Would school choice reforms prevent or reduce future unrest in cities like Baltimore by improving the plight of poor minority teenagers? Some are making that case. Here was Charles Krauthammer on Fox News last night, according to National Review:
“There are essentially two problems. . . . One is single parenthood, and the other is the worst schools on earth,” said Krauthammer on Tuesday’s Special Report. “Of the first, we have no idea how to solve that. Of the second, we do. If you can’t improve the schools, give the kids a choice to go to better schools. The parents begged to have that opportunity, but the teachers’ unions won’t allow it and thus the Democrats won’t. If you want to do something, let them choose their schools.”
This idea has merit. The traditional public school system fails inner city youth in two major ways—both of which reinforce the kind of problems on display in Baltimore.
First, inner city schools are just plain awful. As Terry Jeffrey pointed out in Townhall, the most recent information shows that the Baltimore school district spends about $18,000 per student and only achieves a reading proficiency rate of 16 percent for eighth graders. That’s a lot of money wasted in pursuit of terrible result. When public schools can’t even teach the vast majority of Baltimore’s most vulnerable kids to read, the traditional education system is condemning them from a very young age to dim college and career prospects.
Second, the public school system increasingly turns mildly troubled young people into criminals thanks to a depressing trend of overcriminalization. Safety paranoia led administrators down the dark path of zero tolerance; classroom misbehavior that once would have resulted in detention now triggers a call to the cops, arrest, and expulsion. It’s really no wonder black teens and 20-somethings distrust the police—consider the representative case of Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a black 11-year-old in Virginia who incurred disorderly conduct and felony assault charges for causing a bit of mischief. In a sane education system, teachers would work with Kayleb to improve his behavior, not strap him in handcuffs. And inner city streets are filled with teens who were arrested and expelled when they should have been counselled and reformed. This is almost the perfect system for creating a society of displaced, impoverished, lawless young people.
School choice would mitigate these problems by liberating poor minorities trapped in a cycle of failure. Still, there are limits to what any single reform could accomplish. Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, told me that he expects school choice would certainly help, “but there are limits to what schools can fix.”
May 1,2015
Chestnut Street Parking Lot – Changes May 11th
Ridgewood NJ, Starting May 11th the Multi-space meter in the Chestnut Street Parking Lot will be deactivated. The new method of payment for up to 3 hours of parking at .50 cents per hour will be by phone using the Parkmobile App.
The display of the Ridgewood Parking Pass (RPP) will enable users to park from 6AM to 2AM without any further payment.
Parkmobile provides a new and better way to pay for parking using your cell phone. With Parkmobile’s mobile app, starting your parking transaction takes just a few seconds. If you’re driving a different car than the one you registered, you can quickly change the license number and activate your parking session. You can “opt-in” to receive one text message reminder 15 minutes prior to your parking expiring.
We provide secure online access to your parking data so you can track your parking expenses, change your account settings or print a report. You can also easily export information for expense reimbursements.
You’ll find Parkmobile in private and public parking lots, on city streets, at airports, stadiums and just about anywhere you park. Millions of people have signed up. Registering with us is free and you’re under no obligation to use Parkmobile. It takes less than two minutes to join.
Parkmobile takes the stress out of parking. No more searching for coins. No worries about a dysfunctional parking meter. We offer flexible solutions designed to make your day a little easier.
You can register multiple vehicles to one cell phone number and multiple cell phones may be registered to one vehicle. Find out more about Parkmobile by visiting our website.
Rurik, If you wish to make comments on a topic, on a blog that allows anonymity, please do comment on the topic. Every posting you comment on shouldn’t become your quarrel with anonymity. Feel free to start a blog for Ridgewood where anonymity is not permitted, and so how many people post on it. It will be more effective to have those 3 people meet you for a discussion over coffee at Raymond’s.
P.S. I remember your comments on the Valley Renewal wanting to know why people opposing it were not blogging under their own names. It didn’t take a lot of courage for you to blog in favor of it, when your wife Cynthia Halaby was a Trustee of the Valley Hospital. Perhaps there are people with opposite opinions to your whose position/relationship to Valley or Village Hall or elsewhere make them feel uncomfortable expressing their opposing opinions very publicly.
We do live in America, and there is a secret ballot. An opinion (as long as non-libelous) is a form of freedom of speech. Prior to about 1890, when people voted, it was a public matter and the community, including factory bosses, knew exactly how their employees voted. I don’t mind an anonymous blog – why are you so opposed to it? Why do you need to identify those who disagree with you?
