Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     Property Tax Reform, Special Legislative Session & School Funding
12-10-06 Parent Letter to Trenton re CORE Plan
Dear Senator Codey and Assemblyman Roberts, I urge you as leaders of the New Jersey legislature to PLEASE remove from the board list the "core plan"--S42 and A4--scheduled for a vote tomorrow.

As a parent and taxpayer, I ask you to PLEASE give the public--not just the special interests--more time to digest these fast-tracked bills and understand the significant impact they could have on our close-knit community by eroding the control that we, as taxpayers, have over our local school district and school spending. There is absolutely no evidence that"executive county superintendes" will save taxpayers' money or contribute to a cut in property taxes.

As I said in testimony Thursday before the Joint Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services, the creation of executive county superintendents "is yet another opportunity for political patronage, more confusion about who’s in charge, less accountability to me, the taxpayer, and the risk that the quality education our well-run, open, and democratic school district provides will be compromised. How much will it cost me to create this new office? What kind of opportunity will I have to go before the new superintendent to argue in favor of our budget and schools? Will this superintendent care about education—or just the bottom line?"

At the very least, we should have answers to these questions before thesebills become law.