Is Regionalization a Good Idea for Aquidneck Island?

All politics are local and that is especially true in a small state like Rhode Island. We are one of the two states in the US that do not have county governments, the other being our neighbor, Connecticut.

If we did have a Newport County government, perhaps it would be easier to understand the concept of island-wide schools or administrative organizations. Do we really need three school departments, three School Committees, three tax assessors, three zoning boards, three public works departments, and three of every other kind of municipal services for an island population of less than 100,000 people?

Portsmouth and Newport were formed by people who didn't get along in and with other communities and this trait seems to have been carried forward. Since schools represent almost 70% of our town budgets, the potential savings of school administrative costs alone would seem to be worth examining. The idea of an island school system is strongly resisted because of a sense that we would lose "control" over our schools. Guess what - unions and state mandates have already limited any control that we thought we had.

I think its time to seriously consider consolidating town services on the island, including education, but also many of the other functions of town government. Entrenched interests will say that this would lead to poor schools and unresponsive officials. I say that we figure out how to do this properly and move forward. Our budgets are not sustainable in their current form and our political leaders need to understand this.