Christie vs Buono Election Pits School Choice against the NJEA
November 4, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, One issue playing an very significant role just blow the surface to this gubernatorial election between Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic candidate rival for governor Barbara Buono is education reform .
So far the only people that seem keenly aware of this is the NJEA with its over the top support for Democratic candidate Barbara Buono . While the press has simply ignored the issue Bruono and the teachers union have campaigned vigoriously .
A comparison on educational positions between Republican Governor Christie and Democratic candidate for governor state Sen. Barbara Buono show a stark difference on educational policy.
According to the Bergen record Christie and Buono have nearly opposite views when it comes to education – especially on school funding, vouchers and preschool. Indeed, the governor has long sparred with the state’s largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, while Buono has been warmly supported by it.
Christie: The governor wants to give companies tax credits for helping low-income families pay for private tuitions. He argues children trapped in failing schools deserve better choices and competition will improve traditional district options.
He bolstered total state aid for education to a record $12.4 billion this year. But direct aid to districts, known as formula aid, is $7.85 billion – and some district leaders say they have barely climbed back to prerecession levels of state aid in the wake of cuts Christie imposed in 2010 during the fiscal crisis.
Christie increased funding for free preschool slots for poor urban children slightly this year but did not expand the program to more districts despite previous state plans to do so.
He championed a new law that made it harder for teachers to earn and keep tenure and required more rigorous teacher evaluations.
In higher education, Christie had opposed the so-called Dream Act, which would allow in-state tuition rates at public colleges for students who were brought here illegally as children. He recently said in a debate that he would revisit the issue.
Buono: The state senator is against vouchers (educational choice for the poor) , saying they drain precious resources from traditional public schools (failed Abbott schools) . She has endorsed having some quality charters as labs for innovation but says they have been overemphasized by Christie; she wants local voters to approve any new charters.
As an author of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 (Abbott Schools) , Buono says she wants to fully fund the formula; the state has not allocated as much as the formula requires for aid to districts. She said accomplishing that goal would need to be phased in. Christie has tried to revise the formula to slightly trim extra aid for at-risk children.
Buono also wants to expand public preschool, full-day kindergarten and after-school enrichment programs.
Buono supports the Dream Act. She has also pledged to reform the system that makes higher-education funding subject to the vagaries of the state budgeting process.
By anyone’s standard out side public education the Abbott School districts has been a very expensive colossal failure , and a prime reason property taxes are out of control making it absolutely essential for those looking to enhance educational opportunities to the poor to defeat the NJEA and Barbra Buono .
the above photo of poets (l to r) James Gwyn (MC for the event), Susanna Rich, and Ed Romond.
42 and 14: A Tribute to Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Baseball Held October 26, 2013 Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church Hosts: Jim Gwyn and Emily Rose
Here is a link to poetry event photos by Emily B. Wilson, of Emily Photography.
Maura DeNicola for Bergen County Freeholder with Governor Chris Christie
Christie’s cottails are wild card in whether Democrats retain control of legislature
TRENTON — Outwardly, most Democrats are confident about retaining control of the Legislature tomorrow, when all 120 seats in the state Senate and Assembly are up for grabs
But they can’t ignore the looming threat at the top of the ticket, with polls showing Republican Gov. Chris Christie leading Democrat Barbara Buono from anywhere between 18 and 33 percentage points.
No matter how rosy Democratic legislative candidates’ internal polls look, if their candidate for governor gets blown out by 20 points or more, all bets are off. (Friedman/Star-Ledger)
Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving Electrical fire forces evacuation of Ridgewood High School
November 4,2013
Boyd A. Loving
8:13 AM
Ridgewood NJ, An electrical fire in a second floor classroom forced the temporary evacuation of Ridgewood High School at approximately 7:30 on Monday morning. Ridgewood Fire Department personnel snuffed the blaze out with a hand held dry chemical fire extinguisher.
The fire was contained to a malfunctioning electric heater, however smoke spread beyond the affected classroom requiring firefighters to use high velocity fans to eject it. No injuries were reported and students, faculty, and administrative personnel were able to return to the building 30 minutes after firefighters arrived. Traffic on streets surrounding the school was gridlocked until fire & police personnel cleared the scene.
