This week is “National School Choice Week,” Save Jerseyans, and it’s important to note that education reform is an important issue not only here in the Garden State but throughout the entire nation.
The public education system has a fundamental flaw: it denies parents the ability to decide who gets to educate their children in favor of the demands of teacher unions such as the NJEA. In no other industry are you guaranteed a tenured position after a few years and an adequate performance. None! My problem, of course, is not with the teachers who report to class every day and strive to improve their pupils’ lives.
But why can’t parents (and administrators, for that matter) exercise greater control over the dismissal of bad apples in the education barrel?
Like so many other working families, my Bergen County family made an educational choice at great personal expense. Mom and Dad sacrificed to make that happen and still had to pay into the public educational system; a system they were no longer using after they decided to remove my brother and I from the local school district.
Can you blame them? New Jersey was just ranked 36th in the nation and given a D+ for teacher standards. Providing a new evaluation system where performance is factored into job security (i.e. results) should be an integral part of education reform. We need quality teachers in every classroom!
In recent years, reformers have taken positive steps towards ensuring School Choice right here in New Jersey. The newly signed “Urban Hope Act” is a prime example, a bill which will extend the accessability of charter schools in troubled districts. But there’s still plenty of ground to cover. The bipartisan Opportunity Scholarship Act (still languishing in the state legislature) would further cement the partnership between the private sector and neighborhoods in need.
State Senator Michael Doherty has also put forth the Fair School Funding Act which would equalize the disparity of property tax dollars allocated towards school funding at the municipal level.
Ultimately, freedom of choice should be a birthright of all New Jerseyans. In our modern area, many interest groups invoke the phrase ”civil rights” in their search for parity or privilege. Well, what about the children? If anyone has a right to design their own destiny, it is our next generation of Americans and their hardworking parents.
Take an opportunity this week to have that discussion with a skeptical or disengaged friend!
“State Senator Michael Doherty has also put forth the Fair School Funding Act which would equalize the disparity of property tax dollars allocated towards school funding at the municipal level.”
Isn’t this about equalizing the distribution of state income tax dollars?
Yes, making the amount spent on every pupil in New Jersey equal.
No no, there’s a difference…the state only funds a portion of education costs, which is all Doherty can equalize. A lot of the funding comes from the local level, meaning that different cities and towns can levy different amounts of funding per pupil.
[...] being what it is, private citizens need to step up and carry the torch. For example, as part of National School Choice Week, the NJ Tea Party Caucus and Smart Girl Politics co-sponsored a panel discussion along with the New [...]