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TGIF on Tuesday
The Garden State Coalition of Schools Information for Friday
An e-alert for the Garden State Parent Network Committee
May 4, 2004
Candace Mueller, coordinator, GSPN Committee
210 West State Street Trenton, NJ 08608 // 609-394-2828
gscs@ebnet.org
Please mark your calendars and call your superintendents to make plans to attend together the GSCS's 13th Annual Meeting Breakfast on Tuesday, May 25, at the Trenton Marriott.
SIGN UP:
GSCS 13th ANNUAL BREAKFAST MEETING
Date and Time: 8:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, May 25, 2004.
Location:
For directions see: https://marriott.com/search/citySearchResults.mi?showMap=true
What: Sit down Breakfast and GSCS Program.
Invited Guests:
· Keynote Speaker: Senator John Adler, Co-Chairman Education Mandate Review Commission; Chair Senate Judiciary Committee.
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· Audience Q & A: William Librera, Commissioner of Education.
RSVP: Lynne Strickland 609 394 2828/fax 609 396 7620.
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Please use this sign up as your voucher as well:
Name:______________ District:_________________________________
(Check one) Parent:______Board Member:______Administrator:_______
Send voucher and payment of $35 per person by May 15 to:
Mr. Michael Gorski, CPA,
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Here is some important information from Lynne Strickland, about GSCS organizational information, as well as a call for attendance by parents, board members or superintendents at the Assembly Budget Hearing on May 13th.
Fr: Lynne Strickland
1.The next GSCS Board of Trustees meeting is set for May 12, noon, at East Brunswick Board of Education. On the agenda: GSCS business - Nominating and GSCS Budget FY05 final report/ratification; strategy re: Governor's call for spending caps, etc., in combination with his recommended property tax proposal for rebates and constitutional convention; and rescheduled guests David Sciarra, Education Law Center, & Joe Ferraina, President, and Tom Janerone, Director, both of the Urban Supts. Association. This is an important agenda and we hope you will be present. RSVP to me with your attendance plans please.
2.Take look to our website www.gscschools.org to review the GSCS Survey results. We had 776 participate in this survey; approximately 300 additional email contacts requested to be added to our adjunct mailing list re GSCS events/activities. The answers are quite interesting. This survey will be a tool for GSCS as we continue to press our advocacy for quality education in Trenton. We encourage you to bring the survey to the attention of your community, and would be interested in any feedback you gather.
3.Finally, it turns out that the Department of Education has been rescheduled to appear before the Assembly Budget Committee to present their input on the FY05 State Budget. I would be glad to have some of you in attendance with me at the hearing. It helps to have the 'GSCS face(s) on hand and visible to the press as well as to DOE top administration staff. It's at 1 pm, committee Room 11 (4th floor in the Annex side of the statehouse complex) on Thursday, May 13. Please let me know if you are interested/able to do so. Thank you - Lynne. gscs2000@hotmail.com
What follows below is a Star-Ledger editorial, still promoting a session of the Legislators deal with property tax issues, instead of a constitutional convention.
FYI:
Reconsidering a convention
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
The effort to convene a constitutional convention to figure out what to do about property taxes got a significant boost last week when Gov. James E. McGreevey said a convention was his preferred way of dealing with the problem.
In the past, when it looked like lawmakers were never going to take responsibility, we endorsed a convention. We saw it as the only way of getting something done. But legislators now seem to realize that they can no longer avoid the issue. A convention is not a terrible idea; it's just not the best or most efficient way to go about the job.
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For starters, there's the plodding process connected to a convention. Under current plans, the question of calling a convention would be placed before voters in November 2005. If voters approved, delegates would be elected the following spring and would meet in the summer of 2006. Presuming they could reach consensus by August, recommendations would go on that fall's ballot, delaying significant change in the tax structure (or easing of the property tax burden) until at least 2007.
The Legislature, with its research capabilities and committee system in place, could expedite the process, bringing faster change.
One hesitation expressed even by those who endorse the governor's idea is the possibility of a runaway convention -- one that veers from its task and ventures into such politicized areas as abortion, stem cells, even tinkering with constitutional language dealing with a "thorough and efficient" school system. How can a convention do something about raising revenue without considering the spending of that revenue? And the way the state and local governments spend revenue involves a host of issues -- most important, education costs.
With so much at stake in rewriting the constitution, special-interest groups -- teachers, government employees, lawyers, doctors, the real estate industry, builders and so on -- would work to get their representatives elected as delegates. Those groups have money and organization to do it. What ideally could be a convention of civic-minded folks working to bring fairness to the tax system and penny-pinching to government spending could be dominated by special interests looking out for themselves.
There are those in Trenton convinced that legislators should do what they were elected to do. Senate President Richard Codey is among them. We agree, provided any proposals the Legislature devises be on the ballot for approval just like the recommendations of a 
constitutional convention. Only through a vote of the public will any change achieve legitimacy.
Info from 5/13/Star-Ledger editorial,