Bergen Freeholder GOP candidates share views with The Record’s editorial board
Monday October 7, 2013, 9:55 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Bergen County’s three Republican freeholders disagree on some major issues confronting county government, including police consolidation and pay-to-play reform.
Those differences emerged repeatedly during a wide-ranging 90-minute interview Wednesday with The Record’s editorial board.
Critics warn that bill would widen NSA’s reach
Saturday November 2, 2013, 11:49 PM
BY ELLEN NAKASHIMA
THE WASHINGTON POST
The Record
WASHINGTON — Privacy advocates and at least one U.S. senator are expressing concern that legislation introduced Thursday would not only endorse the National Security Agency’s collection of all Americans’ phone records, but would also give the agency permission to collect massive amounts of their email records.
The bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which advanced out of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would codify limits that a special court has placed on NSA’s use of the records.
But if the FISA Improvements Act became law, Congress would be validating expansive powers that have been claimed by the NSA and upheld by a court — but never explicitly written into statute — to harvest the phone and email records of millions of Americans, the advocates say.
“The bill that the intelligence committee voted on this week would expressly authorize this bulk collection for the first time, and that would be a huge step backward for the rights of law-abiding Americans,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of four committee members who voted against moving the bill.
Dawn and Jennifer’s Philadelphia Engagement photography shoot at Wissahickon Valley Trail, Philadelphia, PA. Save this date , I am so excited to photograph their wedding on October 2014.
The couple selected me because of my sensitivity and what they saw as my ability to photograph there special wedding day just as they envisioned it.
I specialize in wedding photojournalism, engagement photography and destination wedding photography. I began my career just over 12 years ago learning through apprenticeships with well established photographers. I have worked hard to satisfy my clients, building my portfolio, and develop my skills. I adore this line of work and I am constantly striving to capture these special moments naturally.
I have worked with over the past 12 years. And then of course, there is my “Portfolio” which consist of images I selected over the years from Celebrities (such as Lady Gaga in 2008 for DJ Times Magazine), Bridal Couture, Engagements, and of course Weddings, to acquaint you with my style and experience.
When Dawn and Jennifer stumbled on my website they discovered a black and white photograph of two women in bridal gowns holding one another on market street with a crowd walking by staring at them. They instantly fell in love with my work. The liked my approach to wedding photography which is natural and non posed.
I picked the Wissahickon Valley Trail for their engagement session because they wanted to include a lot of fall foliage symbolizing the change in their life.
I prefer to customize packages based on my clients’ specific needs. But don’t feel worried. My prices are reasonable and competitive. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have. Wedding Consultations are free and can be scheduled at my studio at 122 Church Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. We can also connect via Skype (ArtChickbiz) , or phone: 215-650-7052
I opened my mailbox on Saturday afternoon, Save Jerseyans, and I found the nifty little mailer to your right (and at the bottom) among the bills and supermarket circulars.
It’s produced by “The Coalition to Preserve Jobs and Our Constitution,” a group of Garden State business owners dedicated to defeating a proposed constitutional amendment on New Jersey’s fall ballot which would hike our state’s minimum wage and, most troubling of all, constitutionally-mandating that all future increases be tied to the consumer price index.
How Government Creates Unemployment with Minimum Wage Laws
Monday, October 31st, 2011 by Kel Kelly posted in Capitalism, Economics, Politics, Regulation.
British Columbia, why do you hate the poor?
Excerpted from “The Case for Legalizing Capitalism”
Politicians like to tell us that if we elect them, they will create jobs for us. This is impossible, unless they intend to expand government and have taxpayers pay more government workers to produce unprofitable services, or, to directly finance the creation of specific jobs in a specific marketplace with taxpayers money. In either case, a destruction of wealth is involved, and the jobs”unlike private sector jobs”do not pay for themselves and thus require yet new taxpayer funding each year, which further reduces capital in the economy. Except for the few wealth-destroying activities such as building space stations[ref]The space stations might eventually help us produce wealth, but do not currently. Even if they did, consumers would likely prefer to have other things for their lives instead of space stations. If space stations were to be a consumer preference (i.e., cost effective), they would likely be so decades or centuries down the road, not now. Plus, many things NASA is associated with having created were actually created by others. On this, see Tim Swanson, What wont NASA Build Next, https://mises.org/daily/2434.[/ref] and military bases, government creates and builds nothing. It thus has no power to create real jobs in the marketplace; it can only manage and regulate. It is only individuals and individual companies that produce and create; their ideas and capital are what profitably create jobs. The only way politicians can create beneficial jobs for us in the marketplace is by undoing the existing policies that create unemployment.
