Setting our budgetary priorities

Another nutty professor. We have not been getting "steak." We have been getting politicized municiapl aid called distressed cities... we have been getting 16% aid increases to places like Union City which blow money on $100,000 school bus drivers and all the other things in that nasty audit... we have been getting patronage hacks on the rolls... we have been getting $548 lawyers putting together the toll road plan... essentially, a better analogy would be that we are getting a plate of poop for dinner and paying Commander's Palace prices. Sadly, students are learning from people like this.

Some families who have to have both husband and wife working and a part-time job on the side have been paying for "steak" and getting a "porkroll sandwich".
Maybe this idiot Marback can come over to my house and tell me about all of the steak dinners that my family has apparently been having.
While there, he can help me go through my checkbook and point out all of the extra frills I have been spending my money on. Then we can add another donation line at the end of the NJ State Tax Return and label that "Abbot School District Fund" and if we are lucky enough to get a Income Tax refund we can send it there.
I wouldn't want a school bus driver to go without his/her cell phone with free text messaging, and internet access. Better yet let's get them new Blackberries.
Opps, was I being insensitive or not tolerant by saying that?

Marbach, you've got it reversed - We've been paying for steak and getting back hamburger! All of our "steak" money goes to fund failed programs and schools in urban areas while they blow hundreds of millions on things like a sports arena. Meanwhile Corzine wants to save $4 million by closing parks after wasting $7 million to research his toll increase plan.

We need to cut the wasteful spending and elect people with the common sense to know that raising tolls 500% is not going to make anyone happy.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.” - Thomas Jefferson

So as not to appear just another schmuck with an opinion...

Let me offer that I speak from 9 years of experience on a Board of Education in an exemplary K-6 district

We receive 90 percent of our marching orders from Trenton but only get about 9 percent of our funding from the State.

In spite of Trenton's nanny state meddling, our kids are getting an awesome education. The main reasons are:

1) Our parents value education and are involved in the school community on a daily basis

2) The Staff, Administration, and BOE are all on the same page - we want a highly effective school

3) All parties take personal responsibility to ensure that the mission is a success

People have all but forgotten the original wording of the 1948 statute which established a thorough and efficient educational SYSTEM. It is up to the individual to take advantage of the opportunity.

Throwing more money at poorly performing districts and foisting draconian policies on properly performing districts is not the answer.

Change cannot come from some political appointee in Trenton but from the highly performing districts.

We need a fundamental re-evaluation of the whole shooting match.

We don't need 616 school districts but cutting them down to 21 won't work either.

We should consolidate based on best practices and do some serious house cleaning.

Contracts should be negotiated at the county level (at least) and maybe at the State level (provided Comrade Corzine is not sitting across from the NJEA).

Anyone who steals from the taxpayers should be taken out back and shot.

Education is too important to leave to the self serving knuckleheads under the gold dome...

Some of Gov Corzine's austerity proposals early this year were radical beyond reason, but I will point out that he is big enough to concede ground to fair criticism in the deliberative process needed to make changes. Toll hikes he first proposed were shot full of holes as deserved, and proposals to eliminate cabinet departments and close state parks are now up for public comment. Is he warming to the job at hand with critics and perhaps clowns to the left and right of him? Time will tell.

Excellent question. Debating this issue has been limited by the encroachment of the nanny state mentality of an ever more "progressive" political class. The result has been to bankrupt the state:outstanding debt and unfunded liabilities approximate $20,000 per NJ family. A small minority of taxpayers supports an ever growing army of tax users. We shovel money into Abbott districts and their respective municipalities because that's where the votes are. We allow double and triple dippers to loot our state pension plan and legislators vote to increase benefits whithout voting on a revenue source for the increased costs. The result is the highest tax burden in the nation and a crumbling infrastructure. I for one will be taking my $50,000 of state/local tax contribution to another state, right behind the other high income residents who have already left. If 10,000 of us leave, tax revenue will fall by $5 billion. That will cure the overspending problem. Please turn out the lights.

Before you make claims as to what the NJ State constitution requires, I would suggest you read it first. Article VIII, Section IV states: The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years. I don't see anything about "responsible for providing education". And to Education and Home Rule, what Golden Parachute do you vote for for your superintendent, and how many 4%+ raises for teachers do you approve while the rest of the world was luck to get 1%. Get real, most of your costs are because you are unwilling to control those costs.