The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
file photo by Boyd Loving
by Alejandro J Ramos
Cliffside Park NJ, Will snow days be a desire of the past? The year 2020 has been like nothing we have ever seen before. It has been the year of struggle, uncertainty, and fear. In this time of unprecedented events, aside from small businesses, education has been severely impacted. I am a college student that attends a public institution here in New Jersey. Results from the pandemic, like budget cuts, have just been unfathomable.
“Even if we agree that teachers work as much as the average worker, they are only working 10 months out of the year and those are 6 hour days, not 8 hour days.
And lets not talk about “teacher prep time” done before and after their 6 hour day, that is canceled out by the “overtime” done by the average worker before and after their 8 hour day.”
Continue reading Reader Comments of Teacher Pay “…but they continue to whine”
photo by Boyd Loving
“Public unions gotta go. Unionizing against the public is a travesty. Ppl turned a blind eye while good times rolled, but we’re in a right spot now. And the decade of transformation has just started!
Expect fewer white collar jobs, normalization if demand for IT specialists and entertainers, high inflation and much higher taxes on top earners as well as property owners.
Covid merely accelerated the existing trend. With these issues, last thing taxpayers can afford is subsidize 20th century style “public servants.” Especially those who teach their children how to hate their own family and nation.”
“residents here in Ridgewood know more about what happens than the eggheads at the BOE & REA who theorize on how to control thoughts as they trade bon mots at their cocktail parties. Should corona last for the long run, the intelligentsia and NJEA unions will be toast as they cling to their days gone by like the Luddites they are. I pity the truly great teachers in the district who have been lumped into the mix with the Marxists.”
“Such excellent commentary from fair minded people calling out Fishbien and the REA for what they truly are… have never been”doing it for the children” as they tell you every other second but just concerned for their over the top pay and how to continue getting paid for half an effort..the teacher as hero myth had truly been debunked forever now…”Sorry Billy, Mrs Jones doesn’t really care if she ever sees you again” the children will quickly learn this and remember for their lives..no memories of nice empathetic classroom leaders just a money grabbing union worker…disgraceful.
How NOT ONE teacher feels it in their soul that this set up is unfair to the parents and taxpayers of Ridgewood belies their collective greed and union fueled expectations of more more more…NOT ONE voice calling for some sort of give back to the generous community during these highly stressful family conditions is unconscionable and sad.”
“In a normal society, this virus would be handled by having the sick or vulnerable stay home for as long as necessary, while encouraging the young and healthy to go about normally with life. Teachers that are sickly could stay home and go on unemployment like everyone else in the country. Young college grads with education degrees can temporarily Take their place. Very simple. How are parents that are not teachers or other government employees supposed to work and feed their families if they have to stay home and care for their children who are doing remote learning? This point is rarely brought up. How have day care centers and summer camps in NJ been open since June, but schools cannot reopen? Why are day Care workers and summer camp workers lives valued less than teachers lives? I drove by the Ridgewood YMCA parking lot last week and witnessed large numbers of children, of various ages, over the age of two years old, standing very close together and not wearing masks. Why is this permitted when masks are required in NJ outdoors when not social distancing?
Locking down everyone is actually making everyone more sickly in mind, body and soul. Why is it that the government and their followers only care about people sick or dying from covid19, but not from any other cause, like the annual flu, being killed in riots, or from not being able to receive necessary medical treatment? Yes there is a pandemic, however, like it or not, the fact is that less than 0.5 percent of all people will die from it. It is obvious that the pandemic has become a convenient, catch all excuse, which is being massively abused. This is to the detriment of all humanity, the effects of which will be ever lasting. Wake up people! Please please start thinking for yourselves and you will realize what is actually going on here. Only when teachers and all government employees are treated the same and feel the same pain as small business owners have, during this pandemic, will people actually see the truth, be on the same team and be able, willing and ready to work together.”
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The following is an excerpt from a letter dated Monday, August 17 from Ridgewood District Superintendent Fishbein to district parents (Superintendent Fishbein appears to be hinting that he will change plans and ask the state to authorize the Ridgewood District to resume instruction this fall via so-called “Remote Learning” only, delaying an actual physical return of students to their schools until later in the school year):
Continue reading Superintendent Fishbein Hinting at a Change Plans ?
