New Jersey parents urge state to end district takeover, citing ‘weakened trust, reduced family involvement’

Parents in a New Jersey school district are calling for the State Board of Education to end a government takeover, expressing frustrations with academic and other outcomes.

“State intervention in (Camden City School District) was meant to bring improvement,” Carla Villegas, mom of a district student, said at a Sept. 17 meeting covered by NJ PBS’ Spotlight News.

“To many in our community, those conditions have worsened, especially after budget cuts removed family engagement coordinators.” 

The district, which served 7,117 students in the 2023-24 academic year, has been under state control since 2013. 

“Most Camden students now attend charter and renaissance schools, which are like charters but are financed differently and follow different rules,” writes Hannah Gross for Spotlight News. “Over half of the district’s budget for the 2024-25 school year was spent on tuition for charter and renaissance schools, former Superintendent Katrina McCombs told the State Board of Education in June.” 

‘Teachers are stretched thin’ 

Full-time district staff positions have been cut from about 1,620 to 1,331 to address a $91 million budget deficit – including support-staff roles such as family operations coordinators, according to Gross. 

“Without (family operations coordinators), parents go left out and teachers are stretched thin trying to fill the gap,” Villegas said. “This loss has weakened trust and reduced family involvement at a time where engagement is critical.” 

Villegas is an organizer manager for Parents Invincible, a local group representing parents “across the city, regardless of school type.” 

“Above all, we believe in school choice and respect parents’ informed decisions,” the group says on its website. “We ensure they have the access to resources and information required to make informed choices about the decision impacting their access to high-quality education.” 

As previously reported by The Lion, public-school students in the Garden State are performing worse academically since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In one example, a report by the state’s education department found 51% of children proficient in English language arts (ELA) in the 2022-23 school year, compared to 58% in 2018-19. 

Math scores fell even lower to 38.2%, from 44.5% four years before. 

Meanwhile, the state’s public-school funding has ballooned to more than $18,000 per pupil in 2022 – compared to less than $16,000 for private school tuition. 

Although New Jersey does not track the number of homeschool families, recent legislation has proposed substantially more restrictions and regulations on homeschooling. 

Many homeschool parents have protested the bills, which include requiring homeschoolers to meet public-school officials for an annual child welfare check. 

Such a move “would be an extra burden on public schools,” said Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) – noting the legislation doesn’t include funding to hire additional staff for the inspections. 

“Public schools are there to educate children enrolled in the public school,” he said, “not to do health and wellness checks on children in the community at large.”