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JerseySmarts.com

Time to Take a Look at the “At Risk” Designation for Some NJ Students

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Every once in a while I head over to the PolitickerNJ.com website and read what some of New Jersey’s muckety-mucks have to say about what’s going on in our state. This morning, I was glad to see that one New Jersey State Senator is openly questioning the “at risk” designation that applies to some New Jersey students versus others. Here’s the article, in full:

TRENTON – It’s a favorite issue of state Sen. Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.), a rural legislator who grew up in Essex County and long heard what he interpreted as the sucking sound of money from the suburbs into Newark.

Conceding that Newark’s porverty rate stands at 24%, Doherty believes urban schools unfairly receive a disproportionately high share of state aid based on the designation of “at-risk” children.

In his turn at the microphone here during this Budget and appropriations hearing, he drums the issue into the consciousness of Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff.

The average New Jersey pupil receives $9,600, while an at-risk student gets an additional $8,000 or $9,000.

Doherty wants more oversight concerning that designation, particularly in a city where there is an international airport, sports arena and numerous other facilities lacking in rural Warren and Hunterdon counties, which comprise Doherty’s home district.

“If administrators are not checking, perhaps there may be an incentive to get that number (of at-risk children) up because it bumps up the amount of state aid you’re getting,” Doherty says.

I see this stuff almost everyday at my day job – a school comes to us for financing and they are either able to afford it because they receive an abundance of “at risk” aid or they are unable to afford a facility upgrade because they don’t receive any “at risk” aid. It’s very cut and dry – either you get the money or you don’t.

The state is engaged in a deep conversation about the current school funding formula, how education funding should be changed, and what the final outcome will be for school districts and educators. A crucial part of this conversation – indeed the very base of the conversation – must be a discussion about property taxes in New Jersey. Why must this be the base of the conversation? Because in New Jersey, education is funded through property taxes. And anyone who even takes a cursory look at the school funding formula will find that the current property tax system in New Jersey is essentially a wealth redistribution system.

In essence, money is sucked from the suburbs and sent to the urban districts. As Senator Doherty says above, every single one of these “at risk” students located in urban districts receives an additional $8,000 to $9,000 in state education aid. Where does that money come from? Well, New Jersey doesn’t have the highest property taxes in the nation by mistake!

The root of the problem with the “at risk” aid is that it ties educational performance to cost per pupil…and it’s wrong. One only needs to look at the Asbury Park School District – where hundreds of thousands and even millions of additional aid dollars have been dumped over the years – to see that more money does not equal higher student engagement or performance.

Education – the actual act of learning something new and retaining that knowledge – doesn’t happen because of more money being dumped into a school district. Real learning takes place because a great educator can relate to and “reach” a student. It’s plain and simple. If the wrong people are in education in the first place, then you wind up with students who are not engaged, not learning, and who do not want to be in school.

Education reform has to take place from both the bottom up (getting the right people in schools) and from the top down (fixing the funding formula).

Some Teachers and Education Support Staff Work on Finding Real Solutions

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Whether any of the fear-mongers at the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) like it or not, Governor Chris Christie is not backing down from his campaign promises. He promised to take the fight directly to the teachers’ union and force them to share in the same financial sacrifice that every other citizen of New Jersey is experiencing…and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He promised not to raise taxes because it is a “quick fix” for the state’s budget problem and not a long term solution…the only “solution” that the NJEA has been able to come up with for filling the gap in the budget is to raise taxes (typical).

But as I said yesterday, most people are getting sick of this fight because of the phony horror-stories-to-be coming out of the NJEA and the consistent pressure being put on them by the Governor. Well, it seems like some teachers and educators out there in overpaid public employee land have gotten the point and are ready to share in the same financial sacrifice and join the same real world as the rest of us in New Jersey.

According to a late afternoon release issued by the governor’s office, the type of freeze varies district by district, according to data from the state Department of Education.

“Teachers in 11 school districts have accepted wage freezes for a year or part of the year (nine for a full year; two for partial year). In five school districts, teachers have accepted a reduction in pay,” according to the governor’s office. “Administrative and support staffs have been more willing to step up and take action to protect jobs and education resources: Of the 115 districts reporting wage freezes or reductions, administrators in 101 of them have taken a full-year or part-year salary freeze (most by far were full-year freezes). Support staff in 40 did the same. In more than 16 districts, administrators and/or staff took a reduction in pay.”

“Unfortunately, these figures illustrate the obvious: that the teachers unions overwhelmingly believe everyone else should share in the sacrifice, but they alone should be held harmless in the middle of this fiscal crisis,” said the governor. “The sense of entitlement is incredible and reveals the belief that they should continue, even now, to get 4 and 5 percent salary increases year after year and pay nothing for health insurance. Meanwhile, younger, less senior teachers are losing jobs. Frankly, I just don’t understand this; nor do I believe that the public does either.”

