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I think attacking teacher salary and work structure is ridiculous. I'd rather see the emphasis placed on the creation of some type of merit system and the elimination of tenure. Good teachers are worth more than we could ever pay them. Bad teachers should be able to be kicked to the curb.
Outside of that, consolidation is the future and the track that even Corzine was pushing for. Consolidation goes far beyond school districts and police departments though. How many small towns and municipalities do we really need? NJ is a great case study for shared services and consolidation at many levels.
If we can't make the move towards county based systems, maybe the future would be in creating larger townships that consolidate the numerous smaller towns we have. Camden County is a great example of this. You have Collingswood, Oaklyn, Woodlynne, Haddon Twp., Audubon, Barrington, Haddonfield, Magnolia, Somerdale, Stratford, Hi Nella, Laurel Springs, Gloucester City, Bellmawr, Runnemede, Lindenwold, etc. All smaller towns that certainly have the opportunity for consolidation.
The only thing that prevents it is that the "good" towns will fight tooth and nail to maintain their own independent kingdoms and most of the people that live there are willing to pay higher taxes to maintain there little oasis.
605 School Districts = 605 Superintendents & thousands of Assisstant Superintendents& thousands of other administrators.
Make up 21 County Districts with 21 Superindentants & 21 Assistant Superintendents Period. One principal per school.Max of two other administrators per HS, one max per other schools. Teachers max salary 75K, self funded 401K, 50% contribution to health plan. No paid health coverage upon retirement. Must show up to work 185 days per year any sick, emergencies, personal days etc taken will result in no pay so the substitute gets paid from missing teachers deduction.
Teachers will still get 180 days off and will generate much interest.
Police Depts. Now about 575 different Depts with 575 highly paid chiefs, thousands of Asst Chiefs, thousands of Capts etc.
Make up 21 County Police Depts & another 12 or so City Depts for Cities like Newark, Camden, Paterson, Trenton Atlantic City etc.
County Depts will Have 1 Chief, 1 Asst Chief and about 6 to 10 Pcts per County headed by a Capt and a Lt. 10 Sgts & about 1500 Cops. All cops on patrol and about 10 civilians per pct for administrative work. Each County PD would also be responsible for jails, crime scene & detectives.
Offer existing cops opportunity to apply for county jobs.
The state of Florida has a population of 18.5 million, it has 67 school districts.
The state of New Jersey has a population of 8.7 million, it has 605 school districts.
Makes no sense for NJ to have that many school districts!!!
By law many of the assignments can not be done by civilians.
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state of Florida
Stae of Florida has a terrible school system. Ask the residents who pay to send their kids to private schools. In fact here's a thought. Have parents pay for their kids education. Do away with public education and have only private schools. this way I won't be forced to pay big money to send someone else's kid to school.
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would also be responsible for jails, crime scene & detectives
Deduct a 24./7 Correction facilities reducing the number further along with the other services divisions there is no one left on the road.
1500 cops / 21 counties. Break that up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 265 days a year and you will have few on the street at any one time. factor in sick days, holidays and vacation time and it drop further. Jobs take them off the street, as does court. So it comes down to when you call, don't expect a quick response because no one is available. The level of services will drop. Out of those six to ten "Precincts", where do you think all the available officers will be? In the urban city areas because that's where the workload is. When the big money town with fewer calls needs someone, they aren't there. That has been the complaint concerning rationalization for the past forty years. the concept is far from new.
I think attacking teacher salary and work structure is ridiculous. I'd rather see the emphasis placed on the creation of some type of merit system and the elimination of tenure. Good teachers are worth more than we could ever pay them. Bad teachers should be able to be kicked to the curb.
Outside of that, consolidation is the future and the track that even Corzine was pushing for. Consolidation goes far beyond school districts and police departments though. How many small towns and municipalities do we really need? NJ is a great case study for shared services and consolidation at many levels.
If we can't make the move towards county based systems, maybe the future would be in creating larger townships that consolidate the numerous smaller towns we have. Camden County is a great example of this. You have Collingswood, Oaklyn, Woodlynne, Haddon Twp., Audubon, Barrington, Haddonfield, Magnolia, Somerdale, Stratford, Hi Nella, Laurel Springs, Gloucester City, Bellmawr, Runnemede, Lindenwold, etc. All smaller towns that certainly have the opportunity for consolidation.
The only thing that prevents it is that the "good" towns will fight tooth and nail to maintain their own independent kingdoms and most of the people that live there are willing to pay higher taxes to maintain there little oasis.
I live in one of those small towns and we already share schools with another town. Yet, we still pay higher taxes. I think larger towns don't want to merge; I think the larger towns' taxes would end up going up. No?
Last edited by timneh5; 05-03-2010 at 08:41 AM..
Reason: clarity
One thing thats always perplexed me about NJ is the lack of county police forces. Here on Long Island we've always had county police. Except for a handful of villages and east end towns, areas are patrolled by county police.
Not only does merging police and schools save money, but it also provides better communication. When it comes to police, thats quite important.
Does any county in NJ have its own police force?
Essex, Passaic, Bergen, Ocean, Monmouth, need I say more?
