The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
WAYNE — Full-day kindergarten supporters say a modest tax increase is a small price to pay for enhancing early childhood learning at a time of rising academic standards.
But if a special question on implementing full-day kindergarten passes in November, the cost to taxpayers per year will be much higher than the number supplied by the district.
Governor Chris Christie’s Speech On The Fairness Formula As Prepared For Delivery (Full text)
Hillsborough, New Jersey
June 21, 2016
We have two separate, but completely intertwined crises in New Jersey that must be dealt with. They must be dealt with honestly and directly. We cannot wait any longer to do it. Property taxes and the failure of urban education.
Both of these crises are hurting all New Jerseyans, those affected both directly and indirectly.
Property taxes are the highest in America and the majority of those taxes are for local school taxes.
Urban education, despite 30 years of Supreme Court required intervention by the state, is still failing students and their parents at an alarming rate. The theory from the Supreme Court was that money would solve the problem.
They were wrong. Very wrong. And the results prove it. They have not solved our failures in urban education and, in the process, have led to New Jersey to be amongst the highest taxed states in America. They have required the legislature and Governors to craft ridiculous school funding formulas that cheat thousands of families out of funding and thousands more from a valuable education. Those days must end. It is time to change the failed school funding formulas and replace it with one that will force the end of these two crises—the property tax scandal and the disgrace of failed urban education.
New Jersey spends the 3rd most in the nation per pupil on K-12 education. For the upcoming fiscal year we spend 13.3 billion dollars on aid to K-12 education. How do we spend it? $9.1 billion goes back to school districts in direct aid. $3.25 billion is to pay for the pensions and health benefits for retired teachers. $936 million goes to pay the debt on schools, mostly in urban districts, to build new schools. $13.3 billion—and that does not count the money paid in local property taxes.
Who gets the $9.1 billion? Well, that begins to tell the story. By order of the Supreme Court, and coerced acquiescence by the elected branches of government, this coming year $5.1 billion goes to the 31 urban or SDA districts. $4 billion goes to the remaining 546 districts. That’s right. 58% of the aid from the state’s taxpayers goes to 5% of the state’s school districts. 42% of the aid goes to the remaining 95% of our districts. This is absurd. This is unfair. This is not working. And it hasn’t been working for 30 years.
Over the last 30 years, New Jersey taxpayers have sent $97 billion to the 31 SDA school districts. The other 546 districts in the state received $9 billion less over the same 30 years. $97 billion divided among only 31 SDA districts while the families in 546 other districts had to divide $9 billion less. The inequity is appalling and it has only gotten worse as the years have passed.
In 1990, 23% of the state’s students, representing the SDA districts, got 41% of the state aid. Today, while still representing only 23% of the state’s students, they receive 59% of the state aid.
Has that enormous differential in state aid brought greater achievement in the 31 districts? No. Absolutely not. Tragically so for the families in those districts and for the taxpayers all across New Jersey who have been footing the bill for the last 30 years.
Just take a sample of graduation rates. The statewide graduation rate is 90%. How have we done in the 31 districts where we have invested $97 billion over the last 30 years? Asbury Park—66%. Camden—63%. New Brunswick—68%. Newark—69%. Trenton—68%. 27 of the 31 districts are below the state average, despite the exorbitant spending over the last 30 years. Spending does not equal achievement—never has and never will. There are exceptions and those should be noted right here. In Harrison, Long Branch, Millville and Pemberton they have exceeded the statewide graduation rate. In Union City, the have seen extraordinary growth under very trying circumstances and the leadership in those districts deserve great credit. But despite nearly $100 billion to those 31 districts in the last 30 years from taxpayers all over New Jersey, failure is still the rule, not the exception. That is an unacceptable, immoral waste of the hard earned money of the people of New Jersey.
Worse than the wasted money is the lives that were not given the chance to reach their full potential. We accept that subpar performance and pay a fortune for it.
Do not let anyone tell you that failure is inevitable for children in those 31 districts or that money is the answer. The Academy Charter High School in Asbury Park had an 89% graduation rate compared to 66% in Asbury Park; Academy spends $17,000 per pupil while the traditional public schools spend $33,000 per pupil. The LEAP Academy Charter School has a 98% graduation rate in Camden, while the district has a 63% rate; LEAP spends 16,000 per pupil while the school district spends $25,000 per pupil. In Newark, the North Star Academy Charter has an 87% graduation compared to the citywide rate of 69%; North Star spends $13,000 per pupil compared to $22,000 per pupil district wide.
