Poll of the Day
September 13, 2010Snaps to the Assembly
September 14, 2010Quote of the Day
Vince Giordano, the overpaid director of the state teachers union, sat at the witness table in a Senate committee room Monday and predicted doom and destruction if the governor succeeds in changing the rules that allow New Jersey teachers to win cushy contracts.
That’s Tom Moran in today’s Star-Ledger on a bill that would give our 21 Executive County Superintendents the power to veto any collective bargaining agreement over the 2% cap, along with mandating shared services and district consolidation. The bill is sponsored by Senator Joseph Kyrillos Jr and its biggest fan is Sen. Robert Smith, who got right to the point in a NJ Spotlight article today on the same bill: “If we really want to deal with property taxes in New Jersey, you have to deal with the fact we have 600 districts,” Smith said. “It’s absolute insanity.”
There’s no chance the bill will pass. Steve Sweeney and Sheila Oliver are against it, as are the NJEA and NJSBA. All hail home rule.
1 Comment
No, Bob, if you really want to deal with property taxes in NJ, you need:
(1) A governor who will honor his/her obligations under the then-current funding law;
(2) A funding law with state contributions to suburban districts at least as high as those in Mississippi;
(3) bargaining rules that do not permit an escape route to predictably-uneven arbitration outcomes;
(4) a legislature that recognizes and avoids unfunded mandates;
(5) a robust source of unbiased evaluation for prospective programs and best-practice protocols; and
(6) a clear-eyed understanding of the relationship between expenditures and results in public education.