’s best for me, Although my weary eyes, they can’t see,
So I’ll just say: thank you Lord,
I won’t complain…
God has been so good to me, He’s been good to me,
More than this world or you could ever be, He’s been so good to me,
He dried all of my tears away, Turned my midnights in to day
So I’ll just say: “Thank You Lord”
I won’t complain…
(After a day like today, where our superintendent announced the closure of three city public schools, “I Won’t Complain” has been on repeat in my effort to remember, despite all the pain and grief I (and so many others) feel right now, the Lord has always been near and in the thick of all my darkest moments. This is something I have to remember in order to grow my own Faith and Understanding…even when it hurts. Today hurts. And while many folks may not understand the turn this piece is about to take, please know I am certainly about to switch gears and connect the pain I feel referenced in the hymn above to today’s events concerning our schools.)
What folks must know by now is that the closing of our three city schools, US Wiggins, Harry C. Sharp, and Alfred Cramer, has nothing to do with education, and everything to do with politics. For instance, both academic literature, and easily accessible google searches shows school closures and student displacement does nothing to improve student acdemic performance, but instead worsens student achievement and upends communities. Yet, three schools are closing. For those keeping count, this will be eleven school closures since 2013.
Despite the repested claims, the closures of these schools have nothing to a supposed $40M deficit. This District has still never substantiated that claim, nor has the staff from the NJDoE who have been embedded in the District’s business office. No one has seen proof that a $40M deficit exists – but for the sake of argument, let’s entertain that claim for a moment. The District is receiving $56M in federal aid for COVID-related matters, in addition to an additional $13M in state aid from this current year. Thus, in a matter of two weeks, the District is slated to receive $69M more toward its budget next year than was planned just three weeks ago. So for the folks that may say, “you can’t use that $56M in CARES Act funds toward saving schools”, while that may be true, that $56M received from the federal government, frees up $56M the district already had in its budget to save schools. That $69M in new aid, could easily absorb that hypothetical $40M deficit the Superintendent kept crowing about. Lastly, on the matter of our deplorable buildings, that claim is flatly false. While touring the buildings, the District had their facilities manager serve as a curator despite my pleas to have another knowledgeable party tour with us to fact check the claims the District’s hand-picked tour guide made. That claim was denied three days before the tour, and two after initially having permission to bring said observer. The tour of the “deplorable buildings” consisted of extensive time looking at boilers and basements – not instructional settings where our children learn, or where educators do their work. (All told, if I had to grade the condition of the buildings slated for closure, I would grade them roughly a C+/B-. They weren’t perfect at all in some parts, but certainly safe, suitable, and more than sufficient for our students to receive instruction.)
Amazingly, very little of the aforementioned made by the superintendent came up in the meeting with the Department of Education. What did come was Camden Enrollment’s role in the District’s “shrinking” enrollment, and this new one: “declining birth rates create a structural deficit”. First, a bit about Camden Enrollment’s role in the District’s “shrinking” enrollment: that’s exactly why Camden Enrollment is here and similar enrollment systems across ONLY urban school districts. Camden Enrollment arrived when renaissance schools were established and if you do some digging, you’ll see the shared funders between the renaissance schools, Camden Enrollment, and Parents for Great Camden Schools; it’s not a coincidence. Those organizations work in concert with one another to deplete enrollment in Camden’s public schools, and even traditional charter schools to guide students into renaissance schools; which is why LEAP Academy, ECO Charter, and the Camden Charter Network all withdrew from participation in Camden Enrollment by 2019. Curiously, the Camden City School District remained ardent participants. Why?
