Category: New Jersey

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Domestic Policies New Jersey News Politics

Public Workers: Working Hard, Paying More, Getting Less, Being Blamed. Solution?

Governor Christie wasn’t back in New Jersey for two days before his administration and its apologists went back on the attack on public worker pensions and health benefits.

The man who promised that he wouldn’t touch pensions in his gubernatorial run in 2009, and who staked his presidential ambitions on a bipartisan pension and benefits bill in 2011 is now touting a plan recommended by his appointed board of campaign contributors and Wall Street executives that would further degrade the benefits that are part and parcel of people’s decision to enter teaching, firefighting, police work and government administration in this state.

The latest plan, which was first unveiled last year and clarified on Thursday, calls for an end to the health plans that most New Jersey state workers get as part of their employment. Christie’s plan would move workers to the equivalent of Affordable Care Act Gold Plans which, despite their lofty name, have higher deductibles and more limited health care options for their subscribers. But the plan gets even better because no longer would health care be paid for by the state and employees; the cost would be shifted to the municipalities and school boards. Then the money that the state saves would be used to replenish (and plenish) the pension system.

Ingenious, right?

We got a further clarification on this proposal by Thomas Byrne, one of the members of Christie’s pension reform panel. And his point, in sum, is that teachers get more benefits than most workers in the private sector. Besides, they say the plan he and the panel recommended is the only way to solve this problem. Talk about reinforcing your own limited thinking.

What Byrne and his apologists don’t say is that there are many private sector workers who get far better benefits. Why can’t he compare public employee health care with those people? Because, simply, the same people calling for benefits reform are the same people who want to privatize public work and to destroy the power of the public worker unions. So comparing us to the average worker who’s been shafted over the past 40 years by Republicans and conservatives makes people angry at what we have, rather than what we have earned through legal collective bargaining. The rich keep what they have and the rest lose out. Haven’t we heard that somewhere before?

I do have to say that I agree with one of Byrne’s points, and this is likely to get me in trouble with my public worker brethren and sisteren. I think that putting a constitutional amendment that forces the state to make a full pension payment every year is a losing issue. Most New Jerseyans support their local teachers and don’t want to penalize them, but the thought of having to pay billions of dollars at the expense of other programs – which is what the opponents of this amendment will argue – will turn most voters against it.

Governor Christie has done a terrific job, and a terrible one at the same time, by turning public workers into the face of the budgetary, taxing and spending problem we have in New Jersey. It’s not right, it’s not fair and it’s a disgraceful turn away from decency and respect, but it’s the truth and Democrats need to understand that. An amendment will fail. Nix it.

Likewise, a millionaire’s tax would help, but will not raise enough money to pay for the shortfall. Reducing pension investment fees is also a necessary step, but a small one. So what to do?

A 1% tax on corporate profits. After all, it’s the business interests that have been driving educational reform since 1983, including the calls for more cooperative learning, back-to-basics content retention, tenure reform and the Common Core Curriculum Standards. Business is interested in education because schools supply their future workers, and they also have an interest in well-run towns, police forces and firefighters. So why not have them pay a greater share of the expenses? That way, all public workers could share in the proceeds and homeowners wouldn’t have to bear the burden of ever-rising property taxes. One percent is not too much to ask and any company that decides that it’s too much and leaves New Jersey would be sacrificing its highly educated labor force and would risk ridicule for running away.

Obviously I don’t have complete details and I’m sure the accountants would discover all manner of roadblocks. Plus, having corporate interests pay for things usually means they’ll want their names and logos on it. But I think this is better than having taxpayers voting on a multi-billion dollar plan that will hike their taxes. And it just might solve the problem of our underfunded school systems.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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New Jersey Politics Syria

Chris Christie – No Refugees in New Jersey, Especially “Orphans under 5 years old”

Tough-talking Chris Christie showed his breaking point Monday when he interviewed by phone with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, and expressed his concern for Syrian refugees coming to his state. And as far as Christie goes, he’s not having any of these people in New Jersey, not even “orphans under 5!”

“I do not trust this administration to effectively vet the people who are proposed to be coming in in order to protect the safety and security of the American people, so I would not permit them in,” Christie said.

Hewitt then asked, “What if they were orphans under the age of 5?”

“You know, Hugh, we can come up with 18 different scenarios. The fact is that we need appropriate vetting, and I don’t think orphans under 5 should be admitted into the United States at this point. You know, they have no family here. How are we going to care for these folks?” Christie said. “The fact is, you can come up with a number of different scenarios, Hugh, but in the end, I don’t trust this administration to effectively vet the people that they’re asking us to take in. We need to put the safety and security of the American people first.”

The governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Massachusetts have gone further as to move formally to block refugees from relocating into their states – at least for now.

