NJ Education Report

For an example of the resistance to consolidating school districts, look at the case of Gloucester County Vo-Tech and Gloucester County Special Services District. According to Today’s Sunbeam, a Salem County publication, Bob Bumpus, the Executive County Superintendent of Schools in Salem, is promoting a plan to have one superintendent oversee both districts and is encountering lots of foot-dragging.

The argument for this specific consolidation is that while both districts currently pay for their own superintendent,

According to Bumpus, combining the position of superintendent would save almost $191,000 – nearly $215,000 if the special services district moves its main office to the Vo-tech campus in Mannington.

But there lots of “concern voiced” by the Business Administrators of each district and local board members, who suggested that using one superintendent for both schools was way too risky and perhaps they ought to start by, say, sharing janitorial services or by buying supplies together.

If a no-brainer consolidation like this can’t get any traction, how we will manage to meaningfully merge the myriad tiny districts that are the antithesis of efficiency? Is New Jersey constitutionally and culturally incapable of making the leap required to provide equitable and economical education to all our kids?