This information was taken from a post on PolitickerNJ.com and I think it shows that there is some degree of hope in the battle between the NJEA and the Governor. What it comes down to – as always – is that public employee unions are too strong (and arrogant) in New Jersey and their unchecked strength has led to an unsustainable public benefits system. Where else in the world (besides dictatorships) does it make better financial sense to work for the government instead of private enterprise?! That’s crazy.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pay good people for good work. We absolutely should. However, I am saying that when the rest of the people in this state are struggling to make ends meet and when the private sector is shedding jobs left and right – who are the public employee unions to say that they are above the Great Recession? Who are these unions to say that they are untouchable by the whims of the free market?

Get real. Public employees should be taking pay freezes and public employees should be taking wage reductions and public employees should be getting laid off in these economic times. This is what happens when times are tough – everyone suffers…public employees, too!

Another Reason to Dislike the NJEA’s Bullying and Scare Tactics

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This blog probably makes it pretty clear that I have a great interest in education reform. In fact, one of the reasons that I really like my day job is because it allows me to engage in education reform in a nontraditional way – by providing financing for the new school space needed for new schools. It’s fun and it’s part of the overall push towards making New Jersey’s schools places of learning instead of places where students waste away during the day.

And since this blog is mostly read by New Jerseyans, I’m sure that you’re probably getting sick and tired of the back and forth between Governor Chris Christie’s completely logical, financially-fundamentally sound budget proposal and the cries of “save the children!” coming from the people at the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA aka “the teachers’ union”). Well, since we’re all pretty much disgusting in this state, I thought I’d share something that I received in my inbox earlier today. It comes from a group out of Washington DC called the Center for Education Reform and I think it accurately summarizes why each day more and more New Jerseyans are getting sick of hearing from the NJEA.

UNION PLOY. To fight having to share in the state’s fiscal burden, the New Jersey teachers union (among others) is hiding behind what we in Washington call “The Washington Monument Ploy.” In days of old, when lawmakers would threaten budget cuts, those opposed would pull out the old “Well, now we’ll have to close down the Washington Monument.” That would create a fierce public outcry, causing legislators to go hiding behind increased spending. Same in New Jersey, where students were recently counseled at one high school that they’d no longer have arts or music or even literature because of “that” Governor. Nice lesson.

This is the type of crap that needs to be removed from our schools. Any publicly paid employee (in this case, educators and employees of school districts) who sees no problem in taking a strong political stance in front of their students and their young, impressionable minds should really not be in education, period. If that isn’t a bastardization of “civic engagement,” then I don’t know what is!

Enough is enough with bad teachers and self-righteous union bureaucrats. Everyone in this state is suffering and it’s high time that these public employees came and joined the party. In the next few days I hope to get some information up on the blog about the report that came out the other day about the Council on Affordable Housing. Among other issues, it cited how in the 1990’s in New Jersey, private sector jobs grew at a rate of 22 to 1 when compared to public sector jobs. During the 2000’s? Public sector jobs grew at a rate of 2 to 1 when compared to private sector jobs. That’s a horrifying, disgusting statistic.

And if you don’t know why that’s a horrifying statistic then you probably don’t have the economic or financial background necessary to make a decent argument in the NJEA/Christie battle anyway.

Even the New York Times Sees the Value in Christie’s Cuts

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Last Sunday’s New York Times published an article that talked about the budget cuts proposed by Governor Chris Christie during last Tuesday’s budget address. What I like about the New York Times article is that they explicitly cite how most union members feel about the cost of living in New Jersey.

But what’s most surprising about New Jersey is how in such a blue, labor-dominated state, Democrats and union members seem to be cracking under the pressure of the state’s tax burden, revealing a kind of split-personality disorder.

The syndrome surfaced last summer during Mr. Christie’s campaign, when he vowed to bring New Jersey’s property taxes, the nation’s highest, under control. As a candidate he saved his sternest threats for the teachers’ and state workers’ unions, whose healthy pay and benefits packages, he argued, were slowly strangling the schools and running the state’s finances into the ground. Union members, state workers and teachers, it turned out, weren’t offended by his rhetoric. In fact, public opinion surveys showed they ate it up.

The New York Times leans left on most, if not all, issues. This is why you see the writer suggesting that it is surprising how the people in New Jersey are mostly for Christie’s cuts. However, the truth is that even the hardest leftist person in this state can understand how our current tax and overspend system is not sustainable. When you have a tax and overspend system, there are two basic ways to fix it: spend less or tax more. Governor Christie, to his great credit, has opted for the traditionally unpopular fix by spending less money.

