Not a single no vote. Despite lobbying against the three pension reform bills that passed the senate today, the public workers’ unions could not convince a single senator to vote against any of them. Three senators abstained, and a fourth was absent. Does that reflect waning influence of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents 60,000 public workers in New Jersey? (Friedman, PolitickerNJ)
> Village of Ridgewood has Firefighter Applications for career Firefighters available in the Village Clerk’s Office. The last date for filing applications with the New Jersey Civil Service Commission is March 31, 2010.
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. “As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent,” he wrote James Madison, “it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles.”
Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and body of knowledge requisite for an 18th century Virginia gentleman.
He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.
From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited by British merchants and hampered by British regulations. As the quarrel with the mother country grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.
When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling years.
He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, “we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn.” Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies–he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.
He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.
To his disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired at the end of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances.
Washington enjoyed less than three years of retirement at Mount Vernon, for he died of a throat infection December 14, 1799. For months the Nation mourned him.
>Its funny but every time someone attempts to debate anything in education ,no matter what it is there always an outpouring from “teachers” and their supporters talking about how “hard” they work and how little they get paid . There are close to 100 comments from “teachers” complaining about there pay or about how the Village of Ridgewood taxpayers who spend over $80 million dollars a year on the Ridgewood School System show an “uncanny lack of support” . Really we suggest if you have any doubts about that support try getting the $80 million from someone else , then maybe you may come to realise how much money that really is and what an enormous sacrifice parents make to live in this town .
We have no doubt that there are many well qualified ,well meaning and hard working teachers out there looking out for the kids, while others are just marking time . We find it very disturbing but the very fact that virtually every comment has turned into a “teacher ” ranting about their pay lends credibility to to all the critics of public education.
Let us be clear and remind everyone once again education is about the students ,end of story ! Its not out educators and their minions ,the school construction authority , administrators or any other form of ego aggrandisement ! Eduction is not about teachers,salaries,days off ,perks, summer vacations ,pensions, or tenure its about the kids !
>What is the mortgage interest rate outlook for the next 6 months: The Fed’s zero-percent short-term interest rate policy has been a primary force behind the steady downward progression of mortgage interest rates since mid-year 2008.
Last week Thursday, during a dinner speech, Fed Chairman Bernanke said the central bank must continue to prop up the economy for an extended period — but cannot do so indefinitely for fear of triggering a scary surge in inflation pressures. Bernanke is still talking about an extended period of low short-term interest rates but at the same time he is reminding market participants that the Fed is moving ever closer to the start of the tightening cycle. This is not a new wrinkle in his monetary policy thinking — the Fed Chairman has fostered these ideas publically many times before.
Suddenly the big question mortgage investors are trying to frame an answer to is “how does the Fed define the word “closer”?
There are those who argue the Fed will begin pushing short-term interest rates higher as soon as the unemployment rate peaks at the end of this year or in the early part of 2010. A second group of analysts and market participants think a series of interest rate hikes from the Fed is a lot further off. They argue Fed Chairman Bernanke is an expert on the Great Depression – which means he clearly knows the economy slipped back into a disastrous recession in 1937-1938 primarily because the government started cutting back on emergency stimulus programs prematurely — driven by the mistaken belief the worst of the economic catastrophe was over.
I believe both camps are probably right. A short-term interest rate tightening cycle from the Fed will not likely begin until the nation’s employment picture brightens noticeably – and even then Bernanke and his fellow central bankers will probably choose to give the economy a “running start” before committing to an extended round of rate hikes intended to head-off the prospect of runaway inflation.
Scott Scarpelli Sr Loan Manager Office 201-335-3517 Cell 201-841-5897 Efax 201-426-2324
>You don’t need to have spent a day doing another person’s job to judge their compensation. That’s not how corporate America works, and that’s not how taxpayer-funded jobs should work, either.
Rupert Murdoch doesn’t have to have ever been a news anchor to judge the job that his news anchors are doing. The ratings and feedback measure that, along with his opinion, regardless of how hard the news anchors work or say they work.
As a parent, you don’t have to have been a teacher to be unhappy with the job teachers as a whole are doing.
Yes, there are some good teachers who go above and beyond, inspire children, and do an excellent job for little recognition.
But those are few and far between. It seems like some teachers here are trying to reframe this into, “there were a few bad apples, but the rest of all did a great job.”
That’s not true, and really, what parents feel about the quality of education their children are getting is more important than the self-report of someone who wants more money.
And how hard you work isn’t the sole determinant of the quality of your work. A salesman could work 80 hours and week and never make a sale. Another salesman might work 20 hours a week and make more sales than anyone else.
