Some quick hitters as we go into the weekend: 

 — This week, the Camden Parents Union and Camden Student Union held a town hall as part of Journey 4 Justice #WeChoose campaign. A student panel addressed issues like school closures, and the impact of having fewer teachers of color in schools, and Jitu Brown — who organized the hunger strike to save Dyett High School in Chicago — gave a rousing keynote that linked America’s wider racial history and institutional racism to the educational challenges of communities of color. Here’s an excerpt from that keynote: 

Check out the rest of that video at Blue Jersey. 

 — Speaking of Blue Jersey, one of our own, Brian Everrett who is a Rutgers-Camden graduate and a current university employee, posted his own thoughts on gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy’s free college plan. Here’s an excerpt: 

And New York is right. The article by NJ.com points out that New York’s college tuition programs have stipulations which require recipients of free tuition to remain as in-state residents for a certain number of years after graduation, or face their awards being converted into a 10 year, interest-free student loan.

That is what Murphy’s plan needs. It is currently not clear per Murphy’s website if this stipulation will be a part of his plan, so I’m assuming it is not. As a candidate for New Jersey Governor in the year 2017, his plan must attack multiple policy issues at once, including the costs of education, including a lagging economy, including an under-prepared workforce, and our brain drain problem. Many of these issues correlate with each other!

 — For those of you following the ongoing controversy about the Methadone Clinic, there’s a community meeting in Bergen Square this Thursday. The issue has been put off at the monthly Planning Board Meetings for two consecutive months, and there are some rumblings of a potential Community Benefit Agreement. Check it out this Thursday

 — There hasn’t been much buzz about a general election mayor race, but it looks like Keith Errol Benson (note: this is not Keith Eric Benson — who is the president of the CEA) is entering the race. Here’s one a launch video, along with a link to the campaign website. I don’t know if this slate will be on the ballot [update: apparently this will be a write-in campaign], but I’ll be curious to see what this campaign looks like after the struggle that opposition candidates had in the primaries. But Keith Benson has been at the forefront of the fight over Camden High, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the High emerge as a central plank in his campaign. 

 — Camden resident and Loyola student Shaniyla Johnson responded to last week’s roundup and wanted to share some readings and audio with our readers. Here’s an excerpt from Melinda Anderson’s piece titled Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color. Read the whole thing

“If you’re in an advantaged position in society, believing the system is fair and that everyone could just get ahead if they just tried hard enough doesn’t create any conflict for you … [you] can feel good about how [you] made it,” said Erin Godfrey, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School. But for those marginalized by the system—economically, racially, and ethnically—believing the system is fair puts them in conflict with themselves and can have negative consequences.

If the system is fair, why am I seeing that everybody who has brown skin is in this kind of job? You’re having to think about that … like you’re not as good, or your social group isn’t as good,” Godfrey said. “That’s the piece … that I was trying to really get at [by studying] these kids.”

At the 16 minute mark in this podcast, Loyola Professor Camika Royal talks about the same article and the wider implications. Great stuff, and thanks Shaniyla!

 — And, there’s a lot of chatter about a pitch for Amazon Headquarters in Camden (or perhaps Camden County). And Kevin Riordan even suggested a joint proposal with Philly. I’ve been waiting for Camden and Philly to realize that a race-to-the-bottom in which companies attracted to the wider metropolitan area play the two cities against each other ultimately undermines both cities. Simply point, there should be joint applications such as this — even if the details are messy — and eventually policies that work across state lines as well. 

 — And the Camden Supper Club has dinner this Monday at Old San Juan’s. Come hang out with us!

That’s all from here! If you have other issues, items to share, or anything else, drop it in the comments and I’ll pull it up into the post throughout the day. See you next week!

Comments

  • As someone who follows a lot of varying education issues/situations (whether it deals with evaluating different education programs or the financial aspects of education)- in some ways I find it hard to fully grasp the notion of Phil Murphy\’s plan to have free community college for everyone. It is not just the direct finances going into it and New Jersey\’s issues funding numerous other areas such as the pension system- but rather more directly school funding.

    As part of the lead-up to the brief government shutdown, one of the state\’s large topics and something they made changes to was funding/distribution to the states individual districts. Even with a change going forward, there is still a large issue in terms of the formula being utilized as to the amounts each district should be getting and what they actually are getting (with quite a few being underfunded).

    I sort of question the idea of putting \”x\” amount of money (and it is at least a couple hundred million) to provide free community college, while our elementary/primary education is still highly underfunded (and not taking the same type of measure in terms of providing more funding to those).

    What message does this imply?

    Are we saying, we know there are major issues with funding our states districts, but at the end of the day we can overlook that if we can get more students into community college (and even further after that)?

    And at the same time, how can we be sure we are aligning everyone up for success for attending college if high school classes (and lower grades) don\’t have textbooks or the proper tools necessary to ensure students are learning what they need to know?

    And as we are a society that pushes everyone to go to college- is this the best option? We see in other countries (Germany is big on this) a push not just for college but also vocational/apprentice type programs.

    Before going further in any direction, the need to step back, see what others have done, see where our largest gaps are, and start working our way to fill those and then after that bring in the other pieces.

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