Posted on 04/21/2010 1:55:57 PM PDT by LdSentinal
TEANECK, N.J. (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie accuses a local district of sending information back home to ask how parents will vote on school budgets.
After months of heated debate and angry protests, New Jersey residents woke up Wednesday morning to see that a majority of the proposed school budgets were defeated Tuesday night.
In one of those towns – Teaneck – several hundred students held a protest on the high school track.
The New Jersey school budget vote will likely be remembered for Governor Chris Christie's deep involvement in the debate, and residents' reaction to it.
Parents who spoke to CBS 2 say they believe some of their neighbors entered the voting booth without the information needed to cast an informed vote.
"It's not a good thing, because there's a lot of programs now [that will] probably be cut," one Carlstadt resident said.
That's because it's now up to local governments to either revise or accept those rejected budgets. Voters ultimately rejected a little more than half – 59 percent – of the budget proposals for consideration.
One of those budgets was in Teaneck, where high school students protested Wednesdays morning and refused to enter the building.
"I wanted to make sure that everyone sees that we're serious about this," Teaneck junior Gerard Rice said. "I mean, we're not going to let this happen."
The governor cut more than $800 million in state educational aid and framed the budget issue around hard financial times. He also urged residents to knock down any local budget that did not come with an agreement from teachers to freeze their pay.
"I think it's good that it didn't pass," Carlstadt resident Denise Oehmlmann said. "I don't want the children to be hurt."
On Wednesday, Christie said voters are saying "they can no longer afford a government that wishes problems away."
But in Hackensack, the budget passed by almost a 2-to-1 margin. Schools Superintendent Edward Kliszus says the vote was "a great victory," and that it makes a bold statement.
"I believe that parents in Hackensack displaced themselves from the state politics and focused on their children," Dr. Kliszus said.
What happened in Hackensack was not a fluke, though. Though most NJ school budgets were rejected, 55 of Bergen County's 74 proposals passed.
In the coming weeks, local governments across the Garden State will either recommend changes to the rejected budgets, or ignore voters and decide to accept them as is.
Christie = the un-Crist.
“Yeah, don’t let the children get hurt.”
A common complaint of the democrats.
How about the senior citizens that get hurt when taxes are raised that they can no longer afford to pay?
Two school budgets were rejected in my township, I am proud to say. And I voted no on both of them. This is the first time I have voted in the school board elections.
It’s about time people woke up in this state.
I hate to say this but the whole idea of voting on school budgets is a joke here in NJ. I have seen my own township somehow ‘manage’ to go against the wishes of the voters and give the school what it asked for.
Hey junior, how much in taxes do you pay?
Maybe we have been approaching school vouchers from the wrong front. Perhaps we should present it as a cost cutting measure. Parent of home schoolers and private schools get 60% of the average per student spent by the state. District gets 5% for testing and record keeping and the state reduces operations costs by 35%
[or some such percentages]
How about those children that got hurt when the ‘rats raised taxes to the point that mom had to go to work?
I’ve heard that public schools are
REQUIRED
to spend 50-60k per “special needs” child.
They are worried about programs being cut. Which ones? Like maybe breakfast, lunch and dinner at school?
Keep reading, writing, math, science, history and geography. The krap such as environmental protection and politcal indoctrination can go. I’d even say physical fitness can be cut; if you don’t want your kid to grow up fat, take the Nintendo and Wii from him, make him get up off the couch and go out for a walk. And if the parents want organized sports, they can put together the teams. Why should taxpayer funds for education be used to pay for a new field or arena for the high schoolers to play sports in.
If I said something like that to my Dad as a kid, I was sure to get the belt.
Could someone explain what in the world this article is talking about? Is this an advisory vote? Those of us not in NJ could stand for a bit of edification.
Here in S Jersey it seemed like 90% of the budgets were failing when I checked on line.
Teachers are getting fired as well as facing pay pressure. In most cases administrators atre not taking any real cuts, and NJ school districts are incredibly top heavy.
There has to be fiscal control, we can’t keep spending the moon. But there will be a backlash at some point as classes get larger and quality suffers.
Simple. Only those who voted ‘YES’ have their property taxes raised. Care to vote again?
“Parents who spoke to CBS 2 say they believe some of their neighbors entered the voting booth without the information needed to cast an informed vote.”
I strongly disagree. With all the focus on the school budget, people are probably more informed than they’ve ever been. Which is why they voted them down.
Liberals are invested in making sure people don’t understand the real issues. Which is why controlling the MSM is SO important to them. When people really listen, understand, and take their time, they usually side with the right.
It is admirable to see such concern for the children’s education from the Democrats but it is a shame we no longer have the tax-base,due to some of their other policies,to pay for it.
It looks to me that the majority of the teachers would fail economics 101. Unfortunately you can see the outcome by the remarks of the kids.
Here in NJ there was also a record turnout for the school budget vote. The folks here woke up and sent Corzine packing and now they are going to take control of their local school budgets too. The Tea Party is alive and well.
“I wanted to make sure that everyone sees that we’re serious about this,” Teaneck junior Gerard Rice said. “I mean, we’re not going to let this happen.”
What are you gonna do, boycott schools? Pay for it yourself?
Tenured teachers got to keep tenure, but new teachers hired after 2013, I think, HAD NO TENURE...they had to show progress to get a raise.
Teachers could double their pay within four years, but there was no tenure.
Teacher unions went crazy, kids were lied to, and BOOM. Crist the girlieman vetoed the bill after saying he was supporting the bill.
...but you think the do nothings in our school system are worth the billions we’re dumping in?
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