Selling is not the same as teaching, but the principle is the same. You could be working extremely hard…doesn’t mean you’re doing a good job.
>As one of the supposed “bashers,” let me state that the teachers I have encountered and am personal friends with have been for the most part dedicated, hard working and professional. I would add extremely patient (to deal with unruly kids and the parents who constantly hover over teachers’ shoulders).
All these nice things aside, there is a gigantic disconnect between what teachers earn in terms of salary and benefits (pensions, healthcare) relative to 1) what the taxpayers can afford and 2) relative to what those working in the private sector earn (related to what taxpayers can afford).
This disconnect must be changed. I.e., teachers’ comp must come down. The main way to do this is to have teachers pay some or all of their healthcare benefits (like all private sector workers do), and to cut or even eliminate defined benefit pension plans.
Teachers can and should dislike this reality (I would if I were a teacher). But it doesn’t change the facts.
Also, the affection that many hold for their teachers of their youth is irrelevant. People in bad schools or poorly funded ones (Catholic schools) have similarly strong positive recollections of their teachers. We must correctly attribute why schools are “good” in terms of test scores, AP classes, college enrollment rates and all the other criteria conventionally used to make such determinations. It’s pretty clear: good schools is most closely correlated with kids’ innate intelligence, which is closely correlated with parental intelligence. “Good schools” = “good kids” = “good (intelligent) parents” — that’s at least 60% of the equation, folks. Teachers can influence this, no doubt, but their performance (good or bad) is a less important factor in the “good school” equation.
>Re: “As the original poster who everyone is replying to here: people on both sides of the issues raised are making points that, whether or not one agrees with them, are posted in a professional manner. Then you also have psychos like 1:16AM who seem to believe that someone who disagrees with them is insane if they express a viewpoint. I hope he/she gets good mental health services.
Ha Ha.
Honey – you are doing everything to prove that you are a bit unbalanced.
I was initially amused at your YELLLING RANT at the end of our original post. (You do know that ALL CAPS MEANS YELLING – but of course you do… you are an all knowing teacher)
You refer to parents and those who pay teachers salaries as “ARROGANT JERKS” who are incapable of performing your highly skilled job. “I KNOW THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN’T DO THE JOB WELL. THEY CAN’T DO IT THE WAY I’VE DONE IT” All the while delivering this tirade with a holier than thou attitude
I laugh because you discredited any valid points you were trying to make as you revealed your true self in your tirade in the last paragraph of your original post. It was really a bit unhinged and showed your disgust and distaste for anyone who disagreed with your position that teaching is a highly skilled difficult job that only a few can master and should be highly compensated.
I found it ironic.
And now you come back with and even more ironic response.
You lament that everyone is behaving professionally and then you most unprofessionally start name calling (Then you also have psychos like 1:16AM). You proceed to believe (wrongly I might add) that I was calling you “insane” since I disagreed with you (which I did not by the way) and was recommending that you take advantage of your mental health services. THEN, you turn around immediately and tell ME to seek out mental health services, because YOU believe I disagree with you! I think we know who the cuckoo-bird is here and her name is the OP.
I hope there is someone in the classroom to restrain you – or are you this cruel and vindictive to the students placed in your care you do not have the means or ability to defend themselves?
I initially recommended you go to seek mental health services tongue-in-cheek, however with your newest round of vitriol I am beginning to wonder if you really do have a screw loose. Your comments are really coming off as someone who is a bit unhinged. I am now more seriously concerned about how you behave in the classroom. Would you call a student who mouths off to you an arrogant jerk (this does seem to be a favorite phrase of yours) or would you resort to violence? No one can know for sure what will happen with someone who cannot take criticism and could potentially snap. I hope I don’t read about you in the papers one day, holed up in your classroom or on the school roof holding hostages.
At this point, I honestly think a little anger management therapy or self esteem therapy would do you a world of good. You have a good health plan and can’t get fired, so please take advantage of it.
Do it for the children.
And if you think I am way off base, consider this…
There are 22 responses in this thread – many of them are long and thoughtful posts. But you ignored those and chose only to identify yourself as the original poster and respond ONLY to me, because I questioned your lack of control.
Hmmmm… proving my point are we?
Let’s also not forget that I called you no names but you have a mouth like a gutter rat.
Employees in Ridgewood’s Village Hall had a scare on Wednesday after a hoax cleared the Violations Department for about two hours.
The Violations Department is where individuals send parking ticket payments and other fine payments. The department received a letter Wednesday that contained a separate envelope with the words “white powder” written on it, said Ridgewood Police Captain Tom Landers.
“When the violations clerk opened up the outer envelope, there was an inner paper envelope that just said in black letters ‘white powder,” Landers said.