Over and over again we see the same issue: money spent without results for the families we are meant to serve. It is a false claim and always has been. It is failing families and their children. It is bankrupting our state. It is driving families from their homes and New Jersey.
The failure of the educational system in those 31 districts is the first tragedy. The second tragedy is this system has caused us to have the highest property taxes in the nation.
New Jerseyans regularly say that the issue that is their number one concern is property taxes. The highest in the nation and a burden on families in every corner of New Jersey. What drives these taxes? 52% of property taxes statewide are spent on the school tax and in many districts it is as high as two-thirds. But here is the unintended consequence of the unfair school funding formula: in those 31 SDA districts, they spend a fraction of their property taxes on schools as compared to the rest of the state. That’s right—the statewide average percentage of property taxes spent on schools is 52%; in the 31 SDA districts it is half that—only 26%. Are they taxing less? Oh no, they are just growing the size of their municipal government. The statewide average percentage spent on municipal government is 30%; in the 31 SDA districts it is nearly double—a whopping 54%! When you look at some of the individual districts, it is appalling. Asbury Park spends 60% less of their property tax dollars on schools than the state average, while their city spends 64% more than the state average on their municipal government. Trenton spends 18% less of their property taxes than the state average on schools but spends an enormous 387% more than the state average on their municipal government. In Paterson, 49% less on schools; 251% more on their city government. East Orange, 39% less on schools; 379% more on city government. It is outrageous. It is unacceptable. But it is perfectly predictable.
If you require the state to pay the overwhelming percentage of the school costs in these 31 districts, they are left with the choice: do we tax less or just spend more on the growth of government? The answer is resounding in most of the 31 SDA districts—the people of the rest of the state pay over 80% of the costs of our schools and we will spend our money to build oversized municipal governments—with no relief for local or state taxpayers. The abuses abound. Take Trenton for example. The Presidents of both the PBA and AFSCME locals receive full municipal pay to work only for the unions. No time working for the people; only for the unions. No wonder it costs so much.
How do we fix these problems? First, we must fix the tax problem because that is the one that affects each and every New Jerseyan and threatens the future of the affordability of our state. I propose we do this by changing the school funding formula. I propose the Fairness Formula; equal funding for every child in New Jersey.
If we were to take the amount of aid we send directly to the school districts today (in excess of $9.1 billion) and send it equally to every K-12 student in New Jersey, each student would receive $6,599 from the State of New Jersey and its taxpayers. Every child has potential. Every child has goals. Every child has dreams. No child’s dreams are less worthy than any others. No child deserves less funding from the state’s taxpayers. That goal must be reached, especially after watching the last 30 years of failed governmental engineering which has failed families in the 31 SDA districts and taxpayers all across New Jersey.
What would the effect of this change be for school aid in New Jersey? 75% of all New Jersey would get more state aid under the Fairness Formula. That is how fundamentally unfair the current formula is to students and taxpayers. And it is unfair in every part of this state.
In Margate, they would receive 428% more in aid. In Fairlawn, 815% more in aid. In that town, when combined with our 2% property tax cap, this new aid would result in average drop in their school property tax of over 2,200 per household. In Teaneck, 389% more in aid and an average drop in property taxes of nearly $1,600. In Wood-Ridge, an 801% increase in aid and a drop in property taxes of over $1,800. How about South Jersey? In Cherry Hill, an increase in aid of 411% and a drop in property taxes of over $1,700. In Haddonfield, an increase in aid of 1705% and a drop in property taxes of nearly $3,600.
The pattern is repeated everywhere. South Orange aid up 912%, taxes down over $3,700. In Readington Township, aid up 410%, taxes down nearly $2,000. In Robbinsville, aid up 666%, taxes down over $2,600. In Freehold Township, aid up 153%, taxes down over $1,500. In Chatham Township, aid up 1271%, taxes down $3,800. In Wayne, aid up 1181%, taxes down over $2,100. All over the state, we slay the dragon of property taxes by implementing the Fairness Formula. For the first time in anyone’s memory, property taxes plummeting not rising. And all through valuing each child and their hopes, dreams and potential the same.