It should be noted that governors cannot turn people away from their state. They simply cannot say who can and cannot come in.

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New Jersey Politics

Poll: Chris Christie’s Approval Hits New Low in New Jersey

How low will he go? I don’t know, but according to these new poll results in New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie just hit an all time low in the state he governs.

New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Christie is doing by 56 percent to 38 percent, his lowest-ever approval rating, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

Voters gave him the lowest marks for his handling of the state budget, education, the economy and jobs. The results come just days after the state of New Jersey’s credit rating was downgraded for a ninth time since Christie took office in January 2010.

Moody’s Investors Service cut New Jersey to A2 with a negative outlook late on Thursday, citing “the lack of improvement in the state’s weak financial position and large structural imbalance,” stemming mostly from huge shortfalls in its public pension contributions.

New Jersey is the second-lowest-rated U.S. state, behind only Illinois.

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New Jersey Politics

NJ Senator Bob Menendez Indicted on Corruption Charges

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Justice Department investigating New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, said, “Robert Menendez, a U.S. senator, and Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, were indicted today in connection with a bribery scheme in which Menendez allegedly accepted gifts from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to benefit Melgen’s financial and personal interests,” said Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, in a statement.

The two were indicted in the district of New Jersey for one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud; Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements, according to Carr’s statement.

Categories
Domestic Policies Education New Jersey

Pearson Jumps the Shark on PARCC

We are truly in deep PARCC mode now. Perhaps the April/May test administration should include readings from the Pentagon Papers.

Pearson Education, the company that produces the PARCC tests, and is reportedly being paid over $22 million dollars in New Jersey alone, is monitoring social media to check for security breaches and other untoward activity.  The latest example is in the Watchung Hills Regional school district, where evidently a student tweeted a test question and Pearson was able to flag it. The company then contacted the New Jersey Department of Education, which then contacted the school district. A fuller discussion is here. I can certainly understand test security because every teacher in New Jersey is warned annually that any data breach can result in the loss of their teaching license.

In the new testing world, though, the students may control the balance of power. Think about it: The new tests are being given exclusively on computers to an audience that, shall we say, is less than enthusiastic about sitting for hours to complete them. Students also have access to the Internet on their own devices. Mix in the politics of test refusal and the widely acknowledged fact that these tests count for zilch to the people who are taking them, and you have a messy brew that was just waiting to foam over. And think again if you think this is only happening in New Jersey.

Testing has always been a part of education and the PARCC is just another in a long line that stretches back decades. What’s upset many more people about these particular tests is that they are tied to the Common Core Curriculum Standards, which are unpopular on both the right and the left, and which most school districts just implemented formally this past September. That means that students in grades 3-11 have only had six months with which to work with some new, sophisticated concepts. How are these tests going to do anything except tell us that we have more work to do? What’s worse, many parents and teachers with college educations and advanced degrees have taken the practice tests and have been flummoxed by what PARCC says are the correct answers.

The tests are also unpopular because they are being administered over a couple of weeks in two separate time frames; one now and one during late April or early May. This is taking an extraordinary amount of time away from classroom teaching and learning that is, presumably, the point of having children go to school and hiring teachers to instruct and mentor them. As someone who teaches Advanced Placement courses, I can tell you that this schedule has put enormous pressure on me to find time to properly prepare students for the early May AP tests while they are also taking the PARCC.

Then there is Pearson Education (remember Pearson Education? This is a column on Pearson Education). They will be paid about $22 million dollars for the tests in NJ, which is below the original estimate, but it’s still a great deal of money. Now the company is trolling through social media, monitoring student behavior and expecting that nobody will ever talk about the tests in a world where we are all connected.

This will not help schools and states that are trying to limit the number of students who are refusing to take the tests, and could possibly lead to more students not taking them in April/May. In the high school where I teach, approximately 35% of eligible students are not taking the tests. When I was proctoring the tests last week I did notice that a number of students were logging on to the test program on their computers, cycling through the pages in about 30 seconds, then taking out a book to read. Civil disobedience is alive and well.

Every social movement has its tipping point. This could be the one for Pearson and PARCC.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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New Jersey Politics

Chris Christie’s Approval Ratings Sink to All Time Low

He’s running around the country gearing up for a 2016 presidential run, but back in the state of New Jersey, the state he actually governs, Chris Christie’s approval ratings just hit a new low.

