Town discusses plan to "secede" from the public education system

[chanel]

Faced with burdensome mandates and diminishing returns from Trenton, one of the state’s top public school districts is considering a path that could make it the first to effectively secede from New Jersey’s public education system.

The Glen Ridge school board will enter largely uncharted waters when it gathers at a retreat this month to discuss converting some or all of the four schools in the 1,932-student district to charter or private schools.

In a community where the average property tax bill tops $16,000, the idea of becoming a breakaway district emerged as word spread that Glen Ridge’s already small portion of state aid would vanish and that New Jersey might embrace a new cap limit to tax increases in order to encourage school districts to merge.

New Jersey will allow a public school to become a charter school if 51 percent of the teaching staff and parents sign a petition for it, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. That has never happened.

"There have been no conversions to date," said Beth Auerswald, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

Glen Ridge perennially ranks as one of New Jersey’s best school districts. Its high school students average a hearty 1748 on the SAT (out of 2400), and nearly half the seniors are in advanced-placement classes.

Diminishing state aid prompts Glen Ridge officials to consider converting schools to private, charter | NJ.com

Wow. This could be a landmark in NJ and perhaps across the country.

The school choice discussion has primarily focused on failing urban schools. It's very surprising to me that this might happen in a successful affluent community.

 

[psikeyhackr]

With $300 netbooks and the internet why can't every American family secede from the educational system. As long as the kids do better on the tests than the nitwits running the school systme expect.

Find interesting books for kids inProject Gutenberg.

The Brain, by Alexander Blade
gutenberg (dot) org/files/32498/32498-h/32498-h.htm

psik