From 1932 to 1972, the United States government conducted “studies” on poor, rural Black men in Macon County (Tuskegee), Alabama. Convincing largely illiterate Black men that they had “bad blood“, up to six hundred of participants volunteered for the study believing it to be beneficial to their health. Little did they know however, that over the course of forty years, nearly four hundred Black men would be injected with syphilis, a disease that could lead to blindness, mental illness, heart disease and, ultimately, death. These unwitting men, without their knowledge, were injected with a disease that was potentially fatal if left untreated, and indeed nearly thirty did perish while other suffered excruciating pain. To reiterate, for four decades, a vulnerable population of poor Black people, were needlessly injected with a disease that could kill them while those who injected them simply watched doing absolutely nothing to alleviate their suffering.
So what does the Tuskegee Experiment have to do with the Camden City School District in 2025? It is my contention that our public school system consisting exclusively of working class people of color (primarily Black and Latino), was also delivered its own potentially fatal infection in the form of its single enrollment system called One Enrollment, formerly known as Camden Enrollment. On paper, One Enrollment positions itself a one stop “shop” for parents to be able to register their child for the school of their choice, whether it may be a public school, charter school, or renaissance (takeover) school. One Enrollment represents itself as a convenience to parents who simply want an easy mechanism to bypass institutional red-tape and get their kids in school. The reality however, is much more subversive if not outright diabolical.
It is important to understand Camden/One Enrollment’s arrival in Camden in 2015 coincided with the creation and establishing of renaissance (takeover) schools; where New Jersey’s state government, under the influence of then-Governor Christie (who, at the time, had presidential aspirations and looked to cast himself as a Republican who could work “across the aisle” with Democrats) and George Norcross (a Camden County Democratic powerbroker who plays puppet-master to South Jersey Democrats in municipal, county, and state governments) worked in concert to purposefully dismantle and collapse Camden’s public school system. Why? Because Camden public schools had, and still has, the largest public budget south of Newark. Thus, with such massive amounts of public funds being under the authority of Camden’s lower income minority citizenry, the only way to erode the school system’s control and oversight over multi-hundred-million dollar spending decisions, was to dismantle the public school system systematically and legislatively. And in 2012, the Urban Hope Act was passed by state lawmakers (the majority of whom had zero connection to Camden or Camden schools at all) that mandated the establishing of up to fifteen corporate operated (CMO) charter schools, “renaissance schools”; KIPP, UnCommon, and Mastery. (Keep in mind, all three corporate networks take in MILLIONS of dollars of venture capital money. Quite literally, these charter networks have investors who make money of the establishing of every school, and property ownership.) Since 2014 when the first KIPP/Cooper/Norcross Academy was established, more and more renaissance (takeover) schools were created, and more of Camden public schools were handed over by the under-credentialed and uncertified then-Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard , and subsequently current Superintendent Katrina McCombs.
It gets worse. With the establishment of every renaissance (takeover) school, Camden’s public school lost more children – and with it vital funding that keeps public schools operating. What cannot be missed, was for the first four years of renaissance schools’ existence, Camden public school buildings – with Camden public school students attending them, were simply given away to KIPP/Cooper/Norcross, UnCommon, and Mastery. Successive Camden superintendents gave away public school buildings, and students, and the coinciding funding amounting to tens of millions of dollars ANNUALLY.
Enter Camden/One Enrollment. in 2015 Camden Enrollment began operating in Camden to facilitate the dispersal of students from Camden’s public schools and into renaissance schools specifically. The use of such an enrollment system has been implemented across the country where ever CMO charters pop up, and everywhere the same thing occurs: a surge in CMO charter enrollment, and quick and extreme drop in public school enrollment. Where one may play devil’s advocate and suggest that perhaps this may be an embodiment of parental choice, in Camden that would be a flat out lie. Camden/One Enrollment has been empowered by superintendents Rouhanifard and McCombs to cap enrollments in city public schools at all grades and has been allowed to stop parents from enrolling children into our public schools while directing them into renaissance (takeover) schools.
But it gets worse still. For years, our current superintendent was informed in writing, with supporting documentation and photos, and corroboration from multiple building principals, that Camden/One Enrollment was blocking parents from enrolling children in their school even though their schools had the space to accommodate their request. Nothing was ever done to stop it. Still nearly annually, our superintendent would bemoan the loss of students, and the loss of funding before publicly lamenting the District facing a budgetary deficit because of the loss of students portraying publicly as wholly unaware. In truth, the superintendent since 2019 was shown with proof that Camden/One Enrollment was steadfastly stopping children from enrolling in our schools and being redirected (along with the funding) elsewhere, and she never did anything to stop it. Why might that be?
That’s what part 2s are for…and yes it gets much worse. When this piece is done, it will be clear to see the connection between the Tuskegee Experiment and Camden/One Enrollment in case you haven’t caught it already. (Check out One Enrollment’s 990 if you wanna get a sense of where this is going or if you like spoiler alerts.)
The Truth Must Me Told.
