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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.
I've been saying this for years, it's so obvious. Even if we had 40 school districts it would be an improvement. As for the whole cop thing, I'm not 100% for it, but the school district bit would save MILLIONS, if not BILLIONS.
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?
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.
It might save NJ 60% (although I doubt it) but do you really think those savings will be passed on to you, the taxpayer? Never going to happen....
Also I will add that I think it's a terrible idea (from a purely personal point of view). I Love our smallish top school district and safe little town where everybody knows your name. If living here costs me 25k a year in taxes, so be it. I knew that going in (as did most of the people with young families here) and I'll suck it up until my kid's are out of school.
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.
I am all for consolidation and I think it would save way more than just administrator salaries. Shared services like traveling teachers, guidance councilors, special ed, less buses, food concessions, etc would all help lower costs.
So woo hoo for consolidation.
Now I will tell you as a federally highly qualified teacher, I would not work in NJ for what you laid out above. That is the trade off we chose for our, less money but more benefits than those in private industry. If we are getting paid less AND no pension/benefits why would anyone who is highly qualified stick around?
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.
The problem with not having federally highly qualified teachers is the districts will lose the largest chunk of federal money, which then has to be made up at the state or local level. There goes your savings or at least a large chunk of it. And without highly qualified teachers, school achievement could decline which we know effects property values. But I suppose that could lower taxes even more.
As for the police I am not well informed enough to know whether or not that would work or save money.
It might save NJ 60% (although I doubt it) but do you really think those savings will be passed on to you, the taxpayer? Never going to happen....
Also I will add that I think it's a terrible idea (from a purely personal point of view). I Love our smallish top school district and safe little town where everybody knows your name. If living here costs me 25k a year in taxes, so be it. I knew that going in (as did most of the people with young families here) and I'll suck it up until my kid's are out of school.
The failing Greece economy is a perfect example of what happens when the government pays out more than it takes in. They have exceptional entitlements for state and government workers and now have to take back their benefits and reduce salaries.
If NJ doesn't become solvent, it will have the same problems. No, the savings won't be passed to the taxpayers, but increased taxes will.
The failing Greece economy is a perfect example of what happens when the government pays out more than it takes in. They have exceptional entitlements for state and government workers and now have to take back their benefits and reduce salaries.
If NJ doesn't become solvent, it will have the same problems. No, the savings won't be passed to the taxpayers, but increased taxes will.
Exactly - the savings won't be passed on. But who would be willing to accept consolidated school districts in order to keep your taxes the same? Sounds like a losing proposition to me. I'll pass on the huge schools that my kids will be bussed to. If I lived in a crappy school district I might think differently I guess.
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.
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