Spending less money means cutting the amount of programs that can be funded and it was high time that someone came along to New Jersey to cut back the unnecessary, duplicitous programs that this state offers. The New York Times article cited above says that the public ate up Governor Christie’s message on the campaign trail. You’re damn right we ate it up! Finally, we had a guy talking sense instead of spewing the typical “vote for me” crap that previous politicians put out there. Plus, Christie had the good fortune to run against a man who will go down in history as one of the worst Governors in New Jersey history. More from the New York Times:

No polls have been taken since Mr. Christie’s budget speech, but it held few real surprises. “Voters felt Christie was being honest about what the situation was, and what he needed to do to move forward, and then he did exactly what he said he was going to do,” Mr. Murray said. “It’s a sad statement, but that’s almost unheard of.”

This is the part of the outrage that makes me laugh the hardest. People are actually outraged that Governor Christie instituted the hard spending cuts that he said he would during the campaign. For those of you who don’t have the luck of living in the Garden State, we don’t expect our politicians to tell the truth…ever. Governor Christie, on the other hand, is actually doing what he said he would do and it’s great!

These spending cuts are what New Jersey needs. There’s no question about it.

Sick and Tired of the False Choices Being Spread About Education

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Enough is enough, already. I’m sick and tired of hearing the bullshit coming out of the brainwashed masses regarding Governor Chris Christie’s proposed budget cuts, specifically as they relate to education spending. Last week Governor Christie stated – clearly – that his proposed budget cuts education spending no more than 4% to 5% per district. If you don’t think that type of modest reduction is acceptable in today’s craptastic economy, then you’re probably one of those idiots who lives off of consumer credit or games the government subsidy programs (i.e. you live off of other people’s money).

However, I’m sick and tired of hearing the ignorant bullshit flowing out of people regarding the end result of these spending cuts. The biggest load of crap comes out of the legions of young professionals who will likely be let go because of these cuts. These morons spout on and on about how Governor Christie is costing them their jobs. Bullshit. First of all, anyone who spews this crap clearly doesn’t know how the government works and I strongly question whether or not they should be employed by a school district in the first place. Governor Christie is not costing you your job since he does not control local property taxes. Period. End of story. Done. No questions asked.

Second, I’m sick of hearing these young “professionals” (and I use the term “professionals” lightly since if you read some of their online posts, they are anything but professional) bitch and moan about how education cuts lead to more students in each classroom and a lower quality of education. Folks, if you want to define what it means to be “brainwashed,” then try to follow this ridiculous train of logic. If you ever hear anyone saying this particular line of crap, then you automatically know that you’re hearing someone who either can’t think independently (and thus shouldn’t be a teacher) or you’re talking to someone who can’t make logical, financial connections (and thus shouldn’t be a teacher) or in some cases, you might be talking to someone who is a coward. I’ll explain.

The true cause of these young professionals losing their jobs is the excess and waste embedded in the current education system in New Jersey. There are administrators making six figures who are secretaries to assistants to secretaries to assistants, etc. There are administrators who are the second, third, or fourth assistant superintendent in some of these districts (completely unnecessary). There are administrators who don’t do shit, but collect a salary that should be going to a young teacher who actually wants to be around students. Any of these soon-to-be laid off teachers and young professionals that spew the bullshit false choices listed above, but do not scour the set up of their local school districts (and I mean look at each line in the budget as well as using Data Universe to find the salaries of the district administrators) is a coward. Just like the whole world knew that New Jersey spent too much money and this day was coming, the whole world knows that the excessive waste that goes on in New Jersey’s local governments and local school districts is unsustainable.

If you’re a young education professional who has either already been laid off or will be laid off, then I want to hear about your research into the local district and what you’ve uncovered in terms of waste. What percentage of a raise did your fellow teachers get in the last year (hint – anything other than 1% – 2% is excessive in this economy)? What about the administrators and their percentage raise? Where did that money come from when the economy grew at 0% last year (hint – the answer is increased local property taxes)? What about your administrators? Does your district have excess administrators that are taking up dollars from the budget that would have better been spent paying you and your teaching colleagues?

And here’s the key question – what did you do about what you found out?! The most that Governor Christie can do is advocate on your behalf and he’s doing that (I heard him say it with my own two ears at last week’s New Jersey Charter Schools Association conference). But what have YOU done to fight for what’s right? If your answer is, “Well, I complained that Governor Christie is costing me my job because he is costing me my job,” then you just don’t get it.

Further, if you work for a school district, then you have a government job. What did you expect to happen in a state where government spending has been out of control for over a decade?! And this wasn’t a big secret – everyone knew that government spending was out of control and that a day of reckoning was coming sooner rather than later. In fact, Governor Christie ran on a platform where he essentially said that he was going to bring this day of reckoning to New Jersey! Are some of these people who have now turned on Governor Christie so stupid that they didn’t think that he was actually going to do what he said he was going to do?!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I hate that some of my friends will be losing their jobs. I would never begrudge anyone a job or the ability to make a living – never. However, Governor Christie is doing exactly what he said he would do, which is exactly what New Jersey needs right now!