The Least Educated City In New Jersey Has Been Revealed

A lot of people in New Jersey have college degrees, but the levels of schooling vary from city to city. SafeWise, a website that reviews security products, says that Camden, which is in Camden County and is just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is the state’s least educated city. Out of all the cities in New Jersey with 25,000 or more residents, this one has the lowest number of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Let’s look into why Camden has low levels of schooling and how that affects the people who live there.

How SafeWise Lists the Cities with the Fewest Educated People

Based on the 2019 American Community Survey, which was done by the U.S. Census Bureau, SafeWise ranked the towns in each state with the fewest college graduates. It finds out what percentage of adults aged 25 and up have a bachelor’s degree or higher in each place and then sorts them from lowest to highest percentages. In their study, they only look at cities with at least 25,000 people, and that gives the FBI full crime data.

SafeWise says that an associate’s degree, professional degree, or graduate degree is not a bachelor’s degree because they are not four years long and not from a recognized college or university.

We need to know why Camden is the least educated city in New Jersey.

About 74,000 people live in Camden, which is a pretty small city. It has been around since 1828 and was a major shipping and manufacturing hub in the 1800s and 1900s. This is where famous people like author Walt Whitman, singer Patti Smith, and actor Michael B. Jordan got their start, as well as well-known companies like Campbell Soup, RCA, and New York Shipbuilding.

But Camden had to deal with a lot of problems, such as the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector, the decline of cities, high crime rates, poverty, and corruption. These problems made it harder for students to do well in school. There are only 9.3% of people in Camden with a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 43.6% in New Jersey and 32.1% across the country. For more than 90% of adults in Camden, this means they have at least a high school diploma or some college schooling.

Some Possible Reasons for Camden’s Low Level of Education Are:

Not enough chances to get a good education: Camden’s public school system has a lot of problems, like low test scores, high dropout rates, and not enough money. NJ.com says that only 13% of Camden students met or exceeded standards on state math tests in 2019 and only 21% did the same on state English tests. Only Rutgers University-Camden is the only four-year college in the city, so there aren’t many choices for higher education. However, it is a public research university with a high acceptance rate (58%), and tuition costs $15,264 per year for in-state students.

High rate of poverty: 36.4% of people in Camden are living in poverty, which is more than double the state average of 14.3% and three times the national average of 12.3%. People who are poor may not be able to afford college and may also have health problems that make it hard for them to go to college.

Lack of desire for skilled workers: Camden’s economy is based on sectors like education, healthcare, and government services, where many jobs don’t require a high level of education. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most popular jobs in Camden are office and administrative support workers, people who prepare and serve food, people who provide personal care and services, healthcare practitioners and technicians, and people who work in education. For most of these jobs, you only need a high school education or less.

Possible Ways for Camden to Raise Its Education Levels

It’s not inevitable that Camden will always be New Jersey’s least educated city. There are things that both the city and its residents can do to improve schooling and quality of life in general, such as

Improving access to good educational opportunities: Camden can give its public schools more money to make them better. This could mean hiring more qualified teachers, adding more academic and extracurricular activities, improving buildings and technology, and getting parents more involved. The city could also look into forming partnerships with nearby colleges and universities to make education more cheap and easy to get to. These partnerships could include online classes, satellite campuses, or programs that let students attend both high school and college at the same time.

Getting rid of poverty and unfairness: Putting in place policies and programs that deal with the causes and effects of poverty, like unemployment, low pay, unstable housing, food insecurity, and limited access to healthcare, childcare, and transportation, could make life a lot better in Camden. It might also help reduce poverty to back projects that encourage economic growth, job creation, business, and new ideas.
Demand for trained workers is growing. Camden could expand its economy by attracting fields that need more education and skills, like technology, arts, culture, or tourism. Investing in training and workforce development programs can also help workers improve their skills and qualifications, which can lead to more job possibilities.

Conclusion

Based on data from the Census, SafeWise says that Camden is currently the least informed city in New Jersey. This is because of many things, such as a high poverty rate, limited access to good schools, and a lack of jobs for highly skilled workers. But Camden could raise the level of education and improve the quality of life for its people by making it easier to get an education, fighting poverty and inequality, and increasing the need for skilled workers. Within the next few years, Camden could become a smarter and wealthier city with the help of the right programs and community work.

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