Camden Education Association president's feisty letter against renaissance schools:

Camden Education Association president's feisty letter against renaissance schools

In anticipation of Monday’s school board meeting (if it happens), the Camden Education Association president put out a feisty letter asking all members to show up and speak out against any more privately run and publicly funded schools in the city.
As I mentioned in my article in today’s Inquirer, officials involved with the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy proposal, which was rejected in September by the Camden Board of Education, were asked to attend Monday's board meeting. None of the people behind three other Renaissance proposals, also rejected Sept. 25, was invited to the meeting, but some plan to attend anyway.
The nine-member board unanimously rejected, with one abstention each, proposals for the Benjamin Franklin Academy, the Camden Center for Youth Development SMARTS Academy, and the Universal Cos. Renaissance School. The KIPP proposal was voted down, 4-4, with one abstention. The application - the most ambitious plan of the four by sketching a plan for a five-school campus - came from the partnership of the Norcross Foundation Inc., a charity created by the family of State Sen. Donald Norcross (D., Camden) and his brother George E. Norcross III; the charitable foundation of Cooper, which George Norcross chairs; and one of the nation's largest charter-school operators, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). George Norcross is a managing partner of the company that owns The Inquirer.