New Jersey taxpayers to receive hit

New Jersey currently spends more than any other state in the nation on school costs, and yet ranks near the bottom on all performance evaluations. Even after the governor cut funding to several programs at a whopping $820 million statewide, some of New Jersey’s 600 school districts are trying to raise taxes. The areas proposing increases include: Edison-8.6 per cent local property tax increase; Teaneck-10.2 per cent increase; Randolph-6.5 per cent increase; Woodbridge-4 per cent. This amounts to the local taxpayer shelling out hundreds of extra dollars over the course of the year to fund district programming.


While I do not disagree with the governor’s plan to reduce education spending in his state, especially as the return on investment is so low, I do not see why the local taxpayer should be forced to front the extra money. Perhaps they are unaware that infusing billions of dollars has done nothing to help increase performance. In times of economic weakness, where millions of Americans are having to tighten their belts to make ends meet, the education system should do the same. It is full of such unnecessary pork, instigated by the teacher’s unions themselves, that cutting a few dollars here and there will ultimately do the greatest good. As I said in my piece on the NYC rubber rooms yesterday, it is time that we devote more attention to the education of our children than the lining of teacher’s pockets.