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In Little Ferry, for instance, the Board of Education will discuss eliminating art programs district- wide and Spanish in the lower grades during a hearing tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, in Trenton, lawmakers are threatening to float bills that would fold local district administrations into single county-run operations.
So who blinks first?
To state officials, the best way to cuts costs — and property taxes — is to reduce administrative overhead. But those at the top of the local totem polls don’t see it the same way: They’d sooner increase class size — as Little Ferry (18/19 to 22/23 through 4th grade) is considering.
Not only that: Little Ferry wants to cut BOTH its Gifted and Talented program AND Special Education.
That districts like this make the kids pay in the end — not to mention the teachers trying to help produce productive citizens — is despicable. They would sooner protect what they’ve got than fight for those they’ve sworn themselves to help educate.
Clearly, the hope of the Christie Administration, and supporting lawmakers, is that parents will turn out in droves and put the collective foot to the necks of these administrators — and assistant administrators — whoh are pulling down six figures, some in towns that have only a single school.
Bergen County, for instance, while covering a land mass the size of an average city, has a whopping 78 school districts. One of the, Teaneck, recently hired a superintendent at well over $250,000 a year. There are physicians who save lives every day who don’t make nearly that much.
Jerry DeMarco (Publisher/Editor)
County-run districts would be a disaster — as state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has pretty much admitted.
But consolidating smaller districts makes perfect sense, and capping administrative costs would be just as wise. What would be lost, for instance, if Bergenfield, Dumont and New Milford were merged into one — not just the school districts but all services?
Why does South Hackensack need to exist? Or Guttenberg? Or any number of towns that are barely the population size of an average condominium development along the Hudson?
“Personalized service” some cry. Yet they are the same ones fed up with high property taxes. When are people going to get it?
We’ve broken this down before, and we’ll keep doing it until the message gets through:
Taxpayers in 2006 doled out about $553 million statewide for salary and benefits for superintendents, assistant superintendents, school business administrators and information technology coordinators, according to the Office of the State Auditor.
That includes 651 school superintendent offices for barely 2,400 schools.
Yet there are only 9 million people here, making it the fifth smallest state.
It’s not to say the districts eat up all of the money. But they can’t escape responsibility, either, for New Jersey’s property tax mess — $7,000 a year, on average, per homeowner.
There was a time, not too long ago, when public servants boasted that they could “make more money in the private sector.” Fat chance of that now. Fat chance they’d get the benefits, pensions and other perks that come with feeding off the public teat.
It’s time to end the nonsense and stop the gravy train in its tracks.
You can take a salary freeze — you can even take a pay cut, Mr. , Miss or Mrs. Superintendent. After all, the kids are what it’s all about.
Right?
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