> ‘Islamist Firster’ president not what he claimed By Charles Hurt-The Washington Times
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
GOLAN HEIGHTS — Surveying the live minefields, cratered roads and mortar-pocked concrete buildings along the border here between Syria and Israel, it is hard not to be reminded of the historic and monumental disappointment President Obama has been.
When he was campaigning to become the most powerful man in the last standing superpower on Earth, he spoke passionately about changing the world, restoring America’s greatness and bringing more peace and fairness to everyone.
>‘Hybrid’ charters will meld online lessons with conventional instruction
A great deal was made of the Christie administration’s last round of charter school approvals, and the lack of any suburban charters on the list.
But the urban ones that were approved are interesting in themselves, including two in Trenton and Newark that are trying a new model of education, mixing online learning with face-to-face instruction in a setting unlike any other in the state.
The person making the pitch is Ben Rayer, a self-described education “entrepreneur” out of Philadelphia who won approval to bring the new model to two of New Jersey’s toughest cities. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
>DANIEL FISHBEIN: Individuality at every level Thursday, January 26, 2012 By DANIEL FISHBEIN COLUMNIST
Sometimes families who move into the village are surprised when I tell them they are welcome to enroll their school-age children, even if it is in the middle of the year. When this happens I am both equally surprised and also reminded of the many aspects of public education that we take for granted, including the fact that everyone is welcome and school-age students are accepted independent of when they arrive in town or whether or not they have learning issues.
Legislation ensures the basic tenet that all children have the right to a public education, and as a public school system, the Ridgewood district operates according to the corresponding, and large, body of federal and state laws. But the Ridgewood district is unique because it dares to ascribe to the notion that the highest educational standards should be implemented alongside that legislation.
This vision of excellence has long been established as a core value of a Ridgewood education. I am fortunate to lead such a great public school district in a community that values this highest level of comprehensive education for all students. As part of that vision of excellence, the Ridgewood Public Schools is committed to celebrating all of our students and the individuality of each school, at every level.
>36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes Andrew Malcolm Political News & Commentary
How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their “fair share” of taxes.
Because how unfair — indeed, un-American — it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet’s secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.
Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.
A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.
Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.
Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.
>5 RHS students were inducted last month into the high school’s new Donahue Fellowship program.
RHS music students Catherine Janson (’15), Johnny DeCesare (’15), Matthew Casale (’14), Miranda Canilang (’13), and Trey Shore (’12) were inducted last month into the high school’s new Donahue Fellowship program, honoring the life and memory of 2003 RHS grad Connor Donohue. The Fellows were selected based on their love of music, motivation to study music seriously, and willingness to serve as a mentor and role model to other musicians. Acceptance into the Fellowship includes weekly private music lessons, monthly music seminars with a professional musician, master classes with faculty at local universities, and opportunities to attend concerts in the area.
The Fellowship was established by RHS alumni Colin Mead (’03), Val Allevi (’02), MichaelAaron Flicker (’01), Director of Bands Jeffrey Haas, and is currently led by Alison Crossley (’01). The Fellowship is a recognized non-profit organization and operates solely on fundraising and donations. Donations can be sent to: Donohue Fellowship c/o Valerie Allevi, 411A Gregory Avenue, Weehawken, NJ 07086. Checks should be made payable to RHS Band Council Alumni. Any questions about the Fellowship can be sent to [email protected]
I’m about to use a dirty word. It’s the “M” word. Not everyone dislikes the word. In fact, the “M” word is a word the President and others on the Left are quite fond of. So what is the word? Mandate – the antithesis of freedom. Compulsion, force, coercion, and requirement, are all common synonyms of the “M” word. Obama and his allies quite simply love to mandate.
To name a few Obama mandates: Obamacare mandates that all Americans carry health insurance by 2014 or face a stiff penalty. The Dodd-Frank financial industry overhaul, through the controversial Volcker Rule,mandates that by July of this year certain banks cannot buy and sell securities for their own benefit. In the name of energy efficiency, through a special office of the Department of Energy, the Administration mandates what kind of appliances the American people can buy for their homes. Obama has mandated that the cars Americansbuy must achieve 56 mpg, i.e., fully electric powered engines, by 2025. Also in the name of energy efficiency,Obama has mandated that we can only buy a certain type of mercury-filled light bulb.
The reason why the “M” word comes so easy to the President and others on the Left, is that they are starting from a very different point. The Left claim that American principles include fairness, equal opportunity, and equal responsibility for all. Now I have read the Declaration of Independence, and I have read the Constitution,and I have read the Federalist Papers, and I simply cannot find these so-called “principles” in any of these documents. What I found are words like freedom, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and natural-born rights. These are America’s founding principles.
Besides trampling our natural-born freedoms, disregarding the Constitution, and treating the American people like we are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, mandates like these also have significant negative economic consequences.