In a Rutgers University-Eagleton poll released on Friday, 53 percent of New Jersey voters view Christie unfavorably and just 37 percent hold a favorable view of the governor — down 7 percentage points in two months.
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The possible 2016 GOP candidate’s job approval ratings are facing similar blows. Fifty-two percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Christie is doing while 42 percent approve. In December, 48 percent of voters approved of Christie’s job performance.
Those questioned for the poll were able to elaborate on why exactly they hold unfavorable opinions of their governor. When asked, 20 percent cited his “attitude, personality and behavior,” while 15 percent specifically mentioned Bridgegate and 10 percent mentioned his national ambitions to possibly run for president in 2016 as affecting his ability to govern the state.

“As one respondent said, ‘Christie visiting different states for the presidential race made New Jerseyans not like him,’” David Redlawsk, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, said in a news release.

“Others used words like ‘arrogance,’ ‘rudeness’ and ‘abrasive’ to explain the turnaround from his high flying post-Sandy days. And of course, all manner of mentions of Bridgegate and other scandals were offered.”

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Domestic Policies Education New Jersey News Politics teachers

PARCC Storm II: Sunshine Peeks Through

Another week, and more snow is expected in the northeast. There’s more over the PARCC testing storm as well, but this time, there is a ray of sane sunshine.

Here in New Jersey, State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, has introduced a bill that would detail a procedure for how parents could opt out of the tests. He’s working on another bill that would delay the use of the tests to evaluate students and teachers for up to three years. Not that using tests for such evaluation is ever a good idea, whether it’s now or in 2018, but a delay might give testing opponents, which include most educators who work in classrooms, an opportunity to put the movement out of our misery.

The other good news is that another bill sponsored by state Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth) would put limits on how student data is used and disseminated. The Christie administration has said that student privacy protections are in place, but that’s quickly becoming the most laughable line in any industry, much less in education. See Target, Home Depot, and anyone involved in The Interview. Plus, Christie can’t even keep his political operatives from talking about their political contretemps. How is he going to safeguard the privacy of all the schoolchildren in New Jersey?

New FAQs about the PARCC tests released by the state Department of Education do say that the tests are not mandatory even though many districts are sending the implicit message that they are. Other districts and organizations are sponsoring evenings where members of the community can come and take a sample test to see what their children will experience. These evenings are being presented as informational sessions, but clearly if parents don’t like what they see, they could take action.

Right now, the opt-out movement is small, but it is growing. As we get closer to the March administration, I would expect that more parents will take their children out of the tests. There might even be more opt-outs after the March tests once students go home and tell their parents/caregivers about their experiences. The final administration is in late April or early May.

For all the talk about the procedural aspects of PARCC, the real issue is what the tests actually measure and whether students are doing their best, either because they’ve decided that they don’t want to bother or are flummoxed by technology issues.

These are high stakes tests for only one group: teachers, because student scores can determine whether one is retained or fired. The ultimate irony is that the people who will be most affected will be the ones with the least amount of control on test day.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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New Jersey Politics

Poll – Jersey Voters Admit – Chris Christie Has Done Little to Nothing for New Jersey

This is for my one and only Republican friend who swears that Chris Christie is the best thing to happen in New Jersey since sliced bread. Jersey voters beg to differ.

Three-quarters of New Jersey residents believe Gov. Chris Christie has made minor or no real accomplishments to the state since first taking office, according to a new poll.

A majority of residents rate Christie average when stacked about against his predecessors and 75 percent indicated his accomplishments for the state have been minor or minimal, according to the Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll released today. It found only about one-in-five residents, just 19 percent, said the Christie years have been good for the average Garden State citizen.

New Jersey residents are critical of Christie over the state’s economic conditions, with a little more than half – 52 percent – indicating they believe taxes and spending have increased under the administration and 42 percent saying the state’s overall economy has grown worse over the last five years.

“Voters look to what someone has done in the past for insight into what the future may hold. Many in the state don’t believe the economic conditions have improved while Governor Christie has been in office,” said Krista Jenkins, professor of political science and director of PublicMind.

Residents responded similarly when asked to consider the health of other issues facing the state, including its transportation systems, environmental conditions and New Jersey’s cities.

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New Jersey Politics

Poll: New Jersey Voters say No to a Chris Christie Presidency

The people who knows Chris Christie best don’t want him to be president.

A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday found that 53% of New Jersey voters said Christie would not make a good President.

And Democrat Hillary Clinton would trounce Christie 50%-39% in the Garden State if they faced each other in the 2016 election.

“Even Jersey guys, actually Jersey girls, don’t think the nation will go for a Jersey guy like Gov. Christopher Christie,” said pollster Maurice Carroll.

The poll showed Clinton beating Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney among New Jersey voters.

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Education New Jersey teachers teaching

Thirty Years an Educator

Thirty years ago today, I walked into York Preparatory School on New York’s Upper East Side for my first day as a high school history teacher. I had no formal training as a teacher except for my degree in History from Syracuse University. I had been working in advertising for a Madison Avenue firm that no longer exists using the other major I completed at Syracuse, in Telecommunications Management from the Newhouse School of Public Communications. I liked the work, liked the atmosphere, liked the potential for advancement and economic gain.

