One more thought on the Newark civil rights complaint (see below): the parent group in Newark argues that the NJ DOE’s intervention in their failing urban school district violates their children’s civil rights. Logically, I suppose, they also view federal involvement through No Child Left Behind as an infringement and, in fact, much of their argument rests on their right to local control of their local school system. Therefore, the formal complaint casts aspersions on the $100 million Facebook grant from ultimate outsider Mark Zuckerberg,  the disenfranchisement of the Newark School Advisory Board (who voted against closing schools but were overruled by Superintendent Cami Anderson), and the NJ DOE’s plans to closely oversee Newark Public Schools through a new Regional Achievement Center.
 
Ironically (or not) these parents are making the inverse of the argument presented in Camden this past October, another district that will be under close(r) scrutiny due to a history of failure.

In the Camden case, known formally as Vargas v. Camden City Board of Education, three mothers filed a class action complaint with Comm. Cerf because, they contend, their children’s constitutional right to a “thorough and efficient system of education” is violated by enrollment in the dismal Camden City Public Schools. (See coverage here.) Despite decades of state intervention and augmented funding, 23 of Camden’s 26 schools are on the list of NJ’s 75 worst schools. The parents want an alternative and contend that the lack of access to  another public district (or, arguably, another school, public or private) violates their children’s rights.

Said Attorney Patricia Bombelyn in the Star-Ledger, ““We might as well take these kids’ constitutional right [to a thorough and efficient education] down to the craps table at the Borgata and roll it on the dice.”

Is it a violation of rights to interfere with the stability of a failing district or is it a violation of rights to not interfere in the stability of a failing district? Does home rule and  local control supercede school district accountability? The Newark parent group says “yes.” The Camden parent group says “no.”

In the Camden case, an Administrative Law Judge ruled against the parents. They plan to appeal to Comm. Cerf.