The 13,700-student Camden school district in New Jersey , the Philadelphia Inquirer and Associated Press report.
The state will have both academic and financial control of the district, which currently has a less-than-60 percent graduation rate and financial woes to match. Ninety percent of the district鈥檚 schools鈥� academic records place them in the bottom 5 percent of the schools statewide. The state will be responsible for selecting a new superintendent and leadership team for the district, and the Camden school board will be relegated to an advisory role.
Republican Gov. earlier today, the Inquirer reports, saying that not taking over the schools would be 鈥渋mmoral.鈥�
The district had been given eight months to last year, and those eight months are up next week. The state is already a presence in the district: A state-run oversees some particularly low-performing schools in Camden and a monitor oversees some spending decisions.
will be the fourth district in New Jersey taken over by the state. Jersey City has been since 1989, Newark since 1995, and Paterson since 1991.
This is the first time that Christie has initiated a takeover, however. Christie will be up for re-election this fall. Democrats in the state鈥檚 legislature supported the move. The New Jersey Education Authority and other advocates for public schools oppose the move, saying that Christie has thrown his support to charter schools rather than appropriately funding the district鈥檚 schools.
The Education Law Center in New Jersey last summer, my colleague Andrew Ujifusa reported. The organization was wary of the 鈥榮 support for state intervention in local school districts.
The other three districts run by the state in New Jersey have shown that . The school board in Newark has recently been fighting to from the state.
Here鈥檚 a New York Times summary of the results of a in other states鈥攊ncluding Pennsylvania鈥檚 takeover of Camden鈥檚 neighbor, Philadelphia.
Digging into the archives for some context, here鈥檚 an Education Week story from 1989, when New Jersey鈥檚 state government announced it would take over the school district in Jersey City; another story from 1991 on the takeover of the school district in Paterson; and a third on Newark.
Camden鈥檚 beleaguered schools are not the only government agency leaving local control: are being provided by a new county agency rather than the city.
Photo: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is flanked by New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, left, and Camden Mayor Dana Redd as he addresses the media at press conference at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, N.J., on Monday. The state of New Jersey moved Monday to take over the school district in the city of Camden, where Gov. Chris Christie said 鈥渢he system is broken,鈥� allowing thousands of students to fail year after year. (John Ziomek/Camden Courier-Post/AP)