Nearly two years after the introduction of his Path to Progress initiative, State Senate President Steve Sweeney introduced a bill encouraging school systems to study regionalization.
With the continually growing cost of public school education in New Jersey, the state doesn’t need more than 600 separate school districts. Cape May County, with roughly 12,000 public school students, doesn’t need 16.
Who should take leadership on a study of regionalization in Cape May County? Cape Issues thinks it should be the Board of County Commissioners.
With its ownership of the technical high school and special services school, it has a vested interest in providing quality education to students countywide.
There is already a regionalization study underway in Salem County, with completion expected later this month. It is being based on very detailed criteria from the state, with the goals being fair, efficient, and effective education.
It is also reported that the state’s principals and supervisors association, the NJEA, and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association support the study initiative.
Given the recently confirmed bad news on state funding that only two of the county’s districts will see increases, conducting a Cape May County school regionalization study should be a priority for individual districts.
With the expected close attention any such study will generate, Cape Issues feels leadership on this issue should come from the top, specifically, our Board of County Commissioners.