Many of these mandates increase the cost of doing business. For instance, the rules and regulations imposed by President Obama alone have increased the cost of doing business in this country by tens of billions of dollars.If business can afford to, they will pass along the increases to their customers as higher prices – like a hiddentax increase. They may also sell fewer goods or services, or they will lay off, or simply not hire more workers. What ever the consequence, mandates like those favored by the Left have significantly negative effects on the U.S. economy.
Now, the Obama Administration is imposing a new mandate: as part of Obamacare regulations the President is mandating most health plans to fully cover contraception without co-payments or deductibles.
The new rule will not affect government-administered, i.e., publicly funded, health care. Those on public assistance already have their birth control fully subsidized. Instead, private health plans will now be required to provide birth control to all their participants, including those who would have already been on birth control with or without the mandate. So, guess what? Those of us who have health insurance will soon be paying higher monthly premiums to subsidize the cost of birth control and a laundry list of other family planning items. After all, the manufacturers of these products are not going to provide them for free. (They cost millionsto manufacture, not to mention the significant research and development costs that go into developing many of these products, and let’s face it, there is nothing wrong with maximizing profits.) And the health insurers who pay for them are not going to just eat the cost. They are going to pass them along to their customers, i.e.,premium-paying Americans – folks like you and me who have health insurance and pay premiums out of our own pockets.
The government’s basis for the new mandate is to reduce the downstream healthcare costs associated with unwanted pregnancies. Putting the moral issues against the mandate, which are significant, aside, the government’s cost-benefit analysis appears to be seriously flawed.
The government, not surprisingly, is overstating the benefit associated with the new mandate. For instance, the number of unintended pregnancies in the U.S. per year covered by the mandate is not as high as the government would have us believe. In fact, although the government claims millions will annually benefit from the mandate, no more than 500,000 unwanted pregnancies would be covered by it. Furthermore, no one is claiming, I’m sure,that the new mandate will motivate the use of birth control in all of these cases or that birth control will preventunintended pregnancies 100% of the time.
And the costs associated with the mandate will likely be higher than the government anticipates. Indeed, those who currently have at least a portion of their birth control covered by their insurance will now have 100% of the cost covered. And some of those not currently on birth control – and not counted as an unwanted pregnancy because they didn’t get pregnant – when offered a free lunch may start using a contraceptive. It will cost insurance companies more to fully cover birth control. These increased costs will simply be passed along ashigher premiums. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Assuming the mandate is even authorized by the Constitution, which I submit it is not, the benefit to society should significantly outweigh the increased costs in order to justify the invasion of our freedom. Once again, it does not.
Mandates are a dirty word not only because they destroy our freedom and keep us under the heavy hand of the nanny state, but they also are invidious because they often impose tax increases on the American people without anyone noticing or batting an eye.
Ian Linker is an attorney living in Ridgewood, New Jersey and is a former Republican candidate for the U.S.Senate from New Jersey.
>NEW DATE: Assemblymen Scott Rumana and David Russo will speak at the Education Center on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:30 p.m
Assemblymen Scott Rumana and David Russo will speak at the Education Center on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to come to 49 Cottage Place, floor 3, to hear them address hot education topics in the Legislature at this time.
Topics to be discussed include: Teacher Tenure Reform Charter Schools Vouchers School Funding School State Aid
Please rsvp to Kathy Kiedaisch in the Superintendent’s Office at [email protected] or 201-670-2700, ext. 10530.
8 N.J. charter schools approved to open in Camden, Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, Vineland-Millville
Eight new charter schools that would open in September in Camden, Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, and
Millville-Vineland have been approved by the state Department of Education.
In Camden, the Charter School for Global Leadership would educate 600 children in grades 9 to 12, the City Invincible Charter School would enroll 600 children in grades K to 8, and the Hope Community Charter School would take 330 children for grades K to 4. (Hester, New Jersey Newsroom)
January Promotion offers FREE ONE WEEK Trial Membership.
Prospective members are invited to sign up for a free one-week trial memebership to sample virtually all that the two organizations have to offer.
This unique promotion offers facility-wide access to YMCA/YWCA programming, including fitness, sports, enrichment classes for children, youth, adults, and seniors; lap swimming in two heated indoor pools; and access to the Bolger Fitness Center’s cardio and strength equipment and group exercise classes. (Participants must be 13 and older to use the YMCA Strenght Training Facility and 16 and older to access the BFC.)
Complimentary Trial Membership Passes are available to first-time members only from January 1 throught 31. For details or to sign up for a free week, call 201-444-5600 x313 or x 341. Visit the YM/YW at 112 Oak Street Ridgewood, NJ 0745
>Herald News: Show patience with bullying law FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2012 HERALD NEWS
UST five months into one of the toughest anti-bullying laws in the nation, some schools want out.
