Stuff in the ‘The Taxpayer-Funded Political Machine’ Category
USNews Education Rankings: Good News for NJ but Still No Accounting for NJ’s Excessively High Spending
Posted On03/12/2021 byUSNews gave NJ the top ranking for its education system, which is of course very good news for the state. The even-better news is that USNews’ ranking did not count the amount of spending as an absolute positive like EdWeek’s ranking. Indeed, EdWeek concluded that NJ’s top-ranking was “largely due” to high education spending. In…Read More
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Once again, the NJEA Spends the Most on Lobbying. By Far.
Posted On03/10/2021 byOnce again, the NJEA spent more on political lobbying than any other special interest. By far. The NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) released its annual lobbying report, and the NJEA was the leading spender in a record year for lobbying, as it was in 2019. The NJEA spent a total of $6.3 million, 26%…Read More
Mayor Spiller, Are You OK with Closing Montclair Schools for the Rest of the School Year?
Posted On03/04/2021 byAccording to a NJ Advance Media report, if teacher vaccinations are a requirement to reopen schools, then schools will likely remain closed for the rest of the school year. That’s what the head of the Association of School Administrators is saying, and, more importantly, that is what the NJEA is saying. What does that mean…Read More
Kudos to the Record’s Charlie Stile: Borrowing $4.3 Billion to Make a $6.4 Billion Pension Payment is POBs All Over Again.
Posted On02/25/2021 byThe Record’s Charlie Stile is one of the very few people in NJ who recognize that Gov. Murphy is effectively reprising the disastrous 1997 Pension Obligation Bonds (POBs) of Gov. Whitman. The $2.75 billion in POBs will ultimately cost NJ more than $10 billion. That’s the reason the legislature subsequently banned POBs. Per Stile: “Yet, Murphy’s rescue…Read More
Gov. Murphy’s Budget: The Special Interests Win, NJ Loses
Posted On02/24/2021 byGov. Murphy is out with his FY2022 budget. Four facts stand out: Murphy is increasing spending to $44.8 billion, a 10% increase over last year. Murphy is devoting over 14% of this budget – $6.4 billion – to shore up NJ’s worst-in-the-nation public pension system. While making the full payment may seem like the right…Read More
Mayor Spiller: Do You Stand by Your Statement that Teachers Must Be Vaccinated before Schools Reopen?
Posted On02/19/2021 byRather than leading, NJEA VP/Mayor Sean Spiller is playing a double game in Montclair’s dispute over reopening schools. In totally predictable fashion, Spiller’s conflict of interest appears to be dictating his contradictory public positions. On the one hand, Spiller unequivocally told the New York Times that schools should only reopen when it’s safe and that “vaccination…Read More
Court Ruling Keeps Montclair Schools Closed. NJEA VP Spiller Agrees but Where Is Mayor Spiller?
Posted On02/15/2021 byThe Montclair Local reports that a Chancery Court has denied a preliminary injunction that would have forced Montclair teachers to end their boycott of the Montclair school district’s reopening plan. This means that Montclair schools will remain all-remote at least until March 9, when the court will hold its next hearing. Too bad for Superintendent…Read More
In Montclair, with the “Teachers Union on Three Sides of the Table,” Schools Remain Closed
Posted On02/11/2021 byDerrell Bradford captures the situation in Montclair perfectly in his excellent piece for Eduction Next, “A Rolling Teacher Strike Is Why Schools Are Closed.” With NJEA VP Sean Spiller as a mayor who can appoint the school board, the teacher union’s influence does indeed reach three sides of the bargaining table. The real-world impact…Read More
What a Shame! It’s Final: Mondelez Is Leaving NJ and 600 Jobs Are Gone
Posted On02/05/2021 byCredit to BuryPensions for catching this. The Mondelez (owner of Nabisco) plant in Fair Lawn is shutting down. That’s 600 jobs that disappear with it. What a shame. NJ citizens must remember that NJ has had the worst tax climate for businesses in the nation FOR SEVEN STRAIGHT YEARS, and that Gov. Murphy just raised…Read More
Where do you stand on vaccinations for Montclair teachers, VP/Mayor Spiller?
Posted On02/04/2021 byThere has been a lot of reporting on the Montclair schools re-opening dispute, but that the press has neglected to ask NJEA Vice president/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller a very important question: where does he stand on vaccinations for teachers? As Sunlight detailed in its recent report “CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Mayor Spiller Sides with His Union…Read More