education in new jersey

there are three op-ed pieces in today's asbury park press, all related to education, plus a reader's letter to the editor regarding taxes. one is about nj funding of education, one is about bullies (not specific to nj), the last is about tenure (somewhat nj specific) and the reader letter is about state and local taxes.


my comments today are specific to nj, although they may apply to other states.


i was taught in college that you cannot begin to solve a problem until you have identified the problem. each of these opinion pieces spoke about the problem or about a solution for their specific problem and none of them tried to provide an overview of the whole. the letter writer tries to separate state and local taxes like they exist in a vacuum. none of them are correct, although the bully piece did take aim at the major issue in education today.


we all know schools in new jersey cost too much, AND, do not provide a good enough education to many of its students. we also know why too many students do not achieve - lack of parental involvement! we could double the amount of money we spend and we will not improve educational performance by very much at all unless we can get the parents of our children to care. that is why it is senseless to continue to pour money into our current system. our second problem is the NUMBER of school districts and their management by local, county and state entities, who do not work toward the same goals.


our new governor has taken the approach that we can no longer afford to tax more and spend more. he was elected to change that approach. he is doing the same things corzine did, with the exception that he is not looking to raise taxes. perhaps because of time constraints, both the current and next fiscal year budgets need to be executed in this manner, but the plan to freeze wages and cut programs will not work long term to lower costs. there must be structural changes to the school system in nj for us to be able to get spending and performance in line.





HERE ARE MY IDEAS - PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN





1. create 21 county districts. this eliminates "abbott" districts.


2. pass legislation requiring there can be no municipal entity of less than 25,000 people in nj and revamp all school districts to match the new municipal maps. this will lower the number to less than 320 districts. it will also provide some municipal cost savings. can make the number higher if you like. we have about 8 million people.


3. standardize administrator and teacher contracts. no more tenure, but some type of protection is necessary.


4. offer new hires 401k type retirement packages, offer a standard "bare bones" health care plan with choices of better coverage at higher contribution levels. only get sick days when sick. no carryover and NO PAYOUTS at retirement. Retirement age same as social security.


5. require an 11 month work schedule. everyone gets either july or august off. the extra to be used for lesson planning, educational self-improvement, etc.


6. set statewide maximum pay level for superintendents, those salaries below will fall in line.


7. limit overall administrative costs to a reasonable % of teacher costs.


8. no state mandates. if a county system is used, eliminate state board of education.


9. pick your tax poison. either we fund education locally or statewide, not both!

10. within new districts (especially county), let students at lousy schools transfer within the district. quid pro quo is performance must improve.

11. if parents will not get involved in schooling, students may not transfer. we are losing them anyway, why prolong the agony.

12. special ed and other programs for the disabled can be better handled on a a county wide basis because resources can be devoted to the educational specialists in these fields. this supports #1.

13. i'm sure there's more!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?