State officials are taking over the deeply troubled Camden school system, and while some of the details of the seizure may differ from other takeovers in Newark, Paterson and Jersey City, one lesson from those experiences seems clear: Once in, the state will be a long, long time getting out.

That?s because this ultimately isn?t about the schools at all. This is about poverty.

If you?re looking for blame in understanding why the students of Camden and other downtrodden cities perform so poorly on the whole, then look past the school buildings and the teachers and the classroom technology. Those factors may be part of the problem, but they are not the starting point. And they are not the most pivotal concern.

No, start with the students or, more specifically, start in their homes. Learn the struggles of their lives outside the schools. Understand the impact of a single parent ? or no-parent ? home, where guidance or even something as simple as help with schoolwork may be impossible to find. See what they eat ? and don?t eat ? and imagine how it might feel to try to function on such a diet. Try to grasp the dangers with which they live every day, threats of violence all around them. Even the very best of students would find the possibility of excelling in such a world daunting. And what if education isn?t valued in the home?

Maybe the state can do better, at least by eliminating some of the rampant mismanagement. Maybe different methods fostered by charter schools or public-private partnerships can yield solutions.

Maybe we just need to get as many kids as possible out of there and into a different learning environment, away from the most troubled of their classmates.

But don?t say the schools are broken. It?s society that?s broken, at least in places like Camden.

But how does our government fix poverty? That?s the overarching question of our times, and the inescapable answer to this point is that it can?t. And neither can the almighty free market. So our leaders, forever trying to at least look like they?re doing something, attack schools and teachers, set them up as straw men representing the central obstacle to better urban education.

Then they knock them down, with the promise of change and eventual long-term success. But we?ll never be able to level the educational playing field in urban schools in any meaningful way when so many students walk into classrooms at such a distinct disadvantage every single day.

The sooner we accept that reality, and allow that recognition to more distinctly shape educational policies going forward, the better off those students will be. Eventually. But it?s a long, long road.

The Daily Journal