They say that bigger isn't always better.He’s talking generally about the D.O.E.’s mandate that all non-operating school districts be merged into their receiving districts, and specifically about the tiny town of Glen Gardner in Hunterdon County, population 1,902. Elementary-age children go to Clinton Public School and high school kids go to Voorhees High School, part of the North-Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional School District. Of course, Glen Gardner still has a school board that mainly writes checks to Clinton and Voorhees. Mulshine argues that this is a beneficial arrangement all around and that eliminating non-operating districts will only raise taxes and benefit union employees. The D.O.E., when queried, was less than helpful:
But dumber is always dumber.
[Clinton Mayor Christine] Schaumberg complained that the state Department of Education won't tell the town just how or when this merger will be imposed. Department spokesperson Kathy Forsyth told me, "We know there are a lot of issues surrounding the non-operating districts. The department is working on all these issues and we hope to have a solution soon."
”You would think that you could put together a system that watches out for the spending and the education of the children without having to have another administration."
The governor said that the multiplicity of governments and districts of all kinds in New Jersey is “one of our biggest problems on cost and, I think, on corruption ... so many units and levels without transparency.”
He said that public resistance to consolidation was, in part, due to “a historic failure of political courage. It will only change when people feel and are convinced by their political leadership. ... People have to vote for the people that they think will make this change.”
Labels: consolidation, Corzine, DOE, home rule