Students, alumni, faculty, and staff of Rutgers Camden held a townhall meeting/ rally yesterday to discuss the proposed takeover of the campus by Rowan University. The main venue, the Gordon Theater, which seats over 600, filled up and the overflow attendance was directed to the student center for a live wireless broadcast. That area also holds hundreds, and it also filled up. Smaller groups gathered in a few other satellite locations on campus.
Chancellor Wendell Pritchett moderated the discussion, after expressing his own opposition to this plan to combine the two institutions. Students who spoke talked about the reputation of Rutgers, the value of a Rutgers degree, their inability to attend the larger Rutgers campuses due to family or work requirements, the importance of having a university with an international reputation in the area, their sense of community, and the outreach the university does to non-traditional students such as returning veterans, older students, and those with family responsibilities. One student recalled his first visit to Rutgers Camden, at age 7, coming to class with his college student mother. He returned as a student himself.
The faculty talked about the importance of the Rutgers name when recruiting new professors. One recounted a recent conversation in an interview with a potential hire. When asked why she was interested in the job she said it was the possibility of working at Rutgers. One of the law faculty talked about the potential legal issues with the proposed combination of the two schools.
Rutgers Camden students are not known for activism. Like many commuter students they have families and / or jobs in addition to college classes and papers, with limited time for campus events. The turnout yesterday was geometrically larger than the turnout for any other campus event in over a decade. It is a sign of how important this issue is to the students and alums.
Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt of Cherry Hill has recently been chosen to chair a new committee to address women's and children's issues. I visited her in her Voorhees office today to learn about the goals of that committee as well as her opinions on other important issues. We discussed marriage equality, state education policy, the problems in nearby Camden, the setback for anti-bullying initiatives, and property tax reform. Also discussed was the slow pace of implementation of the medical marijuana law, where she proposed in interesting solution to the problem of finding dispensary sites.
To be an effective advocate for progressive causes and social issues, it is important that you know your opponents. Understanding their positions, especially those coming from smart people with whom you may disagree, will help you hone your position and strengthen your arguments.
With that in mind, Joey Novick and I travelled to Morris Township earlier today to have a conversation with Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll. Carroll is a libertarian in the Ron Paul mode, and while most of his views are outside of what we may consider the mainstream, he is firmly entrenched in his principals. Our discussion included slavery, marriage equality, the voting rights act, anti-bullying legislation, medical marijuana, and what to do about Camden's crime and poverty. Some of Carroll's thoughts may be surprising or even shocking.
(Marie is a public school teacher, a former candidate for the NJ Assembly, and a long time member here at Blue Jersey. I've got more about how the S-L screwed up where Camden St. Elementary is, and why that's important, at my blog. - promoted by Jersey Jazzman)
I'm disappointed to see the Star Ledger Editorial Board miss another opportunity to set the record straight on education 'reform'. I've written previously about their lack of fact-checking, as has Blue Jersey staff writer, Jersey Jazzman.
Yes, editorials are opinions, but they are not the same as water cooler arguments. In order to have validity, the facts supporting the case being made should be accurate. The Ledger has not done its homework for this piece about The Urban Hope Act. As the state's largest newspaper, they reach millions of people who don't know all the issues surrounding education 'reform'. This piece paints the problems Camden and other poor school districts face with broad and misinformed brush strokes.
Given the current culture of ‘blame the teacher’, it’s easy to see how they place the blame for poor performance on ‘disastrous’ instructional programs. Never mind that Camden St. School isn't even in Camden (it's a special education school in Newark), no child can possibly learn and very few teachers can effectively teach in a high school riddled with crime and violence. However, I’ve never heard of any subject—not even math—being responsible for 249 reported incidents of violence. But I do know that things like homelessness, poverty, gang involvement, abuse, drugs, and parents with a history of criminal behavior are—not to mention drastic cuts to the local police force.
Camden is a city in trouble and many politicians from Governor Christie to Mayor Redd to Senator Norcross and Assemblymen Wilson and Fuentes are getting a lot of press coverage. No doubt, there are a lot of bad people who are taking advantage of the city's inbred poverty and the Governor's cutbacks in public safety and education to the detriment of the law-abiding and struggling residents of that city. But the silver lining is that there are also residents who are quietly working below the radar to incrementally improve the situation there.
One such citizen is José Delgado, a retired investigator for the public defender and former long-time member of the Camden Board of Education. I spoke with Delgado this afternoon about crime, education, and the hopes for Camden's future.
(Teacher/candidate Marie Corfield spells it all out: - promoted by Jersey Jazzman)
Before the end of the year Governor Christie wants the legislature to pass the remainder of his property tax ‘tool kit’ including his education ‘reform’ agenda. And the fate of one of the nation’s best public education systems and thousands of its students hang in the balance.
