New Jersey vs. Maryland: The Facts

Should New Jersey adopt a county school district structure, like the type that exists in Maryland and several southern states?

Senators Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, and Joe Kyrillos, R-Monmouth, think so. Smith is co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Consolidation and Shared Services.  Kyrillos is the ranking minority party senator on the panel. The panel is one of four convened to address property tax reform.

Last week, the committee heard from a Maryland Department of Education official who brought with her statistics on school district expenditures, administrative costs and student achievement in her state. In particular, the administrative cost comparison impressed the lawmakers.

Does Not Compute There is one problem: The administrative cost statistics presented by the Maryland official do not comport with U.S. Department of Education data.

Mary E. Clapsaddle, Maryland’s assistant state superintendent for business, presented information indicating that, on average, her state’s 24 county-based school systems spent 2.68 percent of their current expense budgets on administration in 2003-04. In response, Sen. Smith said that New Jersey spends about 10 percent of current expenses on administration.

However, Clapsaddle’s statistics and Smith’s estimate appear to come from separate data sources.

The federal education department’s state-by-state comparison—or “Common Core of Data”— shows a much more narrow gap between administrative  spending in the two states—with Maryland at 9.2 percent and New Jersey at 9.9 percent in 2003-2004.

N.J. Ranks 37^th The data, published last month by the National Center for Education Statistics, places New Jersey 37th among the 50 states in the percentage of school expenditures going toward administration.

In addition, the federal statistics indicate that New Jersey’s public schools direct a far greater share of their expenditures (9 percent, compared to Maryland’s 3.6 percent) toward “student support services.” That category includes attendance, social work, health and guidance services and child study team services.

“NJSBA plans to share these statistics with members of the joint committee,” said Edwina M. Lee, executive director.  “It’s vital that this important debate be guided by accurate data.”

Case by Case NJSBA believes school districts should explore regionalization. However, the decision to consolidate must be made by the communities involved and be based upon educational and financial considerations.

The most recent statewide study of school regionalization, a 1999 state Assembly Task Force Report on School District Regionalization, recommended that consolidation be determined locally, on a case-by-case basis. The task force found that, depending on the circumstances, the merger of districts could actually increase costs.

For information visit NJSBA's new site dedicated to the special session.