Of course, we will make sure that we have the aid for special needs students so that they may reach their potential too. They are the exception though; the overwhelming majority of students deserve the Fairness Formula and we intend to pursue it for them.
We want to see major changes to the failed model of education in so many of these 31 SDA districts. We now see definitively that money has not made the difference over these 30 years but reforms have made the difference. We will continue to advocate for those reforms and we will insist that this new funding formula reward our successful charter schools with funding that comports with their success.
It is fundamentally wrong that students in the SDA districts receive 5 times more in state aid than students in non-SDA districts; it is unfair to those students and unfair to the residents of those towns who have been forced for more than three decades to foot the cost of that failure and unfairness.
A funding formula that puts a higher value on one child over another is morally wrong and it has been economically destructive. We cannot let it continue.
I will travel across the state this summer to talk about this plan to, for the first time in my lifetime, lower property taxes for the people of New Jersey and bring fairness to the funding of our schools.
We can do better and we must—in educating all of our children and in bringing fairness to our taxpayers. No one should be denied an education because of where they call home—an no one should have to sell their home because they can any longer afford the property taxes caused by a perverse school funding formula that devalues their children in the eyes of the state budget. After all, it is their tax dollars that, in part, fund that aid itself.
I have 18 months left in office and I will not permit these fundamental truths to not be spoken and acted upon. I will demand that the Legislature try defend the indefensible—that one child is worth more than another in the eyes of the state depending upon their zip code; or they can come along with me to fix this issue and put an end to the misery of our property taxpayers and make history in New Jersey. I am ready for the fight and I know the taxpayers of New Jersey are looking for us to finally solve this problem.
Thank you for your attention and, now, lets get to work.
May 10,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. ,On Friday, May 13, Ridgewood High School’s award winning jazz ensembles will present an evening of big band jazz at their annual “Jazz in the Wood” dinner-concert to be held at the Woman’s Club of Ridgewood. The bands will be joined by special guest artist Mark Friedman, a renowned jazz saxophonist and Wyckoff resident, and longtime friend to the Ridgewood Music Program. Friedman will be the featured soloist with the RHS Big Band and Jazz Lab, playing music ranging from swing to bebop and Latin to funk. This gala event marks the culmination of Friedman’s three-month collaboration with the RHS jazz bands.
The dinner portion of the program will feature a three-course meal catered by Dawn’s Catering of Ridgewood, and will include a menu of salad, pasta, chicken and dessert with gluten-free and vegetarian options available. For children 12 and under, a kid’s menu option includes chicken tenders, and fries.
Having taught private lessons to flute, clarinet and saxophone students in the area for more than three decades, Mark Friedman has gained a reputation as one of the premier teachers in Bergen County. His students have been accepted to the most prestigious conservatories and universities in the country and are regularly selected to perform in honors ensembles at the County, Region, All-State and All-Eastern levels.
Mr. Friedman received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education and Jazz Performance from Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University.) His teachers include Dick Volkart, Walt Levinsky, Dr. Richard Scott, Dan Trimbole, Dr. Alvin Fossner, Emile DeCosmo, and the great jazz legend, Phil Woods, whom he considered his mentor.
Mr. Friedman has toured, performed, and recorded with such great artists as Frank Sinatra, Buddy Rich, Tito Puente, the Big Three Palladium Orchestra, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Manhattan Transfer, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Frankie Valle, Andy Williams, Wayne Newton, the Dalton Gang and numerous others, including a Grammy Award© winning record with Machito.
Mr. Friedman is the director of the Indian Hills High School Band, and is on the music faculty at Ramapo High School.
The RHS Big Band and Jazz Lab are directed by Gary Fink and Jeffrey Haas, respectively, and feature many talented student musicians, including six who recently performed with the New Jersey Region I Jazz Ensembles. The bands will present songs in a variety of styles, including swing, bebop, New Orleans, Latin, rock and funk. Well known songs such as Earl Hagan’s Harlem Nocturne, Duke Ellington’s Perdido, Sonny Rollins’ St. Thomas, Joe Zawinul’s Birdland, and Phil Woods’ Randi will all be performed, and will feature Friedman along with several RHS soloists.
