Education "crisis"
Posted: Apr 15, 2010, 08:05:07
A lot of people are strongly criticizing their state governments for the education funding and teacher cuts. I know tens of thousands of teachers are getting the pink slip, I know several myself, even a very close relative of mine. But from what I understand, it seems like a very tough argument, at least here in NJ. Naturally, NJ had created quite a heavy budget from Corzine and how mismanaged and backwards he ran things, with help of course from everyone preceding him. And off the bat a god amount of people have problems with Christie just because he is a wealthy prosecutor, etc etc. Now I don't agree with teacher cuts at all, the education system is stressed enough as it is, but the last thing it needs is less teachers. (Although I must say that it could use a overhaul being, I'd say, only 1 out of 4 teachers I had through H.S. actually cared about their students...) But I also see the validity in it all in how the schools spend their money. In high school, we had a different principal every year, and the teachers nearly went on strike over low salaries and shady contracts. Meanwhile, (While they refused to supply students with even pencils or books), the board insisted it was necessary to purchase a 3k smartboard for every classroom, but didn't think it was important to show the teachers how to use them, so most of them never did! Even at my community college, there is conflict between the "professors" and staff over salaries and contracts. Then you have superintendents making 200-300k a year, and if their salaries were cut by even 10% don't you think the amount of relief would be substantial? Now NJ is a state that is and will always have high taxes and a stretched budget just because of the nature of how its been run and built for the last several decades. You can't blame the governors in most cases, the education brings it all on itself. And that's only public, I'd hate to see what the private sector is like with 40G tuition and deans that make half a million... But that's just 2 cents, if there are other theories I'd be happy to hear 'em.