Rurik, where have you been? Many MANY people are not hiding behind their mothers’ aprons. The ones who go to the meetings and speak up, actually recently they were lined up to speak out against the Mayor’s outrageous behavior. They are not anonymous. And there have been numerous letters bashing the Mayor’s actions, and the letters are singed by citizens. The fact that you choose to post with your name on this BLOG, where most post anonymously, does not make you more bold and does not make your opinion more worthy. And those who post anonymously are not less worthy. This is the 21st century Rurik. This is how BLOGS work.
All politics is local, and this blog, among other essential functions, supports free and open exchanges of information and opinions bearing on the politics of the VOR. Mr. Halaby is willing to put his name behind his opinions. Good for him. But in Ridgewood we suffer from a particularly bad case of the malady some refer to as “the politics of personal destruction”. In most important areas in which Mr. Halaby offers his opinion, it just so happens that the POPD malady typically operates to the detriment of people who hold considered opinions opposite to his. So to rephrase the salient point of an earlier commenter, those who are motivated to express (non-libelous) opinions opposite to that held by Mr. Halaby are to be forgiven for taking advantage of a means of publicly expressing themselves that Mr. Halaby and his like-minded friends, frustrated in their seeming inability to make headway, are determined to brand as the last refuge of the damnably timid.
$7,500 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1445893
221 Bedford Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, House
Pam Christian, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
15
$425,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1443545
1103 E Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, C/C
Jane L. McGuire, Sales Associate
Coldwell Banker, Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
4
$489,900 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1515972
347 Franklin Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Steve Pluchino, Sales Associate
Coldwell Banker, Ridgewood
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
24
$495,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1511458
367 E Glen Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, Col
Rose Hueneke, Broker Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
21
$499,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1508045
176 W Glen Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath, C/C
Tisha Ramge, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
23
$539,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1515635
314 Kenilworth Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, C/C
Megan Murphy, Sales Associate
Angele Ekert, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
23
$600,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1430875
495 E Saddle River Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Michael Shetler, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
25
$635,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1515612
448 Fairfield Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Lindsey Barclay, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 5/3
20
Riot-Plagued Baltimore Is a Catastrophe Entirely of the Democratic Party’s Own Making
by KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON April 28, 2015 2:34 PM
A few weeks ago, there was an election in Ferguson, Mo., the result of which was to treble the number of African Americans on that unhappy suburb’s city council. This was greeted in some corners with optimism — now, at last, the city’s black residents would have a chance to see to securing their own interests. This optimism flies in the face of evidence near — St. Louis — and far — Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco . . . St. Louis has not had a Republican mayor since the 1940s, and in its most recent elections for the board of aldermen there was no Republican in the majority of the contests; the city is overwhelmingly Democratic, effectively a single-party political monopoly from its schools to its police department.
Baltimore has seen two Republicans sit in the mayor’s office since the 1920s — and none since the 1960s. Like St. Louis, it is effectively a single-party political monopoly from its schools to its police department. Philadelphia has not elected a Republican mayor since 1948. The last Republican to be elected mayor of Detroit was congratulated on his victory by President Eisenhower. Atlanta, a city so corrupt that its public schools are organized as a criminal conspiracy against its children, last had a Republican mayor in the 19th century. Its municipal elections are officially nonpartisan, but the last Republican to run in Atlanta’s 13th congressional district did not manage to secure even 30 percent of the vote; Atlanta is effectively a single-party political monopoly from its schools to its police department.
From Ferguson to Baltimore, the nation’s first black president is encountering the limits of his power when it comes to healing the nation’s racial wounds.
A series of racially-charged police killings, most recently in Baltimore, are quickly becoming a part of President Obama’s second-term legacy, defying predictions that his election to the White House would help bridge the country’s oldest divide.
Obama appears increasingly frustrated by the situation, this week lashing out at people rioting in Baltimore as “thugs” and “criminals.”
The president has also brushed off critics who say his administration should be taking a more forceful approach toward police misconduct.
“The challenge for us as the federal government is, is that we don’t run these police forces,” he said Tuesday during a Rose Garden press conference. “I can’t federalize every police force in the country and force them to retrain.”
The president has struggled to find the right balance between backing law enforcement and criticizing their questionable practices when police-related deaths of black men occur.
Sterling Raskie, AdviceIQ7:32 a.m. EDT May 2, 2015
Any good financial planner will generally tell you to set aside at least three to six months’ living expenses for a rainy day. If you ever need this money, you’ll need it fast, but isn’t there somewhere better to keep it than your mattress? Here are a couple of options.