Dating back to the mid-20th century when such legendary jazz artists as Nelson Riddle, Sonny Igoe, and Red Mitchell could be heard in the music rooms, Ridgewood High School has enjoyed a long and distinguished history of excellence in jazz performance. With two big bands, a vocal jazz ensemble and various combos, the jazz program at RHS introduces students to music of different styles within the jazz genre. The Big Band and Jazz Lab have both been recognized with awards for excellent or superior performance at the NJAJE state jazz ensemble festivals, and have performed at venues around the country including Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge, MA, Steamers Jazz Club and Café in Fullerton, CA, Bohemian Caverns in Washington, DC, the Town Centre in Virginia Beach, VA and Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood, CA. Guest artists who have worked or performed with the jazz program include: Darmon Meader, Byron Stripling, Conrad Herwig, Wayne Bergeron, Jeff Jarvis, Marvin Stamm, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Bargeron, Dave Stryker, Don Braden, Tom “Bones” Malone, Michael Philip Mossman, Andy Martin and many others.
There will be a seatings at 6PM and 8:30PM for “Jazz in the Wood,” and tickets are $40 per adult/$20 for children 12 and under. Tickets for the event are only available in advance, and can be purchased online at https://jazzinthewood2016.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, contact Nick Trent at (201) 805-8789 or via email at jazzinthewood@verizon.net.
pic of Bernie on the 84th Floor Freedom Tower
May 7,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Village Council Candidate Bernie Walsh comments on Ridgewood News reporting of the elections, “So my experience with the Ridgewood News this week. And the ensuing poorly written article. The reporter was demanding my age – like that matters in an election. Told me he had no opinion of what happens in Ridgewood because he lives in Wayne – even though he works and reports here every day. Talked to me for over a half hour and put three totally out of context quotes in the article. I was the one who kept telling everyone they were wrong that the Ridgewood News could be unbiased. In my 51 years (yes I finally told him my age) I’ve never seen such horrible journalism. Oh and by the way, he had no idea about many of the items I referred to in our conversation. Hopefully, he’ll know more before he writes any more articles.”
Folks the Ridgewood blog would welcome the opportunity to host any letters in support of candidates ,even on election day it self email onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com Fyi the blog traffic nears 20,000 unique visits per month thank you
Ridgewood NJ, Finally the Village of Ridgewood has now joined over two dozen other municipalities, including Teaneck, Englewood, Wayne, Paterson, Pequannock and North Bergen challenging the tax exempt status of their local hospital .
According to the Bergen Record ,”Valley’s 15 1/2-acre main campus would owe about $4.5 million in taxes if it were fully assessed, according to Michael Barker, the village tax assessor.”
Since a landmark ruling in 2015 stripped Morristown Medical Center of its property-tax exemption. Many towns in New Jersey have begun looking into stripping local non profit hospitals of their tax exempt status and for Ridgewood its about time !
Lets face it for many years Valley hospital have enjoyed the services that the Village of Ridgewood has provide to them. For example police and fire response to alarms, thefts investigation altercation.
Many readers do know that when other towns bring someone to the hospital they do not stay with the patient. If the patient becomes combative or unruly the Ridgewood police have to respond and remain until the situation is resolved.
Voters in dark on key details of casino expansion referendum
When New Jerseyans decide in November whether to approve two new casinos in the northern part of the state, they’ll likely have only a vague notion of what they’re voting on. Wayne Parry, Associated Press Read more
Local police department issues a press release claiming that they shot a perpetrator when in reality they shot a hostage. No correction ever made to the press release. Two years later the truth comes out in court. Wow! Heads need to roll there for sure.
GUEST APPEARANCE SPEAKER
July 27, 2015 (Monday)Tonight
7:00 PM Wayne NJ Public Library 475 Valley Rd, Wayne, NJ 07470
You hear the news, but you know that making a deal with Iran is like making a deal with the Devil. You know you’re not going to make out well in the deal. You’ve been hearing so much about what is happening and you wonder what it really means to you and your family……………this is the event to attend this summer, without a doubt.
From Christchurch New Zealand, Trevor Loudon has been researching the radical left for more than 30 years.
This research has given Loudon unique insight into how extensively often miniscule communist parties have been able to manipulate, and even control policy formation in many Western countries -this is not just a historical problem, but is a very real issue, threatening America’s national security, and indeed very survival, right up to the present day.