Thats right, the government (and only the government) creates unemployment, except for unemployment that arises from temporary factors such as switching between jobs. The notion that there could not be enough jobs for everyone is absurd. Think back to the desert island example: can we imagine that regardless of whether there is one person or many people on the island that they could ever run out of things to do to improve their standards of living? The same is true in our economy today. There are many more things needing to be done than we have people to do them. Most companies operating today, given available monetary capital, would expand production of what they are currently producing, or create new lines of businesses if only they had additional workers available to do this new work. And the more people we would have producing, the more things we could produce.
So then why is there unemployment? Primarily because some workers are prevented from working by having the cost of their labor fixed artificially high, above the market price, by law.[ref]And to a lesser degree by other labor laws such as those dictating maximum hours one can work as well as laws restricting the hiring and firing of workers, both of which are more intensely implemented and destructive in Western Europe and South America, where unemployment rates often reach over 20 percent.[/ref]This is done in two primary ways. The first way is by the existence of a minimum wage. As we learned earlier, workers are compensated based on the expected value of what they can produce. If the government prevents companies from hiring workers for less than a given wage, and if workers are not capable of contributing enough to company revenues to be able to cover the cost of their wages, they will not be hired. If a workers contribution to production brings in $5 of company revenues per hour, then paying the worker $7 per hour will mean a loss of $2 per hour to the company. Such workers will thus be left out of the workforce because they are unprofitable.
One might counter-argue that companies should pay a minimum hourly wage of $7 simply in order for the worker to survive given the cost of living. This argument will be addressed later in the section on poverty. It could also be argued that companies could pay more to workers by paying the difference out of profit, or by raising their prices. Neither of these is possible. As was explained earlier, businesses pay the maximum amount they can afford to pay for both labor and physical capital. Paying more will cut into the capitalists™ returns, or eliminate their profit altogether, which will drive them away toward other ventures; the entire company could thus go under (not to mention that companies must reinvest much of their profit in order to produce next years goods). Similarly, businesses cannot raise their prices to pay for higher labor costs. If they were able to raise prices at all, they would have already done so simply to make a higher profit. Businesses charge as much as the market will bear given a particular amount of money in the economy; if they charge more, they will make less money because demand will drop. Businesses across the entire economy will only raise prices if there is an increase in the quantity of money in the economy”i.e., the government prints more money. The current discussion is based on a fixed quantity of money in the economy at a given time.
If companies charge more, people will purchase a lower dollar amount (higher price times a lower overall quantity purchased). If companies charge less, their customers will purchase a higher dollar amount (lower price times a higher overall quantity purchased). Which way is optimal? Companies charge an amount that maximizes the total revenue they receive based on a price/quantity mix that results in the highest amount of revenue. If they charge more than the optimal amount, the total dollar amount of goods purchased by customers at that particular price/quantity level will be lower than the total dollar amount purchased at the optimal point possessing a lower price and higher quantity.
As an example, consider a theoretical burger joint where the owner is wondering whether raising prices would make it possible to pay more to the workers. Figure 1.4 reveals the different amounts of revenues that would result from various prices of hamburger plates.
Lowering the prices of each burger plate results in more burger plates sold. Raising the prices of each burger plate results in fewer burger plates sold. We can see that this owners optimal price to charge for a burger plate is $5.10. Charging more than this will result in lower revenues because the increase in price causes customers to buy fewer burger plates. Charging less than $5.10 will also result in lower revenues because even though the lower price leads to greater volume, it also means that fewer total dollars make it into the till. This example shows us that if the restaurant owner tried to charge more in order to pay workers more, the entire restaurant would lose business. The likely result would be the laying off of at least one worker in order to maintain profitability.