“I’ve seen some of those kids in the village and the park. Having been a misbehaving kid myself (and grown up ok), I’m less troubled by the above story. Kids of all stripes do silly stuff. They need their asses kicked to remind them who’s in charge. I do wholeheartedly agree on 2 points:
1. schools, even good ones like RDWD, need to tone down the preaching. Marxist BS doesn’t work and has no place in school. Focus on academics.
2. Schools need to open full time come fall. The union’s actions are disgraceful, targeting kids on a pretext of “safety.” What a joke. Who do they think they are? I don’t see grocery store cashiers protesting for “safety” even though they are way more exposed. Ditto for truck drivers who bring our food, amazon delivery, etc etc. I’ve lost any respect for the Union after this. The BOE need to start taking action on behalf of taxpayers. This is ridiculous. I’ve just received the fall schedule promo presentation from the school. A silly schedule that follows no logic and a ton of marketing material, inc video interviews. Our educators fancy themselves college professors or Fortune 500 salespeople, with all that pomp. They are not. They are paid a ton of money to deliver basic education to young kids. This entails being with kids! Not sitting at home on zoom. The parents need to wake up to the fact that they are being had.”
“I’m torn about these statistics. On the one hand, kids are bound to associate closely, and so have high risk of infection.
On the other hand, not sending them to school for what will be seven months in September, is clearly harmful to their development.”
Continue reading Reader says , “The current lack of schooling is killing off the children’s futures”
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, in a change of policy Governor Phil Murphy has decided School Districts that cannot meet state Department of Education standards will have the option of going completely remote. The governor’s decision largely leaves the issue in the hands of local districts as New Jersey continues to grapple with the COVID-19 crisis.
“Technically, when this problem of taxpayers paying to educate pre-schoolers at a rather substantial financial loss came up, it was also illegal for a school district to offer a pre-school taking away from public providers. This has been pussy footed around–we all know about the board going to court to prevent retiring the old members at the appropriate time–and this apparently was another of their boon doggles. To top it off, they kicked out the profitable to us private school that had been using the facility to allow us to take losses with them gone. Is it just me, or does something smell about this whole deal?”
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood N J, a reader stated that “Residents should not be supplementing other residents daycare obligations at ITDP. Any and all expenses of ITDP should be covered by tuition paid by the users, not from our school taxes. Diverting money to ITDP means less money for K-12. I paid day care for years; so should ITDP parents.”
At the request of the Board, Ms. Kelly gave a presentation on the Infant Toddler Development Program. The committee members, Ms. Brogan and Mr. Dani, met with Ms. Kelly and Dr. Fishbein to compile and discuss questions from the community and Board members, upon which Ms. Kelly conducted an analysis of the program. After providing a brief history of the program, Ms. Kelly reviewed the questions and provided responses. These questions and responses can be viewed on the PDF of the presentation.
Continue reading Ridgewood Infant Toddler Development Program
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Due to the Governor’s Executive Order 104 citing the CDC’s recommendation for cancellation or postponement of gatherings of fifty or more people, the Regular meeting will be held utilizing videoconferencing.
“The conditions the NJEA are on the verge of forcing the state to impose on life in the public schools are so draconian as to cause normal parents to recoil in horror. This is intentional. The NJEA has been working overtime to make sure the state offers all parents the option of keeping their children at home indefinitely from the start of the school year based on generalized COVID-19 fears and anxiety. The one-two punch routine is completed by the NJEA pushing school re-opening guidelines that are so drastic as to cause parents to conclude that the schools will end up becoming glorified detention centers or penitentiaries. The NJEA figures most parents love their children too much to force them to endure the degrading and dehumanizing treatment the public schools are certain to have in store for them.”
photo by Boyd Loving
“The NJEA and the political puppet string-pullers that control it and every other state teacher’s union in this country must have determined that collective coordinated student walkouts and protests in favor of all things BLM and AntiFa would be too hard to instigate and organize in time to effect the November national election. So the decision is being taken in each individual state to convert the student population into a ready supply to fuel flash mobs. The school districts will be forced to keep the little shock troops at home with mommy and daddy who will be able to drive them to wherever they are needed at the drop of a tweet.”