An emergency fund helps you pay bills such as your mortgage, utilities and groceries in the event you lose your job or become disabled, or to pay for an unexpected car or home repair, to name a few examples. You may need more than six months’ expenses if you lose a hard-to-find job or your household relies on one income.
If you put off this financial necessity, you’re not alone. More than one in four Americans save no money for emergencies, according to a recent Bankrate survey. About one in five people sock away enough to cover less than three months of expenses.
Yet more than a third (34%) of respondents reported a recent unexpected event such as a medical problem or a home-related expense that stung financially, according to Pew Research national survey.
Rep. Scott Garrett with the 2015 United States Service Academy nominees from New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District , including Christopher Lee , Ridgewood High School
(Please see list below for individual photos of nominees)
Apr 28, 2015
PARAMUS, NJ – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) is proud to announce the nomination of 36 Fifth District students to United States service academies, including the Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy at Annapolis, the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point and the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. This year’s nominees were honored by the Congressman at a reception at Bergen County Community College in Paramus on Wednesday, April 8, 2015.
“It’s an honor to nominate this group of talented, intelligent, and dedicated young men and women from New Jersey’s Fifth District to our country’s prestigious service academies,” said Garrett. “One of the United States’ oldest and proudest traditions, our service academies have been training future leaders for a life of service since the late 1700’s. I wish everyone all the best as they move through the final steps of the application process, and I’m proud of their achievements.”
Applications to the Military Academy, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy require a nomination by a Congressman or a Senator, however, the Congressional nomination does not guarantee acceptance. To assist with the nomination process, Congressman Garrett established an esteemed committee of military and civic leaders that interviewed potential nominees, reviewed their applications and made recommendations to the Congressman. Click here for more information about Congressman Garrett’s nomination process.
Below is a complete list of the nominees by academy and links to individual photos of the nominees with Rep. Garrett. Names without a corresponding link were unable to attend the April 8th reception.
**Please note: some candidates were nominated to more than one academy.
United States Military Academy at West Point
Olivia Beattie – River Vale, Pascack Valley High School
Shayne Harrell – Hamburg, Bergen Catholic High School
Christopher Lee – Ridgewood, Ridgewood High School
John Lorenz – Glen Rock, Glen Rock High School
Michael McPherson – Dumont, Bergen Catholic High School
Brady Miller – Glen Rock, Glen Rock High School
Danielle Peck – West Milford, West Milford High School
Haley Ann Steele – West Milford, West Milford High School
Edward Yoon – River Edge, River Dell Regional High School
Gregory Zabrodskiy – Ramsey, Green Meadow Waldorf School
A troubling picture of clueless teenagers and frazzled parents
If I knew then what I know now
By RON LIEBER
The problem with a lot of the advice that teenagers and their families get about higher education debt is that it’s totally, utterly bloodless.The federal Department of Education takes its shot in its role as the de facto provider of advice to people borrowing their first federal student loans and repaying them. That counseling is mandatory for borrowers, but because the topic is dense and the department’s content is devoid of anecdotes, it’s tough to make the lessons stick.
So in my column last week, I asked readers to share their own stories and offer the most important thing they wish they had known before they borrowed money and began to repay it. The comments painted a troubling picture of clueless teenagers, frazzled parents and college administrators who may not always take students by the shoulders and question their debt levels.
Not one person suggested that college was a mistake (though a few regret going to law school). Borrowing too little is dangerous if it leads to dropping out or never attending in the first place, and undergraduates who borrow from the federal government without taking on additional private loans are unlikely to get in trouble if they manage the repayment process well.
Ridgewood toppled New Jersey giant Moorestown to move from No. 19 to No. 7 in theSuper 25 Girls Lacrosse rankings provided by 3d Rising.
Hannah Cermack rolled the crease and scored with 27 seconds left in overtime for an 11-10 victory, ending Moorestown’s 88-game win streak. Moorestown had not lost since a 10-9 defeat against Ridgewood in the 2011 Tournament of Champions final.
Moorestown, which had been No. 3 last week and No. 2 for most of the season, fell to No. 8.
A brutal recession can change the economic landscape, but not always in the way people assumed it would. Six years ago, independent bookstores seemed destined to follow travel agents into the remainder bin. In 2009, the American Booksellers Association dipped down to 1,401 members. Borders shuttered hundreds of stores across the country, and Barnes & Noble started to teeter. If those big guys couldn’t survive, the conventional wisdom went, what chance did Mom & Pop Bookseller have?
It turns out, better than most of us expected. Despite the nation’s lackluster recovery, the number of indie bookstores has increased by more than a 25 percent since those dark days of 2009.
What accounts for this burst of literary entrepreneurialism?
