SCHOOL CHOICE PUSHED IN CAMDEN

    Today's Newark Star-Ledger has an article about three Camden moms who are seeking better educational opportunities for their sons. They are asking Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf to declare the Camden city schools unconstitutional due to poor performance. The article states that they, "demanded that their children, and any of the system’s 15,000 students, be allowed to transfer to better schools".
    Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution states: "The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all of the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years." This, prior to 1947, was Article IV, Section VIII, Paragraph 6.
    That amendment dates back to 1875! It has also been used by liberals in their quest to throw more and more money at failing urban schools.
    More money is clearly not the answer.
    Four years ago we wrote that once, "Camden was a bustling center of commerce and prosperity. Industry was booming, the city's inhabitants lived in solid, safe neighborhoods with leafy parks. Its mayors were not serially perp-walked from office. Indeed, someone may once have asked, where in New Jersey are Democrats doing a better job governing than Republicans are doing in Camden and Camden County? It is also notable that during its Democratic era, Camden has declined into a teeming slum, a place to escape from. Not only white flight, black flight too. And three out of the six most recent mayors were convicted of corruption."
    Unfortunately, while Camden's middle class was able to escape to more sedate places like Cherry Hill, Voorhees and Pennsauken, those with less means were trapped in a dangerous failed municipality. Corruption in City Hall led to dangerous streets and dysfunctional schools.
    The answer for New Jersey's urban schools is not to dump more money into the vortex of failing districts operated by the city's Democrat Party machine, it is to allow parents, at least those who care, to send their kids to schools where they will actually get an education.