The clerk did not open the inner envelope and she called the police immediately, at which point Ridgewood Police Sergeant Glenn Ender responded. He did not open the envelope, Landers said.
The police evacuated the Violations Bureau and called the Bergen County Hazmat Unit.
“They (officials with Bergen County Hazmat) examined the envelope, and found it to contain no powder or no substance whatsoever,” Landers said. “So it was a hoax.”
Landers said the envelope was turned over to the Ridgewood Detective Bureau for further investigation.
The government-school establishment has said the same thing for decades: Education is too important to leave to the competitive market. If we really want to help our kids, we must focus more resources on the government schools.
But despite this mantra, the focus is on something other than the kids. When The Washington Post asked George Parker, head of the Washington, D.C., teachers union, about the voucher program there, he said: “Parents are voting with their feet. … As kids continue leaving the system, we will lose teachers. Our very survival depends on having kids in D.C. schools so we’ll have teachers to represent.”
How revealing is that?
Since 1980, government spending on education, adjusted for inflation, has nearly doubled. But test scores have been flat for decades.
Today we spend a stunning $11,000 a year per student — more than $200,000 per classroom. It’s not working. So when will we permit competition and choice, which works great with everything else?
The people who test students internationally told us that two factors predict a country’s educational success: Do the schools have the autonomy to experiment, and do parents have a choice?
Parents care about their kids and want them to learn and succeed — even poor parents. Thousands line up hoping to get their kids into one of the few hundred lottery-assigned slots at Harlem Success Academy, a highly ranked charter school in New York City. Kids and parents cry when they lose.
Yet the establishment is against choice. The union demonstrated outside Harlem Success the first day of school. And President Obama killed Washington, D.C.’s voucher program.
This is typical of elitists, who believe that parents, especially poor ones, can’t make good choices about their kids’ education
full story https://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/education-too-important-for-a-government-monopoly.html
>Acting N.J. education commissioner hoping other savings can ward off cuts
Acting Education commissioner Bret Schundler told lawmakers Thursday his team hoped to keep state aid to schools steady next year despite warnings they should prepare for 15-percent cuts — just in case. “We’re working hard to see if we can achieve state aid that’s flat but we don’t know if it’s possible,” he told the Assembly Education Committee. “We’re going to try our best to see if we can achieve economies elsewhere in the state budget” to alleviate the pain for schools.
Many educators said they were distressed Wednesday after Schundler and Governor Christie said districts should anticipate possible 15-percent cuts when they prepared budgets this spring. Asked after Thursday’s hearing whether 15-percent cuts were the worst-case scenario, Schundler said “that would be precipitous to say. I wouldn’t say yes, I wouldn’t say no.” (Brody, The Record)
Doubling parking meter rates in Ridgewood did not double revenues, but other factors may have played a role in how the parking utility netted $34,000 in additional income over a five-month period, compared to the same time frame in 2008.
The Ridgewood News, through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, obtained parking utility revenue figures for the months from August to December 2008, when rates were 25 cents an hour to park at all meters in the village, and August to December 2009, when the Village Council changed the rates to 50 cents an hour.
The revenue totals for the 2008 period were $254,167.80, while the total for the last five months of 2009 were $288,622.28.
The biggest difference following the rate increase was the change in enforcement times. From 2008 and up to the time of the increase, parking meters were enforced Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. But after August 2009, the enforcement times changed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Another difference is that the village only enforced meters on Ridgewood’s streets on Saturdays, offering free parking in the municipal lots for that day.
Also, the village took over management of the Chestnut Street parking lot from a private vendor in October 2009, and that lot produced an additional $7,509 of parking revenue for the final three months of last year.
But the addition of the Chestnut Street parking lot revenue may have been offset by nearly six weeks of construction at the Prospect Street municipal lot in August and September of last year, when the village replaced curbs, sidewalks, light pole bases, decorative bricks and paved the lot’s surface. The East Ridgewood Avenue streetscape project, which lasted all summer, and work done by Ridgewood Water in the Central Business District (CBD) might also have affected parking revenues because parking in the area was periodically restricted during construction.
Village Manager Ken Gabbert explained in an e-mail that “the rate increase created greater revenue in each of the months following implementation,” but “the parking utility was not self-funding in 2009,” which was the goal of the increase.
Gabbert wrote that it cost $1,000,668 to run the parking utility last year.
“Any revenue/expense imbalance for the parking utility is immediately made up by the general fund of the village,” Gabbert wrote. “For 2009, the village payment is $168,000.”
