Frank Schafer talks about his plan to make Haddonfield more diverse.
I did a little research on the census in Camden County, from 2000 and 2010, to see if there was much of a difference as to the racial makeup of the townships and boroughs of Camden County. I found something rather curious. Haddonfield was the only one to have a decrease in their African American population.
It dawned on me that for all the wonderful accolades one could say about Haddonfield, racial diversity was not one of them, especially as it pertains to the schools. Although I am not a social scientist, I decided to study up on the differences between inner city schools and outlying suburban schools. Locally as well as nationally, the difference is striking. Here are some of the local stats: graduation rates for Camden 53 percent in 2013, Haddonfield, 98.2 percent. Now let’s look at the money; the cost per student in the City of Camden is $30,697 and Haddonfield is $16,260.
What do I propose? I propose “The Five” or whatever name we may end up calling it. What is “The Five”? Five Kindergartner’s selected by, as yet unknown Camden residents. We bus these children to Haddonfield each year, adding five more each year until we have a total of 65 students enrolled in our exceptional school system. Will it be as easy as it sounds? Not likely. Will it cost us a lot? Maybe, maybe not. With the movers and shakers, we have in our special borough, we may be able to accomplish this small thing by getting reimbursed by Camden City and at the same time save them money. What will these Camden kids gain from this? A chance to be productive citizens, to stand tall, to become the new movers and shakers, to give back, paying it forward. What do our local kids get from this?
A chance to interact with children from many cultural and economic backgrounds a part of the world that they have not up to this point had a clue about. What do the parents get from this small offering? Please. Need more? What if we can persuade other boroughs in Camden County to copy this model, or something like it. Maybe it might grow from there. It’s a small thing, most likely complicated as I said, but I believe in Haddonfield. Nothing really stops us. We can and should have a serious discussion about this.
