Public schools

The Governor of New Jersey’s budget plan cuts funding to public schools but somehow he can find the money to give more to charter schools. Funny how there’s tax money to give to the non-union privately owned schools but not for public schools.

There is also a proposed bill to give tax credits to corporations that give money for private school scholarships. Which is just more corporate tax breaks – a dollar for dollar credit if you support private schools – while funding for public schools gets cut.

The Governor’s new proposed budget also limits the amount by which local municipalities can raise property tax rates which will further erode funding for public schools.

If there is a problem with public schools then they should be fixed. So far no one is listing problems with public schools in New Jersey, just complaints about unions.

There is an argument that if the surcharge on income over $400,000 is reinstated people will leave the state. That’s BS because the rate of millionaires leaving New Jersey when the tax was in place was no more than the average for people moving to other states for any reason before the tax was enacted. There’s research on that sort of thing.

There are no good arguments for gutting public education. Attacks on the schools and the teachers are just an excuse for putting tax dollars in the hands of private corporations. If schools need to be improved than that is what should be done.

What’s going on now is political maneuvering, it is not governance or statesmanship. What do people have against public education, anyway?