The minimum wage can help no one except those remaining workers who receive increased pay at the expense of the ones let go. Ultimately, having a minimum wage harms those it purports to help. But its more than ineffectual; its damaging. Those who are hurt the most are those with the lowest productivity”younger, less educated, inexperienced workers. Every time the minimum wage is increased, unemployment rates rise for this group, particularly for black, male teenagers. Further, as unskilled labor becomes too expensive to hire, businesses find it cheaper to replace labor with technology (automation, etc.). This is a primary reason why, for the most part, we no longer have many gas station attendants, maids or doormen.
Most economists, free market-oriented or not, do not support minimum wage: its one of the few topics nearly all agree on. Those who do support the minimum wage usually do so for ideological or political reasons. The ideological reasons are based on emotions, not economic facts. The political reasons are obvious: to most politicians it seems not to matter whether they truly help or harm citizens. What is important to politicians is to be perceived as helping people. When Congress approves minimum wage legislation after hearing testimony from economists, most, if not all, of them voting in favor of it must surely be aware that the law will not help workers. The only explanation seems to be that they pass the law simply to look good to constituents who dont understand the harm done.
In his 1993 textbook,[ref]Joseph E. Stiglitz, Economics (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993).[/ref] Joseph Stiglitz wrote detailed explanations of how minimum wages, which are a type of price floor, cause unemployment.
Yet after being appointed chairman of President Clintons Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), he suddenly changed his opinion and supported minimum wage legislation. Perhaps he did this to be seen a œteam player. President Clinton in turn said that he supported the legislation because his CEA supported it. Stiglitz, as leader of the CEA, pointed to the fact that a handful of economists had signed a petition in support of the legislation as the main reason that he had chosen to support it. In the end, this minority of economists all supported it simply because they all supported it.[ref]Vedran Vuk, Professor Stiglitz and the Minimum Wage (2006), https://mises.org/daily/2266.[/ref]
The economists who come up with obscure and often methodologically and theoretically questionable statistical studies that contradict most other studies on the minimum wage and conclude that increasing the cost of labor can somehow improve the lot of workers, are either ignorant of economics or are attempting to circumvent economic laws. Logic alone tells us that if the price of labor is raised above the value of its usefulness, there will be less of a demand for it. After all, if raising wages will help workers, then why not apply the minimum wage to everyone, and make the minimum wage $100 per hour? Or $1,000,000 per hour?[ref]Naturally, pro-minimum wage economists managed to come up with “studies†where numbers were manipulated to show that a low minimum wage is helpful, but a high minimum wage is not.[/ref] Our politicians do not do this because they know that most of us would then be unemployed. We will see in Chapter 6 that artificially high wage rates were the primary reason the Great Depression lasted so long, and why it even evolved from a simple recession into a depression.
Kel Kelly has spent over 13 years as a Wall Street trader, a corporate finance analyst, and a research director for a Fortune 500 management consulting firm. Results of his financial analyses have been presented on CNBC Europe and in the online editions of CNN, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and the Wall Street Journal. Kel holds a degree in economics from the University of Tennessee, an MBA from the University of Hartford, and an MS in economics from Florida State University. He lives in Atlanta.
I opened my mailbox on Saturday afternoon, Save Jerseyans, and I found the nifty little mailer to your right (and at the bottom) among the bills and supermarket circulars.
It’s produced by “The Coalition to Preserve Jobs and Our Constitution,” a group of Garden State business owners dedicated to defeating a proposed constitutional amendment on New Jersey’s fall ballot which would hike our state’s minimum wage and, most troubling of all, constitutionally-mandating that all future increases be tied to the consumer price index.
– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2013/10/election-ballot-new-jersey-question-2-two-nj/#sthash.UChpukqK.dpuf
The Planning Board meeting I attended on Tuesday, Oct. 29 regarding Valley Hospital’s expansion was a study of contrasts. Sheila Brogan represented the Board of Education, and then two speakers, who are members of CRR, and Peter McKenna, the president of CRR, represented the residents of Ridgewood. The contrast came about, because Ms. Brogan, as a representative of the BOE, spoke about the board’s mission, commitment to student’s safety and yet not once did Ms. Brogan choose that stance, when she mentioned over and over, “if Valley’s expansion is approved.” She never veered from neutrality of her opinions on whether this would be a detriment to the students attending BF.
