Cherry Hill NJ residents fight church-based charter which will cost public schools $1.9 mil a year.

madfloridian

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Fri Oct-14-11 09:28 PM
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Cherry Hill NJ residents fight church-based charter which will cost public schools $1.9 mil a year.

This charter school is the creation of two pastors of the Solid Rock Worship Center "on the Camden Diocese�s former Holy Rosary Parish site." Charter schools get public money while having more freedom to teach as they choose. Cherry Hill schools will lose close to 2 million dollars a year.

Giving public taxpayer money to religion-based charter schools....that is a very questionable practice.

�Even in the days of Tent City, it was about education reform,� pastor Amir Khan said. �That�s why we�re starting with kindergarten. If we catch children at this age, we�re not going to have them ending up in Tent Cities, and in jail.� (Courier-Post file)

Charter school to open in Cherry Hill

The state Department of Education on Friday announced the selection of four more charter schools scheduled to open next September, including two in South Jersey under the leadership of people who�ve made news before.

Regis Academy Charter School, a regional school that will be located in Cherry Hill but open to students from Cherry Hill, Lawnside, Somerdale and Voorhees, is the creation of Amir Khan and Calvin Brown, pastors at Solid Rock Worship Center on the Camden Diocese�s former Holy Rosary Parish site.

Although Cherry Hill did not want the school, the school leaders appealed to the state. Cherry Hill is appealing to the state as well. This is similar to what is happening in Florida....the districts can turn down a charter, but the state can override their complaint. Takes away local control of schools.

Cherry Hill is battling a proposed charter school

Cherry Hill, one of the largest districts in the state, is appealing to the state Board of Education the approval this month of the Regis Academy Charter School, saying the loss in state funding to public schools would force teacher layoffs and program cuts.

"What is the need?" asked Cherry Hill Superintendent Maureen Reusche. "I believe the children in this district get a quality education. It was just in the last month the governor himself referenced Cherry Hill as a district that is achieving."

..."The Rev. Amir Khan, pastor of Solid Rock, who sits on a committee of African American pastors he said meets frequently with Christie on the issue of charter schools, said his aim was to provide an alternative for parents dissatisfied with the traditional public school model.

"They don't mind you having a school in Trenton, Camden, Jersey City, but God forbid you go into the suburbs," he said. "The moment we were approved, the phone started ringing like crazy, and it was a lot of people from Cherry Hill."

Officials in one of southern New Jersey's best regarded public school districts are upset. They feel that they will soon have to compete and share money with a new charter school. Since charters originally claimed they wanted to provide more support for inner city schools, it does seem strange to see a mission change. It's a move into high performing schools, and it is not going over so well.

Cherry Hill school officials unhappy about competing with planned charter school

The bill for Cherry Hill is expected to be $1.9 million a year. Dan Keashen, a spokesman for Mayor Bernie Platt told The Courier-Post that his boss is outraged over the charter.

"The mayor believes the current school system is operating at a very high level," Keashen said. "Why does there need to be an alternative?"

.."The debate over the schools has spilled into the state Legislature, where the Senate Education Committee this week is considering a bill that would give local communities say over whether charter schools could open there.

Regis Academy is headed by Amir Khan, a businessman, pastor and philanthropist best known for attempting to rescue more than 50 homeless people who were living in a city of tents in Camden in 2010. He wants to put the school on the grounds of his Solid Rock Baptist Church, which he is leasing from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden. But he says the church and school would be separate.

This is not just happening in Cherry Hill. It is happening in NY where Eva Moskowitz is expanding into the upper West Side with a charter school called..you guessed it...Upper West Success Academy.

From the New York Times:

On Upper West Side, Hurdles for Charter School

Opposition to the charter school, named Upper West Success Academy, has been as structured and relentless as the school�s own marketing campaign, and it has already chased the school out of two proposed locations, on 105th and 109th Streets. The local community education council, which represents District 3 public school parents, has mobilized council members and state senators in fighting the charter school, which it contends will siphon middle- and upper-middle-class families from schools that desperately need them for stability.

Members of the teachers� union and New York Communities for Change, which replaced the state�s chapter of the embattled organization Acorn, are often present at rallies and copied on e-mails debating the next steps in the battle. Even the local community board, which has no official say in the process, has chimed in. On Jan. 4, it voted 40 to 0 against the city�s most recent plan, to house the charter school at the former Louis D. Brandeis High School on West 84th Street.

�In Harlem, there was some need and desire and interest in charter schools,� Noah E. Gotbaum, president of the community education council, said in an interview. �We don�t need more options here. We have options. We have great schools.�

That last statement indicates a dual standard of mindset. Resources were taken away from inner-city public schools, and parents often had no way to fight when their schools were co-located or closed.

Sounds like the charter movement has changed its mission from one of helping inner city schools to forcing themselves into almost every area.