>New Jersey Fiscal Crisis: There are multiple problems with the current system:
1. We have to pay for our own schools plus subsidize the massive state payments to the Abbott disctricts. I’d love to see an estimate of how much of Ridgewood’s tax money get sent each year to the Abbott districts.
2. Our teachers do not pay for enough of their healthcare costs and retirement costs. Public sector retirement plans should be transitioned to 401Ks.
3. The retirement age is too low. It should be at least 60. We are funding 25+ years of reitrement for someone who only worked for 30 years. The math doesn’t work.
4. We have too many non-teachers (administrators, vice principals, secretaries).
5. Special Ed spending is out of control and needs to be reformed at the state level. My understanding is that we spend over 20% of our BOE budget on special ed in one way or another.
6. Class sizes should be increased modestly, from the current 20 to 25. We had 25-30 per class when I was a child and did just fine.
7. We should have differential wages for teachers according to subject matter taught. It is stupid that we pay gym teachers as much as math and science teachers.
8. We should give senior citizens a break on property taxes. Every time a senior who sells a house to a family with kids, it drives our school costs up even more.
9. We should use redistricting more actively to rebalance the school enrollments. We are paying millions of dollars to expand Willard and Ridge, when we could have just shifted the boundary lines a few blocks and put more kids into Orchard.
10. The BOE needs to get serious with the upcoming teachers contract. A wage freeze with benefit givebacks would be a good place to start. Encourage teachers to use their spouses’ healthcare benefits by making ours less attractive. Or, give cash payment in exchange for a teacher using their spous’s benefits.