County Police have their place. They should be assigned the tasks of the specialties that are too expensive and not needed on a full time basic by the smaller agencies. Every town doesn't need a ESU, Dive Teams, Homicide, Corrections, Fatal Accident Unit or Crime Scene Technicians for serious events. To have each town maintain those units and keep up the training is not cost effective.That's where rationalization pays off. Having a County agency simply duplicate the services of a municipal agency is foolish.
Several small towns rely only on a county agency or the state police.
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but it also provides better communication
Rationalized dispatching is common in many small towns. The only downside is that the dispatchers are not familiar with the areas of the towns. At times this can lead to delays in response when the caller is not familiar with their location and through descriptions the actual incident location cannot be determined.
I live in one of those small towns and we already share schools with another town. Yet, we still pay higher taxes. I think larger towns don't want to merge; I think the larger towns' taxes would end up going up. No?
I think a lot of it has to do with how the mergers have happened. I don't know where you live or how it is setup, but one major consolidation that has been talked about in South Jersey is "Sterling Township". Currently Somerdale, Stratford, Magnolia, Hi Nella and Laurel Springs all go to the same high school, Sterling. However, each town maintains it's own complete school district for PK-8 with some additional sharing at the middle school level between some of them. Additionally these towns also share some services like trash and recycling and some police/fire activities. All of the towns simply run one into the other and there is no reason that forming a consolidated single township/school district/police/fire/municipal government couldn't happen.
The hold up in this case is all political. The various mayors and councils don't want to give up power, the school districts don't want to consolidate under one administration, etc. The funny thing in this case is that it is the larger towns Somerdale and Stratford that are taking the lead, while the smaller towns are holding out. The biggest fear is the smaller towns losing their identity/funding. For instance, Laurel Springs has a very highly rated elementary school, the best one in the area. What would happen during a consolidation? Would projects that Magnolia is funding and pushing for happen? Who knows? This is the issue with consolidation. The powers that be don't want to give up the power and the residents don't want to lose what makes their town unique.
In the case of these folks the forecast would show a tax decrease in the larger towns (probably why they are pushing for it) and a tax increase in the smaller towns (a big reason why the locals are against it). However, the 10 year forecast actually shows them being able to hold the line on taxes for a long time while still funding all of the various projects and also clear up some major log jams for development such as the new WalMart in Somerdale. The tax revenue belongs to Somerdale, but the road that services the complex is patrolled and partially maintained by Magnolia who wants a piece of the pie.
Consolidation does make sense and would work, if we could move the politics aside. The efforts for the most part have been half-hearted and haven't generated any real significant savings.
The various mayors and councils don't want to give up power
A valid reason. They are also the reason for some off balance agencies. When they make promotions based on political alliances and not capabilities, waste develops.
"New Jersey’s problem is not just that Tony Soprano and his pals have muscled in... It is also that government in the state “often acts like the mob. It beats up taxpayers and leaves them somewhere in an alley to fend for themselves.""
"...49-year-old retiree who will get $3.8m in pension and health benefits despite having paid only $124,000 towards them"
(I'd like to see actual facts and numbers crunched supporting 3.8 mil pension claim but even if that number is stretched by 200-300%, it's still shocking)
"But local government in New Jersey is a parody of bureaucratic ineptitude. Nearly 2,000 entities can levy taxes. Red tape is tangled and ubiquitous. As the burden of government has grown, the influx of wealthy residents has reversed. Between 2004 and 2008 the household wealth of out-migrants exceeded that of new arrivals by $70 billion..."
(Even with all that exodus, I'm surprised NJ is ranked as one of richest state still, measured by either median household income or most millionaires)
RE:And as a side note you mention 180 days a year off as if that is a huge attractant. Most comparable industry jobs have around 220-235 days working and most teachers work around 190. Not as large a difference as you are making it out to be above. Additionally teachers do not get paid for their time "off" so it completely evens out. In industry/academia (which is where I came from so hence my comparison) no one gets docked pay for sick days.
Well lets be completely honest, teachers are required to show up to work about 180 days per year but as you well know they take sick days, personal leave days, emergency days, snow days etc all paid for by the taxpayer when a substitute teacher has to be called in to replace him/her...So the real number of days a teacher actually comes to work is in the 165 days a year ballpark (Thats about 200 days off per year) And if they're assigned to a High School they actually teach in front of a class for about 3:40 minutes a day. Not a bad gig!
By the way I could care less how many days an employee in private industry works...I'm not paying for it via my tax dollars & if that workers product or service is overpriced I have a choice to to not purchase it or not utilize it.
You say "well lets be completely honest" and then arent. 180 is the number of days for students (well 182 really), it is between 8 and 12 additional days for staff. Most teachers get 2 personal days, and 6-8 sick days (which most of us do not use anyway). Use any math you like and its still several weeks more than 165 days. As for actual teaching time I am in front of my students from 7:30 to 3 PM the entire day with only a 30 min lunch. Just to be clear I am not complaining (since I chose this career) but rather disputing the idea that I (or any one else in my district) only work 3 hrs and 40 mins a day.
And you should care. If the highly qualified teachers leave for private industry because it is more lucrative on ALL levels then your property taxes will be making up for the lost federal revenue. And while it is mostly science and math teachers being courted by private industry their loss would still cost the state all the NCLB money.
So consolidation would be a great place to start. Do you think it should be at the county level?
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