Does New Jersey really need more small, segregated schools?
Political pundits and the media frequently point out two major concerns regarding the organization of public school districts in New Jersey.
- First, that New Jersey, being the most population dense state in the nation, simply has far too many small schools and school districts (largely an artifact of municipal reorganization and alignment that occurred in the late 1890s and first decade of the 1900s).
- Second, that New Jersey is among the most racially and socioeconomically segregated states in the nation, or more specifically, that many urban communities in New Jersey suffer extreme racial isolation (high concentration of a single race/ethnicity).
Here’s a snapshot:
So then, one should ask how expansion of charter schools intersects with these two major policy concerns. It would be
