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The following was sent out to GSCS parent advocates today:
GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS
Parent Newsletter Alert: TGIF
Dr. Walter Mahler, President
Lynne Strickland, Executive Director
Candace Mueller, Parent Network Coordinator/GSPN (Emerita)
Betsy Ginsburg, GSPN Writer
Phone 609 394 2828 Fax 609 396 7620 Website ‘www.gscschools.org’ email ‘gscs@ebnet.org’
Please open up your e-mail address books and send the following cover and the attached letter to as many people as you possibly can. (I have also attached an extensive list of key legislators with complete contact information.) Lynne Strickland has asked me to spread the word as far and wide as possible, and hopes that each member district can get 100 or more communications to
Cover:
Our schools are being threatened as never before as the New Jersey Legislature goes into the final days of preparing the state budget for Fiscal ’05. Two bills-- S1701 and A99--currently pending will drastically restrict schools’ abilities to raise revenues, without addressing the real issues before us—spiraling health insurance and energy costs, the high price of unfunded mandates and the escalating cost of special education. The bills also do nothing to attack the real reason why property taxes are too high—the overreliance on property taxes to fund education.
The Governor’s FAIR proposals seek to punish schools by cutting the amount that schools can keep in surplus for emergencies from 6% to 3%. They seek to limit school budget increases to 2.5% annually without regard for enrollment growth, the costs of running and staffing new buildings or paying for the soaring costs of employee benefits. If these pieces of legislation are passed, every non-Abbott school district in the state will be affected. Many of them will be foreced to cut programs and lay off tenured employees.
Please tell our legislators what you think of this latest attempt to score political points at the expense of our children. The emergency is real, and the time is now. Open your e-mail address books, get copies of the attached letter up on school websites and community bulletin Boards, send it to your local dailies and weeklies. If we do not act now, we will all pay dearly in the near future
Executive Director Lynne Strickland |
210 West State Street |
Phone (609) 394-2828 |
GSCS is a coalition of over 120 New Jersey public school districts working together to promote quality education, reasonable state regulations and state laws that help all communities.
GSCS is a coalition of over 120 New Jersey public school districts working together to promote quality education, reasonable state regulations and state laws that help all communities.
With a successful track record for over 12 years as a leading advocate for public support of public education for all children, GSCS has been recognized as a source of valuable information and innovative thinking for legislators, policymakers and state leaders, as well as for local citizens and parents.
With a successful track record for over 12 years as a leading advocate for public support of public education for all children, GSCS has been recognized as a source of valuable information and innovative thinking for legislators, policymakers and state leaders, as well as for local citizens and parents.