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When I heard about Christie's cutting state aid towards public schools in New Jersey, I normally would have cheered! The state budget is bust due to supporting 616 overlapping, inefficient school districts, some of which DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY SCHOOLS!!
This is why I believe that school aid SHOULD be cut, but it should be contingent on the following proposals:
Proposal #1
Merge all 616 school districts into 21 countywide districts. Before I go any further, I would like to stress that NO TEACHER WILL LOSE THEIR JOB, NO SCHOOL WILL CLOSE DOWN, AND YOUR CHILD'S CLASSROOM SIZE WILL NOT INCREASE. Instead, this would bring administration of all schools of a given county into one countywide school district. Although the countywide school district would likely be larger than any single school district in a given county, it will still be smaller than all the school districts within a county put together.
Each countywide school district shall be divided into separate districts, which shall be coterminus with high school sending districts. Each district shall be represented by 1 representative, who shall represent the interests of not only the local high school, but also all junior high and elementary schools which "feed" into the high school. They shall be elected to two year terms in odd number years, the positions shall be non-partisan (and no political party may endorse or in any way meddle). These representatives will compose the "Board of Education", which would be the legislative branch of each school district.
Thus, a hypothetical Ocean County Board of Education would look like this.
District 1 - Pinelands Regional High School Sending District
District 2 - Southern Regional High School Sending District
District 3 - Barnegat High School Sending District
District 4 - Lacey Township High School Sending District
District 5 - Central Regional High School Sending District
District 6 - Toms River South High School Sending District
District 7 - Toms River North High School Sending District
District 8 - Manchester Township High School Sending District
District 9 - New Egypt High School Sending District
District 10 - Jackson Liberty High School Sending District
District 11 - Jackson Memorial High School Sending District
District 12 - Lakewood High School Sending District
District 13 - Brick Memorial High School Sending District
District 14 - Brick Township High School Sending District
District 15 - Point Pleasant High School Sending District
District 16 - Point Pleasant Beach High School Sending District
District 17 - Toms River East High School Sending District
Board of Ed members shall be part time workers who shall receive $400 per meeting for 50 meetings, and are not paid for any meetings after that!!
The executive power shall be vested in a superintendent who will also be elected for a two year term in odd number years. They shall be paid at 125% of the median income of the county in which they represent. There shall also be an assistant superintendent who is elected to a two year term in odd number years, They shall be paid at the median income of the county in which they represent.
No board member or superintendent should receive anybenefits which add to the costs, except for healthcare, in the absence of a universal healthcare system.
Of course, there are many other staff at the district level which I won't get into. But I think th
Proposal #2: Limit the number of non-teacher/non-sipecialized service positions within an individual school:
When making cuts, teachers as well as special ed/special services (ie: psychologists/social workers) should not be skimped on.
In terms of core administrators, each countywide school district in general needs only one superintendent, 1 business superintendent per 10,000 students, 1 assistant superintendent non-business per 10,000 students, and 1 Supervisor of Curriculum Instruction per 10,000 students. Each 7-12 school needs only one assistant principal, and K-6 should have none
Proposal #3
All schools in each district shall receive equal funding per student!!!
And upon implementation of all 3 proposals, eliminate Abbott Districts
If we are able to cut non-teacher positions down to the bare bones, then we need not cut classes or teachers and the district would save money, thus reducing greatly the need for state aid. Administritis is what is killing our schools and the sooner it is addressed, the better.
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