Trenton, NJ – Few would dispute that New Jersey’s tangled web of more than 600 school districts is inefficient, costly, and unsustainable. Consolidation, in some form, is long overdue.

But Mikie Sherrill’s proposal to force countywide districts risks turning a necessary reform into a political power grab that could harm the very communities already reeling under the state’s flawed school funding system.

At first glance, countywide districts promise streamlined operations, fewer administrators, and more equitable sharing of resources. Yet under Sherrill’s vision, decision-making would shift from local school boards made up of local parents and invested residents to 21 powerful county-level bodies controlled by the NJEA and political parties.

That would hand disproportionate influence to

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