In March 2007, Loudon discovered the long hidden relationship between notorious Hawaiian Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and the young Barack Obama. Soon his work was being quoted by Accuracy in Media, countless bloggers and Glenn Beck. In 2009 Loudon exposed the communist roots of Obama “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones. After an extensive campaign by Glenn Beck and others, Jones was forced to resign from his White House position.
Since 2011 Loudon has toured the United States promoting his two books “Barack Obama and the Enemies Within” and “The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress” – an extensively footnoted expose of the rapidly unfolding Marxist takeover of the United States government.
He believes that if America should fall, so will every Western nation, including his beloved New Zealand.
CO poisoning possible factor in deaths of North Jersey couple found in Wayne garage
Tuesday January 21, 2014, 9:36 PM
BY MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITER
The Record
How a North Jersey couple found Sunday in a car in a garage died will not be officially known for weeks, but the circumstances — spent gas and battery, enclosed space and no visible signs of trauma — may suggest the two died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The buildup of exhaust can often be lethal, experts say, sometimes knocking victims unconscious within minutes before they realize what’s happening.
“Once they lose consciousness, they can’t protect themselves unless someone finds them,” said Tae Keun Park, an emergency medicine physician at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.
Missing North Jersey couple found dead in Wayne garage
SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY JANUARY 19, 2014, 9:37 PM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO AND MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
A missing North Jersey couple was found dead Sunday morning in the garage of the woman’s Wayne home, authorities and family members said, after their disappearance nearly a month ago prompted local and state police search efforts.
Jorge E. Rodriguez, 24, of Garfield, and Melissa A. Pereira, 25, of Wayne, were reported missing Dec. 30. Their bodies were discovered around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Passaic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Michael DeMarco said in an email.
A medical examiner will conduct a post-mortem examination to determine the manner and cause of death, DeMarco said, and Wayne police and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the deaths.
Twitter profiles show the couple in love for more than two years. On Dec. 27, the day the couple was last seen, Pereira tweeted “weekend with my everything 🙂 #lovehim.” On Oct. 14, Rodriguez sent out a note saying “I love my princess” with Pereira’s handle and a smiley face. The last tweet on his timeline is a re-tweet of Pereira’s Dec. 4 message that said “adore you.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/garfield/Missing_North_Jersey_couple_found_dead_in_Wayne_garage.html#sthash.Xp40Jg5J.dpuf
Robert Lindsay; Jeannemarie Phelan
Second real estate agent accused of having sex in Wayne home claims she was blackmailed
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15, 2014, 5:48 PM
BY JOHN PETRICK
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Suit: Real estate agents used Wayne home for sex
Robert Lindsay; Jeannemarie Phelan.
A former Wayne real estate broker who was sued last month along with a male colleague for allegedly having sex numerous times in a client’s vacant home joined him in filing a countersuit Wednesday accusing the homeowner of attempted extortion.
Jeannemarie Phelan, a former Coldwell Banker agent, filed a countersuit in state Superior Court in Passaic County accusing Wayne homeowner Richard Weiner of demanding $990,000 or else he would file a lawsuit and release video of the trysts that was taped by the home’s security cameras.
“This is tantamount to extortion,” said Woodland Park attorney Kal Geist, representing Phelan. He said that while his client’s actions may not have been appropriate, they were not the basis for a lawsuit and did not cause the Weiners any harm.
Suit: Real estate agents used Wayne home for sex
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2013 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY DECEMBER 23, 2013, 5:50 PM
BY JOHN PETRICK
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A former president of the Passaic County Board of Realtors is accused in a lawsuit of steering potential buyers away from a couple’s vacant Wayne home so he could use it for “sexual escapades,” which were captured on hidden cameras.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/236909301_Agents_accused_of_sex_in_home.html#sthash.36H6rsns.dpuf
photo from https://www.rbsa.us/
Ridgewood Little League on a roll tops Wayne
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
BY JJ CONRAD
STAFF WRITER
The Record
PISCATAWAY — Ridgewood’s Pat Cummings is starting to get a nice reputation of being a clutch player.
Not once but twice during Monday night’s first-round Little League Section 1 game against Wayne National, Cummings blasted late-inning, go-ahead homers. His three-run shot in the bottom of the sixth gave Ridgewood an 8-5 walk-off victory that ignited a wild celebration at home plate.