And yet.

From the time I was about 15 or 16, I had thought about teaching and knew that I could be successful at it, but I didn’t pursue it for all of the logical reasons: low pay, lack of societal respect, and low pay. I loved history, and obviously still do, and had fun taking courses. I went into acting and stand-up comedy, worked in television in New Jersey and advertising in New York. The turn to teaching came, as many great things in life, by happenstance.

I had a friend from college who was a teacher and she told me there was an opening at the private school where she taught, and she also said that you didn’t need a teaching certificate to teach in private schools. I called and was able to schedule an interview. Turns out the headmaster went to graduate school with my father. He was a nice guy. The head of the history department wanted someone with more experience. I figured I had come to the end of the string.

Four months later, a different headmaster called me and said he’d gotten my name from this other headmaster, who happened to be his brother-in-law. It turned out that one of the teachers wasn’t working out and was I interested in teaching? I interviewed. The headmaster was a very nice guy, and so was the department chair. We talked history for an hour. They hired me.

I wore a three piece suit with Allen Edmonds wing tips on the first day. Reported at 8:00, while my first class wasn’t until 11:30. During that crucial three hour stretch, I received my teaching degree from the Ronald P. Klein School of Teacher Preparedness. Ron was a fellow history teacher and over the four years I was at York Prep we became very good friends. They were probably the most productive hours in teacher training I’ve ever spent. He told me to focus on classroom management and to engage the students at every turn. He said to be respectful, but not to smile before January. He said to make students think and write, write, write. It was terrific advice. I still follow it, except maybe for the smiling part.

But the best part was that I loved it, as I thought I would. Loved being with the students studying history. Loved the energy and inquisitiveness that most of the students exhibited. Loved the atmosphere. Loved the schedule. Loved it.

And I still do. Yes, I have written over the years about how teachers aren’t as respected in American society as they need to be, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. And yes, pay increases are not keeping up with the cost of living in New Jersey, and many teachers are actually taking home less pay despite some salary increases because they are paying more for their health and pension benefits.

Oh, and then there is the constant, cyclical adoption of trendy educational ideas that are supposed to guarantee student success in the classroom and in life. Back-to-basic education, Whole Language instruction, Reading in Context, Cooperative Education, Differentiation, Phonics, New Math, Self-Esteem, Learning Clusters, and now Common Core Standards. I’ve missed many, but they’re all fads including the new teacher evaluation system in many of the states. These too will be replaced soon because they don’t do what they promise to do, and that’s to improve both teacher and student performance.

What will guarantee education excellence is to have excellent teachers in the classrooms. So far we’ve done a good job of that, but we need to do more to ensure that the next generation of teachers is more widely respected, paid according to their societal worth and make sure phony politicians have as little to do with what happens in schools as possible.

I consider myself lucky to be able to say that I still enjoy getting up at 5:30am to teach history. Still enjoy being in the classroom interacting with students. Still enjoy the give-and-take of academic discourse. Still enjoy the positive comments I receive about the work I’ve done.

Have a great day, and Happy Thanksgiving.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
New Jersey Politics

Chris Christie – “I would rather die than be in the United States Senate”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made some rather interesting comments over the weekend. Speaking to the NAACP in New Jersey, Christy said that being senator is nowhere in his future, that he would rather die than serving in that position.

“I would rather die than be in the United States Senate. Okay? I would be bored to death. Could you imagine me banging around that chamber with 99 other people, asking for a motion on the amendment in the subcommittee? Forget it.”

“It would be over, everybody,” Christie said, the crowd apparently amused by the thought. “You’d watch me just walk out and walk right into the Potomac River and drown. That would be it.”

Christie also promised that he would never run for public office in New Jersey again. And considering his dismal performance as governor and the low approval ratings he received from New Jersey residents, I’m sure they’re applauding his decision to stay out of Jersey politics.

“Believe me, by the way, when I say ‘I’m never running for public office in New Jersey again. I mean I’ll never run for public office in New Jersey again.”

There goes the Applause!

Categories
fail New Jersey Politics

Chris Christie Gets His Lowest Job Approval from NJ Voters

He wants to lead the country, when he cannot even lead New Jersey.

New Jersey voters give Gov. Christie one of his lowest job approval ratings ever, as 46 percent approve and 45 percent disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released today.

This compares to a 49 – 47 percent job approval in an August 7 Quinnipiac University poll. Today’s approval rating is his lowest since a 44 – 47 percent job approval in a June 21, 2011, survey.

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