Keith Benson’s at it again. The author of the most read blog post on this site, and the first community guest to write here, has a post with national education blogger Edushyster. That post, titled Greetings from Scamden, NJ addresses key issues of local disempowerment.
One of the reasons I’ve started this blog is that I thought Camden could use another forum for local voices. I’m particularly dedicated to that idea because my research in New Orleans often showed how much legitimacy came with these views. That’s important, because “local voices have been easily discredited,” as I argue in this piece by Kevin Riordan’s Blinq. If this can be a space that lends legitimacy, or at a minimum, becomes a forum for discussion of ideas, it will have succeeded in bringing local wisdom into the policy realm.
That’s why I’ve been excited to see Keith Benson, author of An Educator on Camden Schools, be picked up first by the the Courier-Post, and now by Edushyster. Not because I always agree with Keith, but because narratives from local educators are so critical for having a diverse discussion about the future of Camden’s education. I’ve excerpted a couple of his key arguments here, but please read the whole thing:
This first section talks about a perceived gap between community meetings and the policies coming from them:
In Camden, NJ an effort to privatize the local schools finds little resistance among local elites
A recent *community meeting* at Camden’s Catto Elementary School exemplified the vast chasm that divides my city these days, between well-connected elites and the marginalized residents they profess to serve. The state-appointed superintendent of the Camden schools was expected to unveil the specifics of a plan concerning the district’s future. Skeptical local residents filled the bleachers, while Camden’s elites sat at tables applauding a *plan* that was as deliberately vague as it was short on specifics, including the names of the public schools that are slated to be taken over by charter operators. Refusing to name the schools prevents vigorous activism against closure. Instead, the crowd was urged to rally behind a pro-charter policy, *for the kids.*
A subsequent section looks at the link between democratic power wrested from citizens, and the eventual policies:
Board of Elites
Camden’s all-appointed Board of Education is a portrait of cozy influence and elite connections. Most of the board members (or their spouses) have city or county government jobs and report directly to city power brokers. This back-scratching arrangement is nothing new, by the way. As Dr. Howard Gillette describes in Camden After the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-Industrial City, local kingmaker George Norcross has sought to manipulate the makeup of the Camden Board of Education since 1996. The end result is a Board of Education that doesn’t reflect the interests of the people of Camden but a privileged elite who work in tandem with outside forces to enrich themselves at the Camden trough, often at the expense of Camden residents.
Hopefully, this blog can help serve as a springboard for others looking to add their voice to debates in our city.
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