Star Ledger 4-19-08 "...Notably, Union City is one of the highest-achieving Abbott districts. Yet this kind of mismanagement undermines pub lic confidence in the ability of state and local officials and fo ments hostility toward all Ab bott districts."

Spending but with restraint Sunday, April 20, 2008 Voters who went to the polls last week to approve or reject local school budgets left sending this clear message: We're okay with being taxed for reasonable education costs, but don't expect us to go along with anything more right now. Voters approved about three-quarters of the budgets (73.5 percent) on the ballots in 550 districts across the state. Those budgets generally called for increased spending but confined the hikes to less than the new state-imposed cap of 4 percent. Statewide, the average increase in school spending was around 3 percent. When this controlled spending was coupled with $533 million in new state aid, voters found little not to like. But that's only half the message voters sent. Only 9 percent of what are called second ballot finance questions won voter approval. Those sought voter permission to exceed that 4 percent ceiling. The reasons to exceed the cap offered to voters ranged from the need for more teachers to retention of extracurricular activities to buying new computers. Education leaders blame the dismal approval rate on a new state law that required those second questions to get a super majority -- 60 percent. School board officials complain that no other question placed before voters requires such a lopsided majority. If that rule weren't in place, another 10 second questions would have passed, they note. And that 60 percent mandate may have had another effect -- scaring off more districts from even asking for money above and beyond the allowed budget increase. This year only 28 districts had second questions on the ballot; last year 65 did. The law that imposes the 60 percent standard also placed the 4 percent ceiling on budget increases. Judging from Tuesday's election results, the law seems to be working just fine. Ammo for Abbott foes Saturday, April 19, 2008 Did you recharge your cell phone overnight? How much did you get paid for that onerous chore? Nothing? Same here, which makes it hard to understand what was going on in the Union City School District in Hudson County. There, in accordance with a union contract, school bus drivers are guaranteed six hours of overtime each month to charge cell phones. This means that officials negotiated, and school board officials approved, a contract that requires paying people for doing nothing. If this seems outrageous, it is more so when you consider that Union City is such a poor school district that it receives so-called Abbott funding from the state. It was an Abbott audit that turned up the pay- to-plug provision. Union City school superintendent Stanley Sanger, who wasn't superintendent when the contract was negotiated, is sued a statement after the cell phone flap became public, say ing the overtime clause is "a priority item to be negotiated out of the collective bargaining agreement for September 2008." Similarly, Education Commissioner Lucille Davy says new laws and spending regulations make it unlikely this sort of thing will recur. Fine. But how did this happen in the first place? Who thought, at one time, that it made sense to pay bus drivers six hours in overtime each month -- $345 a month, per phone -- for charging $39 cell phones? That's the mystery. Every time something like this is exposed, those responsible get righteous, denouncing the problem and vowing it will never happen again. Until it does. More is at issue here than one bad clause in a union contract. Because the boondoggle occurred in an Abbott district, it gives credence to those who think all Abbott funding is misspent. The important thing to remember is that the children in the district had nothing to do with this and should not have to pay the price. Notably, Union City is one of the highest-achieving Abbott districts. Yet this kind of mismanagement undermines pub lic confidence in the ability of state and local officials and fo ments hostility toward all Ab bott districts.