Blue Jersey:: Camden parents protest "Urban Hope Act" outside Assembly Session

Blue Jersey:: Camden parents protest "Urban Hope Act" outside Assembly Session:

Camden parents protest "Urban Hope Act" outside Assembly Session by: Rosi Efthim Mon Sep 29, 2014 at 03:15:19 PM EDT

A group of Camden parents is walking the halls of the New Jersey legislature today in advance of the Assembly's vote in this afternoon's session on the "Urban Hope Act". I'm told by the parents that they've been unable to talk to voting members; unclear whether they were unsuccessful in setting up appointments to lobby members today or didn't set up meetings in advance, or if members ignored them. A reworked and expanded "Urban Hope Act" passed the Senate overwhelmingly last week. Both Education Law Center in Newark and Save Our Schools NJ asked the legislature to withhold their approval as they see the legislation as a threat to the city's public schools. There are numerous questions which should throw cold water on this legislation, including legal questions. Rutgers Camden PhD candidate Rasheda Weaverhighlighted distrust on both the local and state level directed at Christie, Mayor Dana Redd and those behind the bill, and posts insinuating the bill amounts to educational experimentation on the children of Camden. Jersey Jazzman, in a well-sourced piece of the sort policy-makers should find useful, walked through the evidence that suggests Urban Hope will not work the way Steve Sweeney suggests it must. But maybe the biggest question is this one, raised most directly by NJ Spotlight:Debates in Camden continue - - but is anyone listening to the community? The continuing answer would seem to be No.  Blue Jersey:: Camden parents protest "Urban Hope Act" outside Assembly Session:

Rosi Efthim :: Camden parents protest "Urban Hope Act" outside Assembly Session