"I was thinking maybe I shouldn't open it up to questions, that something like this would happen," he said. "Most people were open-minded, but there's this group of people there's no convincing."
The movement to take charters beyond their traditional urban setting into the suburbs, where residents expect a quality school system in return for higher property taxes, has turned New Jersey into a battleground. And the church campus where Khan plans to open the secular Regis Academy is ground zero.
This month, the high-performing Cherry Hill district took the rare step of challenging Regis' charter approval.
The projected $1.9 million in state aid redirected to Regis would detract from the education available to the township's other public students, the district said. The state appellate court is expected to issue its decision no earlier than March.
The 55-year-old Khan - a college dropout turned businessman turned evangelical minister, who graduated from Cherry Hill schools himself - may seem an unlikely charter-school champion.
At Solid Rock, which he founded nearly two decades ago, he ministers to a growing, largely African American flock whose ailments he promises to heal through prayer.
He is famous for his spirited sermons. The charismatic minister once pretended to snort cocaine, then hurled a television against the wall as he exhorted his congregation to cast off the burdens preventing them from spiritual fulfillment.
"I could sell a bikini to an Eskimo," Khan once boasted.
He says the charter school will continue the charitable mission he inherited from his father, beloved Camden physician Mustapha Khan, who served the city's poor for nearly a half-century.