One inning earlier, Cummings capped Ridgewood’s go-ahead four-run fifth inning with a two-run no-doubter to center to give the District 4 champs a 5-4 lead. And last week, it was Cummings’ two-run homer that snapped a tie in the district final.
>Assemblyman David Russo (R-Midland Park) as he and Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne) discuss hot-button education issues in Ridgewood
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Intended as a forum for education discussion, Tuesday’s school community meeting took on the feel of a political roundtable as teacher topics sometimes turned into Democrat-Republican debates.
Hosted by Superintendent of Schools Daniel Fishbein and the Board of Education, the open session was meant to touch on education issues like teacher tenure reform, charter schools, vouchers and school funding and state aid. While useful comments and insight were offered to more than 100 residents in attendance, the guest speakers often used the “P” word.
“I don’t want to make this too political, but it really is political,” said Assemblyman David Russo (R-Midland Park) as he and Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne) spent most of the meeting tackling the tenure reform debate.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/139072974_Assemblymen_discuss_hot-button_education_issues.html
>By LINDY WASHBURN, STAFF WRITER
The governor restored $32 million to charity care funding for hospitals in Tuesday’s budget compromise, but executives at some hospitals say they’ll still be hurt by a budget that drastically reduces what they received last year.
The revised budget will include $604 million for care that hospitals provide the indigent, a drop of 15.5 percent from last year. Overall, hospitals statewide provided $946 million in charity care in 2007.
“I just don’t see how some of our hospitals will survive these cuts,” said Betsy Ryan, president of the New Jersey Hospital Association. “The needs of our charity care patients vastly outweigh the level of state support.”
Seven hospitals including Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, Barnert Hospital in Paterson, and PBI Regional Medical Center in Passaic have closed in the last 18 months. Ryan predicted more would fail with the cuts.
For hospitals that had seen their state payments for charity care “zeroed out” in Corzine’s initial proposal, the compromise offered a slight improvement: 10 cents for every dollar of charity care documented last year. But that figure still falls millions short of what many hospitals say they need.
While Englewood Hospital and Medical Center went from getting nothing in the proposed budget to $831,500 under the compromise, that is a far cry from the $8.3 million in charity care it provided last year. The hospital will take the biggest hit in Bergen County, with a loss of $2.6 million over last year.
“It’s drastic,” said Michael Pietrowicz, Englewood’s vice president. “It’s going to significantly impact services.”
Others expecting to receive 10 cents on the dollar for charity care costs are Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Chilton Memorial Hospital in the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock.
“To take more than $100 million out of the system at a time when all the hospitals are in a very strained financial environment doesn’t make sense,” said Michael Maron, president of Holy Name. His hospital will receive less than half a million dollars for care that cost $4.6 million last year.
Hackensack University Medical Center saw its fortunes improve with the budget compromise, as its projected cuts were eliminated. It is now slated to receive $14.6 million for charity care costs tallied last year at $32 million. The total includes $3.4 million for training medical residents.
Hackensack plans to turn many of its clinics over to North Hudson Community Action Corp. this summer, and it is not known how that will affect its reimbursement level.
St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center also will see its funding restored to this year’s level. It will receive 90 cents on the dollar for charity care costs documented last year at $64 million.
St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic saw a dramatic increase under the compromise. It is now projected to receive $12 million, compared with $2.6 million in Corzine’s initial proposal. It is the sole hospital in that city, following the closure of PBI.
A complicated formula devised in the compromise establishes “ceilings” and “floors,” so that funding at individual hospitals will not swing widely from last year. That capped Bergen Regional Medical Center’s reimbursement, for example, at about $28 million, trimming the $4.2 million increase it had expected to about $1.5 million, under the hospital association’s projections.
A spokeswoman for Bergen Regional, Donnalee Corrieri, said, “Until the final budget is presented and approved, we can only be hopeful that it will reflect the high percentage of charity care that we provide here.”
Similarly, Palisades General Hospital in North Bergen will see an increase in its charity care funding, but it will not keep up with the increase in charity care it provides, said its chief executive.
“The state requires us to take care of patients, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Bruce Markowitz, the Palisades president. “There should be an obligation on the state to pay for it.”