Onerous paperwork, long hours and cost are several reasons cited by the Ridgewood and River Vale school districts, which are supporting a Warren County school district’s move to have the law overturned.
By all accounts the new requirements are overly time-consuming. Since time also means money, the hit taken by school budgets can be far more than just the cost of running anti-bullying programs. The law didn’t come with any extra funding, however, and schools are bucking what they see as yet another unfunded mandate.
Their distress is understandable, especially since their spending is now restricted by the new 2 percent property tax cap. But not even half a year has elapsed since the law went into effect, and it is simply too early to throw it out entirely. The wiser course is to wait out the year, and then make specific, data-driven suggestions to lawmakers about the best ways to adjust the legislation.
>Comparing Ridgewood High School to other high schools in the area is just wrong. RHS should always be looking to the top HS in the country to continue giving our students the best education
Rethinking Advanced Placement THE NEW A.P. Caroline Brown, an A.P. student at the Bancroft School in Worcester, Mass. By CHRISTOPHER DREW Published: January 7, 2011
WHEN Joan Carlson started teaching high school biology more than 30 years ago, the Advanced Placement textbook was daunting enough, at 36 chapters and 870 pages. But as an explosion of research into cells and genes reshapes our sense of how life evolves, the flood of new material has been staggering. Mrs. Carlson’s A.P. class in Worcester, Mass., now confronts a book with 56 chapters and 1,400 pages, along with a profusion of animated videos and Web-based aids that supplement the text.
And what fuels the panic is that nearly every tongue-twisting term and microscopic fact is fair game for the year-end test that decides who will receive college credit for the course.
>The fact that anyone is looking for a raise in this environment is absurd
The teachers have every right not to participate as it is purely an optional event. However, it is pretty ironic and very indicative how ignorant they are as a group that they have chosen to boycott a long standing event run by the HSA to raise funds to fund programs and assistance FOR THEM! If I ran the HSA I would absolutely refuse the $500 contribution and explain to them they’re going to need the money when the lay-offs begin because there is not a snowball’s chance in hell the budget will pass this year.
The world is different. Nobody wants to hear bad news but things have changed and they are not going to get better for a very long time despite what the Gov’t is trying to spin. We are in a deflationary environment. Housing prices continue to decline, wages continue to decline, unemployment remains high, taxes continue to rise as no one wants to cut programs. Our area is very close to Wall Street and Wall Street is in big trouble. Jobs are being cut, bonuses are going to be non-existent for the foreseeable future and that is going to affect Ridgewood in a big way. Every $1.5 million dollar house that sells for $850,000 makes every $600,000 house worth $450,000 etc, etc….and that is not good for any of us.
Teachers work hard, they are responsible for our most precious assets, our children. They deserve to be compensated and they should be compensated well as they provide an invaluable service. That being said; the fact that anyone is looking for a raise in this environment is absurd. I laid off people in 2011 and will be laying off more in 2012. I have people who are thrilled that they still have a job. They are not worried about a pay increase or a bonus. They are worried about being unemployed.
It is that fear that has made the teaching profession with tenure such an emotional topic for those in the private sector. We don’t have tenure. We don’t have seniority raises built into our contracts. We don’t have pension plans and health plans for life. Yes, in the good times we have the possibility, more likely the probability to make more money than a teacher but in the bad times we have a tremendous more amount of risk and that is risk that is very real right now and will continue to be for an extended period of time.
The teachers’ union has been a very powerful force over the years because they have always been able to leverage “the children” against BOE’s. Those days are over. We’ve all become very good at saying “no” to our children the last couple of years and we’re going to get even better at it in the future as we all have less and less money for “things.” We’re also going to get very good at saying “no” to tax raises, school budgets, and expenditures on fire trucks and such. Our kids will do fine without Advanced Placement Chinese, Foods Classes and a whole host of the other liberal arts education classes that have built up over the years at RHS as we’re going to realize that not only are they no longer affordable, they weren’t of much value to begin with.
The last group to understand this will be the teachers and administrators because they are just too close to it to see how things are changing and they are too insulated by the current structure to feel it. But they will come to understand it and they will come to feel it when the schools are forced to downsize and “do more with less” just like the rest of us. And I don’t mean just losing an aide for two days a week. I mean really downsizing and streamlining the entire operation. It is going to happen, it is inevitable
A bill that would provide first aid to the state’s emergency medical services was conditionally vetoed on Monday by Gov. Chris Christie. The measure would require licenses and criminal background checks for all EMS workers and seeks to improve 911 care and response times.
Sen. Joseph F. Vitale (D-Middlesex), incoming chairman of the Senate’s health committee, let the measure expire and said lawmakers would retool it in the new session. “I think we’re almost there,” Vitale said. (Fitzgerald, NJ Spotlight)
