The governor is proud he is raising support for education, but our public boards have not dealt with student achievement in the public schools, nor have they dealt with the problems of workload at the state colleges and universities. Amid the economic suffering in the state, can professors still be teaching 6-9 hours a week as a full-time load for 30 weeks a year? Should we watch as the unemployment fund is seriously strained, while teachers get their cost-of-living and step increases in these districts? Can we have the same number of school districts, municipalities and fire districts as we did in flush times? The fragility of reform efforts have left us with few choices.

Michael P. Riccards, Executive Director of the Hall Institute of Public Policy-New Jersey in The Trenton Times.