Camden parents should be part of the dialogue about how education dollars are spent

Every child in Camden has a price on their head.

When you attended school from K-12 — whether public, charter, or private — you, too, had a price on your head. School leaders and policymakers know this bounty as per pupil expenditures. That is, how much each district spends per child. Most, if not all, of this funding comes from federal, state, and local sources allocated to schools for each student.

In other words, the money earned by schools amounts to the sum of a price tag on each child in the student body. Equally important, every check written by the schools in this city is made payable by our children’s enrollment.

In this regard, education in America totaled close to $800 billion in spending in 2021. New Jersey claimed almost $33 billion of that pie, spending an average of almost $25,000 per student. Here in Camden, the dollars assigned to children vary. Specifically, in 2020, the Camden public school system spent almost $40,000 per child, while Camden charters (including Renaissance schools) spent just under $20,000 per child on average.

Hopefully, the discrepancy between public and charter spending per child bothers you.

The fact remains that charters in Camden consistently yield greater academic outcomes in reading and math than public schools while spending half as much to do so.

In addition to higher test scores, there are other signs of overall improvement in Camden since charters joined the educational ecosystem. The dropout rate has fallen by 10 percentage points, and the system’s graduation rate has increased by 15 percentage points.

Perhaps this reputation of success — a perceived promise that students will leap forward and achieve an uncommon mastery of scholarship — is why 62% of the city’s current student population is enrolled in either a charter or Renaissance school — publicly funded schools operated privately by nonprofits.

Then again, it could be that most Camden kids don’t attend traditional public schools because of the 2013 state takeover of the Camden City School District. The takeover did, in fact, facilitate the closing of 11 public schools while simultaneously approving charter school network after network to open in the same small city.

Nonetheless, understanding what it means when our children are wanted — when every child has a price on their head — is bigger than the debate over public vs. charter schools. Regardless of your stance, our kids are still a part of this community, regardless of which school system they tote their bags to each morning. And they deserve a return on the investment in their education.

Forget college. Whether or not your child graduates from high school, textbook companies will cash in on their profits. Whether or not your child learns to read at grade level … ever, the people who create the tests to determine reading levels will get their cut.

It really doesn’t matter if your child’s science class is vacant all school year, or if science is taught by an underqualified teacher with a social studies certification, the education consultants hired by the district will still get paid.

Nonetheless, the question remains, after the pie is divided and everyone gets their piece, what will you and your child get? More importantly, what should you and your child get? Access to college? A viable trade with high earning potential? A substantial number of teachers who represent the demographics of the students in the classroom? Highly skilled teachers who are not undervalued and overworked? Curricula our kids can relate to and understand?

Do we not deserve a place at the table to decide how the price tag for our children is spent?

I don’t know the exact answer for each parent or caretaker of a child. That question is for the community to answer, not me as an individual. What I can say is this: We all want whatever our definition of high-quality education is for all of our kids. And do we not deserve a place at the table to decide how the price tag for our children is spent, especially with so many hands in the pot?

I’d say we do. Unfortunately, in Camden 2024, no real mechanisms of power and decision-making exist for the average resident when it comes to how our schools spend their dollars. As the only public school district in New Jersey still under state control, there is no Camden City public school board of elected officials to represent the interests of the families, to represent the interests of the money that comes in with each child.

That means the Camden City School District spends twice as much as surrounding charters — a total revenue of almost $500 million — with zero say from the community. When it comes to representation, charter schools are no better, as their boards of trustees are occupied by appointees.

There is a void where there should be voice. Thus, community representation for every $20,000 and $40,000 price tag our children funnel into school budgets is a must. Our children are wanted. It’s time to leverage the supply of dollars to demand a voice.

Amir Taron Ayres is an instructional supervisor at a charter school in Camden.