Out of over twenty four hundred schools in this state, about two hundred are not doing a good enough job educating their students. These schools are mostly in the former Abbott districts, some of the poorest cities in this country, where the Black unemployment rate is almost double the state average, and one in five children live in poverty.
The governor and Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, along with their education advisors, Better Education for Kids (B4K) and Excellent Education for Everyone (E3), do not address this almost criminal disparity of wealth despite the fact that one of the DOE's earlier Abbott district reports cites poverty as a major roadblock to student achievement:
Quote of the Day is today's Tweet from Courier-Post columnist @Jeremy_Rosen:
ICYMI @GovChristie took state chopper to his Camden appearance 2day... nothing wrong with that, but is he scared of city streets?
Thwock. Thwock. Thwock. Gov. Chris Christie availed himself of the mammoth state helicopter down to Camden this morning for the 35-mile ride from Trenton. In Camden, a city with far fewer police to keep a watchful eye on the Guv, he announced the future expansion of what sounds like a good idea (unless it masks another privatization initiative) to shift drug offenders into rehab programs instead of prison.
Christie did his press conference at Cathedral Kitchen, the largest emergency food provider in Camden; feeding since 1976 "the homeless, the jobless, those with disabilities or addiction problems, the working poor," from "infants to the elderly".
It's great to see Christie draw attention to Cathedral Kitchen's work. But seriously, did Christie's cocksure press operation give any thought at all to how arrogant it looks for the governor to chopper in - at great public expense - to a place where hungry people come to be fed, on the day after we learned there are twice as many New Jerseyans are relying on food stamps than 4 years ago?
Thwock. Thwock. Thwock. Guess nobody thought of that.
Today's first public hearing of the New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission was a disappointment. Similar meeting for the legislative districts were held earlier this year and spanned several hours with testimony from dozens of advocacy groups. By contrast, today's hearing was concluded in 45 minutes, including the introductory remarks.
Held in a mostly-empty auditorium on the Rutgers-Camden campus, the hearings were chaired by Rutgers-Newark Law School Dean and former State Attorney General John Farmer, Jr . On the stage, Farmer was flanked by the six Democratic and six Republican members of the Commission.
The half dozen witnesses were comprised of politicians, gadflies, and a solitary union leader. There were no representatives from the minority communities or even the ubiquitous Tea Party.
Perhaps the reason for the lack of public input was the fact that the venue was not formally announced until after Blue Jersey poked the Commission on Tuesday of this week, and the meeting was held during working hours.
While the rules for Congressional redistricting are generally stricter than those for the legislature, keep in mind that the work that this Commission does will determine district boundaries for the next five Congressional election cycles. And while redistricting probably won't correct the gender imbalance in our Congressional delegation, the lines that are drawn will have a big impact on minority representation.
Let's hope for a better turnout at the October 11 sessions in Newark and New Brunswick. The commission's web site is njredistrictingcommission.org.
Dean Farmer spoke with Blue Jersey after the session. His comments are below the fold.
In the previous diary on NJ JOBS we examined the wrong track approach which emphasizes reducing government, budgets, and debt. By putting people back to work, however, the state can regain tax revenues needed to reduce indebtedness and replenish our unemployment, transportation, and pension/health funds. More important, it brings a measure of relief, security and optimism, sorely lacking now, to people who want to hold on to their home, put food on their table, pay bills, and reduce their reliance on government support. The argument should not be, as Christie says, over jobs for the private sector vs. the public sector because both are essential to our economy and our well-being.
Our state government, famous for imposing objectives on organizations it funds, could set its own objective for lowering unemployment. A decrease of just 1%, from 9.5% to 8.5%, in the unemployment rate would add about 45,000 new jobs for those who are now struggling. At an average salary of $25,000 it would add over $1 billion to our economy, part of which would go to taxes, strengthening the state's revenues. A substantial reduction in unemployment to 5% or 6% is a longer term objective which entails retooling education, innovation and automation for new jobs replacing those which are no longer needed and in which we are no longer competitive. A state goal of 1% or 2% is not an impossible dream.
I was going to call this diary "Governor Christie Hates Veterans", but that's a bit over the top, even for me. But his actions yesterday certainly did not give our veterans their due recognition.
Asked whether Christie had ruled out restoring some of the funds, a spokesman for Christie, Kevin Roberts, said the governor "is always ready to work with the Senate president, Assembly speaker and Legislature."
Steve Sweeney's reaction?
"We'd be happy to talk to the governor," Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said at a news conference Thursday
Talk they will. And give in, on something big, they will.