***
By the numbers
Charity-care funding for North Jersey hospitals, under the proposed budget compromise:
Hospital Projected Cents
charity care on the dollar**
Bergen Regional* $26,916,692 75
St. Joseph’s Regional* 57,315,937 90
St. Mary’s Hospital 12,065,241 60
Palisades Medical Center 5,637,644 60
Hackensack* 11,184,217 35
St. Joseph’s Wayne 945,570 42
Holy Name Hospital 458,542 10
Englewood 831,510 10
Valley Hospital 386,005 10
*Hospital will receive additional state funding for graduate- medical education.**Cents on the dollar compares projected reimbursement to actual charity care provided in 2007, calculated at Medicaid rates.
Sources: New Jersey Hospital Association, unofficial projections
***
E-mail: washburn@northjersey.com
(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Story from REDORBIT NEWS:
>Wednesday, June 11, 2008BY ALFRED POSAMENTIERThe approach taken by the reformists is a nice form of enrichment, but it does not replace the need to teach children basic arithmetic skills.
FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS, parents and educators in this country seemed to be obsessed with the conflict about the best way to teach mathematics – particularly in the elementary grades.
This conflict, known nationally as “the math wars,” has recently flared up again in Wayne and Ridgewood, where the school system has been using a “reform program,” one that stresses arithmetic-concept understanding over algorithm skills.
The educational ideas that form the basis for this approach to teaching elementary mathematics are good and have their place on the instructional stage. Most math-savvy adults would agree that children should be exposed to these ideas, largely because they give students some useful quantitative insights.
However, when we adults look at this approach, we do so with a well-established arsenal of arithmetic skills; that is, we are thoroughly familiar with algorithms for the basic arithmetic operations, and we have many “number facts” solidly memorized.
Surely, from this vantage point, the approach taken by the reformists is a nice form of enrichment. But it does not replace the need to teach children basic arithmetic skills.
It is incumbent upon towns such as Wayne and Ridgewood to look at mathematics education from the vantage point of the learner who must get facility with arithmetic tools before, or while, being exposed to discovering quantitative patterns.
Familiarity with numbers
For example, if asked to multiply 25 x 28, some adults would say that this is equivalent to (25 x 4) x 7 = 100 x 7 = 700, or they might say 25 x 28 = (25 x 30) – (25 x 2) = 750 – 50 = 700, or other such combinations. However, we already know how to use an algorithm to multiply 28 x 25 directly. This sort of number facility might be less useful when multiplying 63 x 27, where the algorithm would be more desirable.
There is a school of thought among reformers that with today’s technology, arithmetic skills are less important. Yet, this position is taken by those who take their own arithmetic skills for granted.
As students gradually increase their quantitative talents – something we always enhance throughout our lives – they rely increasingly on the calculator, discounting their reliance on their now-well-ingrained arithmetic skill. They look at nifty number patterns and relationships and marvel at alternative ways of doing simple calculations based on these relationships.
Educators who discount their own arithmetic facility in making recommendations to others run the risk of providing inappropriate suggestions.
We constantly denigrate our own educational system – particularly when it comes to learning mathematics. We look overseas to other countries that seem to show better results on standardized testing. All too often, these tests are run on different types of populations and under different circumstances in different cultures, all of which clearly affect the outcome and render it inappropriate as a comparison.
Interestingly, many of these countries to whom we draw comparisons look to the United States as the educational paradigm to follow. This history of mathematics education of the past 50 years has been one of alternating fads, where we tend to go from one extreme to another, each time retaining some small particles from each extreme.
Aiming for the middle ground
We are once again at a point where the middle ground should be the goal.
Students must master arithmetic algorithms and as many number facts as they can, and then investigate number relationships and patterns, many of which they should be guided to discover on their own for a more genuine understanding.
The towns of Wayne and Ridgewood, which seem to have brought this issue to the surface through parental discontent, could serve to model these alternative forms of arithmetic calculation as mathematical enrichment, but only after students have attained a solid command of arithmetic, even if that is a somewhat traditional approach.
There is nothing wrong with a somewhat traditional approach. Quite the contrary, it is surely time-tested.
Alfred Posamentier of River Vale is dean of the School of Education at City College of New York and co-author of “Progress in Mathematics.”
