New Jersey relies to too great a degree on property taxes to fund its various layers of government. In particular, the use of property taxes to fund schools contributes to a series of ills — educational inequality (visit the Cranbury School and then take a drive to a Trenton middle school and tell me students have the same opportunities) and tax inequality (property taxes can be regressive, especially for seniors, and put pressure on towns like Jamesburg, which lack industrial ratables).
Fixing this mess will take a streamlining of government and change in the way we raise taxes, meaning a greater reliance on income taxes.
The proposals on the table to create a county super-superintendent, however, seem counterproductive. Rather than focusing on the merging of smaller school districts into larger ones, the state is looking at creating a new kind of superbureaucrat that would leave locals out of the loop on educational decisions — especially the selection of local superintendents and creating a local school budget. It has school districts, like Monroe’s, rightly concerned:
Monroe school board President Kathy Kolupanowich said choosing a superintendent should remain a local decision.
“Everybody has different needs,” she said. “I think the school district knows best what qualities they should be looking for, and to have somebody who doesn’t know the district well enough make the decision — you know, you’re looking for a good superintendent-school board relationship and that could be taken away.”
Monroe school board member Joe Homoki agreed.
“I really think that should be a board function,” he said. “We are elected members and we are responsible to the voters. We should be able to hire and let go people who are not up to our standards.”
Mr. Homoki, who chairs the board’s Committee on Finance, also said other duties of the executive county superintendent, like approval of the budget, unjustly take power away from the school district.
“I believe that the budget should be under local control,” he said. “As it happens in Monroe, we have to submit the budget to the public for approval and I
think that’s an indicator of how the superintendent is doing on a local
level.”
The approach, in general, is flawed, as Jamesburg Superintendent Shirley Bzdewka points out:
“The problem we’re always running up against is that the state guidelines always come down to dollars and cents, streamlining and making the system more efficient,” she said. “But you’re not dealing with a business. You’re dealing with human beings, with children. Yes, we run a business, but there’s a human interest that’s being dismissed right now.”
I’d suggest that the state Legislature start over on this. (Here is South Brunswick’s position on this.)
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
are, to my way of thinking, are
Hank Kalet 