The state of New Jersey is funding a third effort to replicate Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, this time in Paterson. Already, the state had put money behind two partnerships between the HCZ and groups in Newark and Camden.
Last fall, the Newark and Camden groups visited the HCZ, which is intended to provide a cradle to college support system for poor kids through social and health services and two charter schools that serve as the anchor institutions. The Paterson project sounds like it will be the same arrangement.
It’s a nice idea, but a Wall Street Journal blog post about the new partnership also points out the pitfalls:
“…Efforts to duplicate the success in Harlem have not come easy.
“We have an absolutely brutal track record of trying to replicate these things,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Hess said Canada’s personal ties allowed him to take advantage of existing social programs, tie them together and raise money.”
Newark has recently benefited from a windfall donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, so maybe other private donors will be attracted to the city. Camden and Paterson have not been so lucky, however, so we’ll be watching to see how successful their efforts are without large private donations.
The fact that the state is stepping in to fund these projects is interesting though, considering the Obama administration’s similar effort in the form of his Promise Neighborhood initiative. Congress cut significantly the money for the federal effort, but perhaps other states will follow New Jersey’s lead and find some cash for similar projects even as they try to bail themselves out of the financial crisis.