This week, Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard released a budget that called for one in five jobs to be eliminated throughout Camden schools, potentially leaving 400 unemployed before September and half of those teachers. The district plans to cut one in three administrators in the central district office, and one in five jobs in schools. School officials have attributed this years' $75 million shortfall to reduced funding, overspending and dropping enrollment.

Since 2009, Camden's enrollment has decreased by 1,000 students, to around 12,000. The district has the second highest per-student spending in the state, at $23,000 per student, twice as high as Philadelphia's per pupil spending. The budget has been spread thin across an increasing number of district-funded charter schools and more plans in the works. The district plans to spend $72 million of the $359 million budget on charter schools. One in four Camden students is enrolled in a Charter school. 

To deal with the shortfall, the district plans to cut staff and spending by $28 million and reduce non-personnel costs by $29 million. The teachers' union played a roll in negotiating the number of layoffs down by half.

Like the School District of Philadelphia, Camden City School District is state-run. State funding has remained fairly stagnant as spending has increased. Last year, the district hired back nearly all of the fired employees, but this years cut is two times as large and intended to create a more sustainably funded district.