| 1. Countywide Consolidation
Instead of trying to get municipalities and local school districts to give up their identities and merge with other municipalities, it would be better to give voters the choice on an annual basis to cede their governance and spending authorities to county government and county school districts. This would provide voters with a real choice that would have a major impact on their local property tax and state income tax responsibilities.
Instead of voting for or against their local school budget, during the November general elections, voters would choose whether to have their municipal government and local school district remain independent or cede their governance and spending authorities to their county government and county school district. They could still elect their fellow citizens to municipal government offices and their local school board, but if they decide to cede their governance and spending authorities to their county government and county school district, these elected officers would serve in an advisory capacity only.
The benefit of countywide consolidation would be that all municipal/county and education spending would be paid for with progressive state income tax dollars instead of regressive local property tax dollars. This spending would also be more cost-effective, because personnel and purchasing contracts would be negotiated at the state level, enabling everyone to benefit from New Jersey's economies of scale and population density. These economies of scale savings should more than pay for the hiring of additional teachers, required by proposals #3 and #4 below.
The cost of remaining independent would be that all municipal and education spending would be paid for with local property tax dollars with no state aid to the municipalities, school districts, or individual households in the form of homestead tax rebates. By allowing voters to vote for or against independence on an annual basis, they would have the opportunity to experience firsthand the cost of home rule and decide whether or not it is worth paying. Obviously, state income taxes would have to be increased to pay for this system, but most of the residents of municipalities and school districts who participate in countywide consolidation will benefit more from the elimination of property taxes.
People who live in Abbott districts would not have this choice as their municipalities and school districts would automatically be consolidated into the county systems.
2. Charter Schools and School Choice
Within the parameters of countywide consolidation as described above, the public education system could offer parents more choices that do not negatively impact public education as a whole.
The current charter school law creates a competitive rather than cooperative relationship between public charter schools and traditional public schools. This is a terrible mistake and is in diametric opposition to what charter schools were supposed to be when they were initially conceived. Charter schools should be laboratories for innovation, where new and better practices can be developed and applied to traditional public schools.
By consolidating into county school districts, the negative fiscal impact of charter schools on local school districts can be minimized and spread countywide, because charter schools could serve an entire county school district rather than a few local school districts. Also, county school districts could provide opportunities for countywide school choice at least at the secondary level.
One way that countywide school choice could work is that higher-performing students in lower-performing school districts could be given the opportunity to transfer to higher-performing school districts and lower-performing students in higher-performing school districts could be transferred to lower-performing school districts. This would hopefully inspire all students and their parents to be more engaged and support investments in all public schools, not just the ones closest to them.
3. Student and Teacher Evaluation
First and foremost, I would eliminate the utilization of all standardized testing and replace them with observational evaluation methodologies. This would require the hiring of significantly more teachers, all of whom would have both classroom and observational responsibilities.
For example, in elementary schools, teachers who would normally teach the same class for 3/4 of a day for the entire school year with their students spending the remaining 1/4 of the day in art, music, and physical education classes, would only teach their class for a 1/2 day and dedicate the other 1/4 day to observing other classes and their teachers. And in middle and high schools, where teachers normally teach five periods, prep two periods, and serve in some administrative capacity for one period would teach four periods and dedicate the other period to observing other classes and their teachers.
4. Extending the High School Day
Currently, the high school day starts at approximately 8:00am and ends at approximately 3:00pm. Afterwards, students often participate in extracurricular activities like clubs, sports, and part-time jobs. Unfortunately, the kinds of part-time jobs that are available to students after 3:00pm are limited and most do not provide them with much vocational development, which could benefit their decision-making process with regards to their futures in the workplace.
I would extend the high school day to 8:00pm, which would provide more flexibility with regards to when students attend classes and participate in extracurricular activities. Being able to work from 8:00am to noon or from noon to 4:00pm instead of 4:00pm to 8:00pm will provide high school students with a much wider array of part-time employment and internship opportunities.
Also, some extracurricular activities like clubs and sports could be enhanced so as to satsify certain academic requirements, especially physical education. Playing a team sport during a particular season should exempt a student from having to go to gym class, providing them with an extra independent study period or an opportunity to pursue electives for which they would not otherwise have the time in their school day. An extended high school day could also enable more advanced students to take more classes per day and possibly graduate in three years rather than four if they were so inclined.
Regardless of the choices that students make, a longer school day would give both students and teachers more choices and flexibility with how they structure their lives. Obviously, an additional five hours of school time would require more teachers to be hired as it is unlikely that many, if any, teachers would want to work a twelve-hour day unless it meant significantly more money. That money would be better spent on additional teachers rather than stretching the existing educational workforce. |
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