The appropriate response would be to take the side that most protected the children of Ridgewood, not just mentioning what the BOE expected Valley to do if and when they were allowed to expand. Worst of all, Ms. Brogan tried to compare the short-term renovations each Ridgewood school completed, to what the residents and students will endure if Valley’s renovation comes to fruition, which is insane, and could take up to 10 years. As Mr. Drill has said before, when he spoke at one of the meetings, “it’s comparing apples to oranges.” In this case, it is true.
Alex and Ani Ridgewood – Celebrates One Year Anniversay
Thu, November 14, 2013
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Alex and Ani Ridgewood, 134 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450
One Year Anniversary at Alex and Ani Ridgewood 134 E. Ridgewood Avenue Ridgewood, NJ 07450 6:00-8:00pm
Enjoy lite bites and raffles,
The first 20 people to attend will receive a complimentary gift.
Reader says BOE has betrayed BF and Travell students by refusing to acknowledge the obvious impact the Valley
I write this to express my disbelief and disappointment in your betrayal of Ridgewood’s BF and Travell students by refusing to acknowledge the obvious impact the Valley expansion will have on surrounding schools. Regardless of where anyone stands in support or objection to the Hospital, it is common sense that construction, noise, pollution and traffic will negatively affect the student experience at BF and Travell, and by refusing to stand up for your students, publicly acknowledge these concerns and demand that the concerns be addressed, you have violated our trust in your ability and willingness to carry on your responsibility to safeguard our children. As a board member, we expect you to look out for our children’s interests and the interests of the Ridgewood education system and its properties. As it stands now, Glen Avenue and the side streets such as Van Dien are a speedway for people racing in and out of Valley Hospital. Stand out there on any given day and you can see for yourselves. Expanding the hospital will only increase traffic flow and impact our safety, despite what Valley’s “experts” say. And yes, this is traffic related to Valley because these are cars coming in and out of its parking lots. In fact, I’ve been cut off more than once by people in medical uniforms making unsafe turns in their regular cars leaving the hospital at 515pm. Valley has consistently lied about its plans and their impact and you had an opportunity to speak up for our schools yet failed miserably. How could you fail to acknowledge the impact years of construction noise, traffic detours and environmental dust and debris will have on us and our children and demand that those concerns be addressed up front? We elected you to be our voice and yet you have NO concerns???
Reader says the Brogan has demonstrated willful blindness to the obvious issues related to such a construction project.
The issue does have something to do with education since it impacts the nearby schools and the safety and comfort of Ridgewood students. Yes, it’s ultimately up to the Village Council and Planning Board but the BOE had a chance to weigh in and Brogan has demonstrated willful blindness to the obvious issues related to such a construction project. This is highly suspicious given the huge conflicts of interests Valley’s sponsorships create.’ I didn’t write in hopes of replacing a board member’s job but I do expect they uphold their responsibility and duty to do what’s best in the interest of the schools and students. It would be interesting to see where the individual board members stand on some of these issues but that is conveniently being held from the voting public.
Downtown for the Holidays and Tree Lighting Celebration Friday, December 6, 2013
New this year – “for the kids” 5:30-6:30pm – Santa in the Park for the “wee tots” and a “Kids Corner” offering holiday Arts & Crafts in front of the Park along with live entertainment by the “clock” and in the stores and restaurant along E. Ridgewood Ave. Featuring the RHS Marching Band, RHS Singers, RHS Orchestra 7-8pm “on stage-live” Live Entertainment and Tree Lighting Celebration Featuring performances by Porch Light Productions, From the Top Studio, Art of Motion and Arthur Murray Dance Studio. 8:00-9:00pm “merriment” on E. Ridgewood Ave. Shh – Santa will be back in the Park Lots of music on the Avenue – two live bands, carolers, musicians Stores will be having special sales, restaurant reservation suggested.
Ridgewood NJ, Last night on Halloween the Ridgewood Police Handed out Halloween Safety Treats. In addition to their patrol duties.
Officers were handing out safety glow sticks to young Trick or Treaters for Halloween . Above Officer Mark Butler helps these young ladies accessorize their costumes.