When the council voted to raise the parking rates and change enforcement times last summer, it stipulated that it would revisit the matter after six months. Councilman Paul Aronsohn, who has long opposed the parking meter increase, said in an e-mail this week that he “strongly believed” the entire issue should be revisited.
“I still believe that parking lots should all be long-term and all be put back to their original rate of 25 cents per hour,” Aronsohn wrote. “This would provide much-needed and much-deserved relief to our commuters, and it would provide some relief to people who work or shop downtown.”
Aronsohn said he needed to better understand the “rationale and funding” for the utility.
“I’m still not satisfied that it provides a benefit to the village or that it is being used properly,” Aronsohn said.
Mayor David Pfund and Deputy Mayor Keith Killion did not return calls seeking comment for this article by press time.
More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.
Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel.
Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.
In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined “Old Hickory” to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington.
In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed “that to the victors belong the spoils. . . . “
Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be “so plain and simple” that offices should rotate among deserving applicants.
As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party–the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him.
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I.
Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command.
The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.
Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. “The bank,” Jackson told Martin Van Buren, “is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.
His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay.
Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff.
When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification.
In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his feet and exclaimed, “By the Eternal! I’ll smash them!” So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and succeeded to the Presidency when “Old Hickory” retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845.
The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure. However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November. Just 27% believe their own representative in Congress is the best person for the job.
Among voters under 40, 25% believe government has the consent of the governed. That compares to 19% of those ages 50 to 64 and 16% of the nation’s senior citizens.
>I’ve found all of this debate very intersting over the past few days. Please allow me to share my pespective.
I spent the beginning of my career in the Ridgewood Public Schools before moving to another affluent Bergen County school district.
While in Ridgewood, I worked with many gifted teachers. But, I also saw the arrogance of some of the staff and administration at work, and it was making the district weaker even then, and that was almost a decade ago. Sure, some of the teachers were catty and competitive types. I remember having great enthusiasm when I was there, in my first two years, and basically I was a threat in the eyes of a few of the teachers I worked with. I know that when I left, the parents in the students in the building felt a loss based on who replaced me. I don’t think Ridgewood has always hired well over the past few years.
Another part of the problem in Ridgewood is the administration. The Central Office group is a joke, moving through superintendents, although I can’t judge the current one, Fishbein, as I don’t know much about him. But how many dollars were wasted during the Porter years for those that remember those? Porter was brought in to change the philosophy of the district to a “standards based” approach. His philosophy was so out there he couldn’t so much as articulate it himself.
The district also brought in some horrible principals as the years passed. Several of the elementary schools today–with just a few exceptions–have horrible leaders at the helm. I personally saw one particular school ruined by a woman who is now a supt. elsewhere in the county after a longtime principal left. Friends experienced the same thing at some of the other elementary schools.
I didn’t find the parent community to be bad to work with at all. I found them to be very supportive. I had no complaints there. You had some jerks, but you have that everywhere.
People should really think about what they say when they bash the entire profession. In Ridgewood, I felt that the majority of the staff, despite some of the losers mentioned above (not by name), were dedicated teachers who wanted the best for their students.
Most teachers work hard to earn every single dime that we make. Take a look at salary scales. Where is it that we’re doing so well? After the first dozen years of teaching, one’s salary finally hits the range of professionals who do far less every day in some fields.
When people say don’t give teachers raises and take away benefits, do they realize the cost of this? If you want to attack school districts for crazy spending habits, look at how top heavy their administrations are.
You’re going to find bad teachers out there. They exist. And it’s a shame the union protects them, but we do. I know, I’ve been a rep for years. One of the things that is frustrating is having no choice but to defend certain bums. But the majority of the people I represent, I can proudly say, are true professionals, and it is an honor to represent them.
So, when teachers ask for a 4% raise and to keep benefits, don’t think that is so unreasonable. After taxes, and considering how the money is spread out on a salary guide, the average teacher may be lucky to see 2%. Now, add in paying for health benefits. And, where exactly would the raise be then?
It’s cool, and in style, to bash teachers right now. I understand how tough the job market is for people in other fields. But, here is my final thought: THE NEXT TIME SOME OF THE ARROGANT JERKS ON THIS BLOG WANT TO SAY HOW EASY TEACHING IS, AND THAT IT IS NOT A REAL JOB, I CHALLENGE THEM TO SPEND ONE DAY IN A TEACHER’S SHOES. JUST ONE DAY. THEN, IF THEY STILL FEEL THE WAY THEY DO, THAT WOULD BE FINE WITH ME. WHY DO I SAY THIS? BECA– USE I KNOW THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN’T DO THE JOB WELL. THEY CAN’T DO IT THE WAY I’VE DONE IT EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS, AND UP UNTIL THE DAY I RETIRE.
