Governor Corzine's challenge to the Keansburg School Superintendent's 3/4 of a million dollar severance package is a hopeful sign that he will realize that pigs don't have to fly over the state house before enough waste, fraud and abuse can be identified to fix the states finances.
If the Corzine administration treats the Keansburg situation as an isolated incident, while letting rampant waste continue throughout the education establishment, this will be just another band aid or gimmick.
Abbott School Districts, or whatever they are called now, and school construction projects have been a sewer through which our state government has flushed our hard earned dollars while rewarding their political supporters. That this latest exposure of waste is actually minor compared to the $80+ million in waste recently identified by a state audit of the Abbotts.
There is still time in this budget cycle to make a difference. Corzine should undo his education funding formula passed during the lame duck session and freeze Abbott spending at last years levels, less the $80 million in waste. Education Commissioner Lucille Davy should order that no money be spent on travel, conventions, conferences and parties in the Abbotts in the coming fiscal year.
Instead of finding new ways to raise revenue, the Corzine administration should set out to find a billion or so in savings by cutting the fat from Abbotts during the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
The always reliable InTheLobby has a good list of additional cost savings.
May the Force Be With Us
13 hours ago
Posts
7 comments:
The Keansburg situation is classic of the disregard of the public trust. Educators are supposed to set examples for our children,not teach them how to steal !! Government in New Jersey is a joke !! Maybe we need an administration of housewives handling the funds and then you'd see the dollars stretched to pay for things. Politicians have NO SHAME and it seems some educators,their supervisors and many other government employees have none either.Too bad we can't CAN them all,CLEAN SWEEP out the door!! That they,any of them, can look a taxpayer in the eye tells you the caliber of these people .TRASH or something akin to it.
Greetings from Asbury Park.
When you are done crying over all the Abbott money being wasted, make sure you cut my $60 million check you owe me.
So long as you won't tackle the segregation issue, don't be late with my check.
Tommy,
Overtime for school bus drivers to charge their cell phones, $743K serverage package for a school superitendent, $8 billion in school construction spending with no schools to show for it, etc...these are segregation issues?
School choice funded by vouchers would go a long way to solve the segregation issue, maybe. Or maybe people just like living amongst their own kind. Can you point to any truly segregated cities, states or countries? I'm the first to admit I'm not an expert, but I don't see how segregation causes waste, fraud and abuse.
John Bennett cares about Keasnburg kids, he really does! Really! Really? Really!
If the powers that be can correct the time bomb ticking with Joe Ferraina, the self-described "visionary" Superintendent of Schools in Long Branch, Monmouth County might avoid having a second strong of embarassing nationwide news articles written about it. Read more at the LongBranchAdvocate.blogspot.com
What you aren't being told is that the rules imposed by Trento actually encourages rather then discourages bad agreements
Art,
The waste you speak of is what we find in the Abbotts.
But Asbury Park is only an Abbott because the State segregated the school by busing the white kids away.
Just bring the white kids back to the school where they by geography belong, and you no longer have Asbury Park as an Abbott.
But I know the answer to that - "Send our white kids back to Asbury Park? No thanks. Just stay an Abbott District."
So, if no one wants to solve the State Sponsored Segregation...
then don't be late with my check.
Post a Comment