Instead of heralding the industry’s doom, the death of Borders may have helped clear away competition. Other observers point to new interest in farmers markets and all things local. And maybe, like the prospect of hanging, the possibility of bankruptcy concentrated the minds of bookstore owners and inspired them to smarter, more creative merchandising.
However we got to this happy state, it’s worth celebrating, which is exactly the point of Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, May 2. This new nationwide holiday stems from a program started last year by California indie bookstores. Now, more than 400 stores from Alaska to Maine are preparing for a full day of programs, entertainment and food to highlight their value.
MAY 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Planning Board performed a courtesy review of a proposal that was subsequently approved by the Board of Education to add solar energy units at George Washington (GW) and Benjamin Franklin (BF) middle schools, Each school will be getting its own unique project.
A presentation before the BOE in March focused on the general overview of the plan, as well as the potential financial savings. The courtesy review performed last week by the Planning Board took a deeper look at the structural aspects and impact on the surrounding area.
The larger of the two projects, slated for BF, features a carport structure somewhat similar to the one constructed at William Paterson University in Wayne. Doug Bagwill, an engineer, noted that there were a few differences between the two projects, notably the dual-incline inverted canopy that prevents snow from shedding off the side of the panels, pushing it toward the center.
“The whole concept of that is instead of a situation here when it’s melting and sliding, it’s going to go to the center port instead of the edges,” said Jim Wavle, president of Verterra Renewable Energy, who oversaw solar panel projects at the district’s other schools. “It keeps the weight distributed over the support.”
MAY 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Backbiting must come to an end
To the Editor:
I do not subscribe to the Manichean political vision of good guy/bad guy, white hat/black hat that many Ridgewood residents seem to espouse. We are all a shade of gray, part saint, part sinner.
With this in mind I am getting fed up with the slings and arrows that Mayor Paul Aronsohn has been subjected to. Our mayor may not be perfect, as I have indicated in many of my letters to The Ridgewood News, but he is one of the best and most effective mayors Ridgewood has ever had. Let us support him as he does his best for Ridgewood.
The backbiting has got to stop. I wish all those who talk the talk can expend some of their energies to walk the walk. Ridgewood will be a much better place for it.
MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS -Saturday, May 2
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents the first Saturday of every month. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, May 2 from 9AM to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall.
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority
MAY 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Print
Many downtown housing questions still unanswered
To the Editor:
Having attended virtually all the Planning Board meetings on the proposed high-density housing master plan amendment for the past several years, and being as directly involved in the process as a concerned resident can be, I am left with one overarching question: Why? This notion of “Why?” relates to so many questions in this process that have yet to be answered, but need to be for the Planning Board, mayor and council to make the real right decision for the residents of Ridgewood. Here are some variants of “Why?” as related to this bizarre master plan amendment process:
Why did the original amendment contain the massive density number of 50 apartments per acre requested by the developers, when our current zoning only calls for 12 and the village average is 18-22?
Why hasn’t the board or the planner ever explained why 50 units per acre was used (except to note that it was requested by the developers and puzzlingly, as suggested by one board member, is necessary to incentivize the developers to build and profit)?
Why, as with so many important changes to Ridgewood, was the public not fully informed and educated in a proactive, openly invited manner and asked for opinion at the outset of the process years ago?
Why has the Planning Board failed to conduct and provide its residents with a comprehensive and necessary master plan review – that looks at all village-wide planning needs and impacts – prior to implementing such a monumental change to our village (and is actually required to be performed in 2016 anyway)?
Why do some members of the Planning Board appear to believe that the board’s and the village planner’s reactionary reviews of data provided by the developers constitute a thorough and responsible review?
Why are the opinions of so-called “experts,” hired by developers to sell the board on the benefits of this overwhelming change, given more respect than those of concerned residents, who will forever have to live with these changes?
Why is the Village Council separately looking at an additional large-scale assisted living complex development on the corner of Franklin and Walnut, without openly and clearly combining the master planning review with the high-density housing?
Why was the most recent amendment revision not provided to the public at last week’s Planning Board meeting, along with the revised zoning map?
Why does the Village Planner believe that the newly proposed density of 30-35 units per acre is now the correct number across the board, in all areas of the Central Business District?
Why can’t we go with what we know works in Ridgewood, 18-24 units per acre, which is still double the current zoning allowance?
Why isn’t the board more concerned with potential impacts on schools, parking, open space and village services?
Why can’t we keep Ridgewood as a village?
As a resident of Ridgewood who truly loves this town, I look forward to real answers to these “Why’s?”