For starters, Superintendent McCombs has been on the board of Camden Enrollment since the Rouhanifard days. This fact seemed to confound many because the shenanigans Camden Enrollment was playing with the District’s enrollment like capping “seats” and “allotments” (words that never existed in Camden registration prior to the arrival of renaissance schools because public school clerks and guidance counselors handled registration at the school site), prevented families from enrolling their students in certain grades in certain public schools like Big Picture Learning Academy, Creative Arts Morgan Village, Harry C. Sharp, US Wiggins, Woodrow Wilson High School, and Camden High School. Astonishingly, the Superintendent knew about such issues certainly for the past two years at least. She was notified via email from building principals (I have documentation), by my office (I have documentation), and in numerous conversations I had with Ms. McCombs over the years (I have documentation), still, she never did any about it. Upon some digging, we found that the Director of the Camden County Commissioners (formerly known as freeholders) Lou Cappelli, was listed as “Executive, Top Contact” for Camden Enrollment – which obviously has exorbitant influence over our District schools’ enrollment and therefore, our public school budget. In laymen’s terms: our city’s public school budget, through our enrollment, has been subject to outside manipulation by ideological third parites and by County powerbrokers for years! This fact, though maddening to most anyone who cares about public education, municipal democracy, systemic racism, or a combination of all three, also would explain why our Superintendent McCombs never did anything to limit Camden Enrollment from hurting the District she’s been charged with protecting. Suddenly, her inactivity to intervene made perfect, if not tragic sense.
The influence of Norcross politics and his shaping of Camden’s future, “Camden Rising”, looms large here. According to Norcross, and many other ultra-wealthy, yet influential white outsiders looking to shape the future of Black and Latino communities, the concepts of urban communities as dangerous, bereft of jobs opportunities, and terrible schools (aka schools attended by Black and Latino children) kept potential middle class residents from moving into inner-cities like Camden. To remedy those issues, Norcross during the Christie years, manufactured the plan to takeover the former police department and, in its place, create the Camden County Police Department (that only patrols Camden) and shift authority and oversight from this Black and Latino city, to the overwhelmingly white county. To solve the jobs problem, Norcross got the NJEDA to fork over a billion dollars in tax breaks to large corporations: Holtec International, Conner, Strong, and Buckelew, Subaru America, American Water, and the 76ers. The fallacy here: the bulk of the corporations that relocated to Camden were primarily situated within an 8-mile radius, meaning jobs were coming to Camden literally, but were already filled when they got here and largely off-limits to Camden residents. The move by the above corporations simply forced those already working for those corporations to alter their commute. To address the matter of education, Norcross got his brother Donald, “Whip” Wilson, and Angel Fuentes to sponsor the Urban Hope Act of 2012 which established “renaissance schools”; corporate charter schools intended to replace public schools, that have legislative pre-approval to establish up to fifteen schools without any exhibited need or desire from parents to enroll their children. For perspective, today renaissance schools have roughly 5400 students, 4400 of which were gained by the prior superintendent turning already operating public schools over to renaissance providers (KIPP Cooper Norcross, UnCommon, Mastery). The manipulation of municipal governance, employment “creation”, and education by Norcross consitutes, “Camden Rising”; and the announced closure of three schools represents the Superintendent’s complicity in delivering the educational desires set forth by Norcross nearly a decade ago.
Whew, that was a lot, but just a bit more. At this point, Norcross’ hand in Camden public schools’ affairs is scarcely a secret anymore. State actors know. The Governor knows. The Acting Commissioner, likely, knows. Camden County Commissioners know. Both the outgoing mayor, and the-newly endorsed mayor knows. City Council knows. The Board of Education knows. Residents know. Educators know. The Superintendent knows. All of these individuals know how the fix against Camden’s public schools is in, and has been since 2012. The volume of people willing to sit idly by and allow the orchestrated collapsing of a democratic public school district, while blithely looking away, or worse, actively participating in it is hurtful to so many. But perhaps even worse, is that at present, the local actors participating in our district’s dismantling are folks who look like us, talk like us, and claim to care about us. Truthfully, I can understand, and actually expect someone like Norcross to try to victimize this community of “others”, but the pain is different when it’s your own people hurting you.
Talking to myself again: It’s time like these when I must remember my dark moments and Who was right there guiding me through the times where I felt most broken, confused, and alone. And, as I look around and think things over, though today hurt bad, and while I’ll soon get back to thinking of ways to continue the struggle to protect our schools, in remembering all He has done for me, I will give Him all the Glory…and I won’t complain.