Here's the deal. The cut in transitional aid to cities - to $10 million, far less than Camden alone received last year - was stunning. It hits very hard core Democratic constituencies - urban mayors, political bosses collected to urban mayors that benefit from the budget. And the reality is that, based on our property-tax heavy system, because places like Camden have lost most of their jobs to the surrounding suburbs, they don't have any other way out.
So the Democrats need to get this money back, really, really badly. There's plenty of room to do it given that Christie left more money unspent in this year's budget than at any time in recent memory. The price will be high, and there is a good chance that it will neuter plans by the Democrats to do any serious oversight this summer. But there is very good reason to believe that the price will be paid.
Watch this story in the coming days and weeks, as Charlie Brown rides again.
Mayor Dana Redd of Camden delivering the keynote address to the Camden Call to Service Summit sponsored by Citizens' Campaign. Part 1 is below, part 2 after the fold:
I wasn't a resident of New Jersey when Jim Florio was governor, so I don't have much first-hand knowledge of his tenure in Trenton. But in my brief interactions with him this year, he seems to be a mensch.
Last night, he received the Alain Daniels Civic Responsibility Award at the Camden Call to Service Summit. Here are the intros and the governor's remarks.
For first-responders, the massive cuts to their labor force are not only about backdoor methods of making collective bargaining illegal, as Hetty Rosenstein charges Steve Sweeney and Jennifer Beck are trying to do. Not only about Christie's near-daily demonizing of the people who work for New Jersey, and not only about Christie ignoring labor's collective bargaining rights. Firefighters & police are charged to protect, and deep cuts in state aid have meant massive layoffs, and an impact on how safe we all are.
Boots of laid-off Camden police officers (APP)
Camden laid off nearly one-half of its police force this year; a third of its firefighters. Yesterday, about 40 laid-off firefighters and firefighters coming off shift rallied outside Camden's city hall, demanding action from Mayor Dana Redd. Their signs read: Camden's new emergency # (856) TOO-LATE, and People are dying.
The NJ state PBA's website is as hard on Democrats in the legislature as it is on Gov. Christie:
On the political front, Governor Christie continues to preach that he has no problem with the "rank-and-file" members while at the same time he proposes legislation that denies those same rank-and-file members their collective bargaining rights, violates their contracts, and reduces pension benefits that they have faithfully paid for during their careers.
Unfortunately, the Democratic majority, with only a few exceptions, has apparently forgotten their core values and has been ineffective in bringing some order and common sense to the table.
I arrived at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden in plenty of time to cover the annual meeting of the Greater Camden Partnership. The event staff showed me to the large ballroom with auditorium seating for the over 400 movers and shakers who would be attending. I set up my video camera on the left side of the room, against what I thought was a wall, near the podium.
Shortly after that, one of the aquarium staff walked by and pressed a button. The "wall" behind me turned out to be a heavy curtain, and it started to rise. Behind the curtain, I was face-to-face with a 500 pound shark along with dozens of other sea creatures in a 550,000 gallon aquarium. All that was separating me from the sharks and a watery deluge was a pane of glass.
First Lady Michelle Obama has taken on the challenge of reducing childhood obesity and improving nutrition among our young people. Like any initiative, this takes not only dedicated people, but also money.
Where will that money come from? At the federal level, Congress is intent on perpetuating wars of choice, tax cuts for the wealthy, and kickbacks to the robber barons of the financial "services" industry. Social programs are a prime target for John Boehner's cuts. At the state level here in New Jersey, the governor is more interested in tax breaks for his wealthy friends and subsidies for the gambling industry.
Fortunately, Camden, one of the poorest cities in the nation, has several benefactors that are stepping in to help combat childhood obesity. The most prominent and generous of these benefactors is the Camden-based Campbell's Soup Company.
Driving across the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey, a visitor quickly sees the old Sears building on Admiral Wilson Boulevard. Built in the 1920s, the store was emblematic of the former prosperity of Camden. It was one of the first department stores to have a parking lot to accommodate those newfangled horseless carriages. Sears left the building in 1970, and it has been home to a diverse series of enterprises from a car dealership to a night club to a series of retail stores.
Completely vacant for the last six years, the neoclassical building has been on the list of sites for preservationists to defend from oblivion. It survived a demolition threat during the rehabilitation of the Admiral Wilson in preparation for the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. The building's owner has made several promises with regard to its transformation, but has taken little action in the last several years.
The United States Constitution is pretty succinct on the requirements for a decennial census:
The actual enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. (Article 1, Section 2)
This sounds simple in theory, but in practice, this clause requires each state to go through what has turned out to be an often contentious, politically-driven kabuki dance. The “gerrymandering” that we learned about in middle school has been supplanted by “packing” and “cracking” of electoral districts as the maps are drawn. (These terms are explained below.)
