>Friday, April 16, 2010
Sixty-five percent (65%) of New Jersey voters favor a one-year pay freeze on the salaries of administrators, teachers and school workers to reduce the state’s level of local school aid, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1280719b841e7605
Just 28% of voters in the state oppose this pay freeze to meet Governor Chris Christie’s proposed $820 million reduction in school aid. The newly-elected Republican governor is proposing the reduction as part of his effort to close the state’s $11 billion budget deficit.
The state teachers’ union, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), is angrily opposing the proposed pay freeze, saying it will set back education efforts. But 66% of New Jersey voters say the union is more interested in protecting its members’ jobs than in the quality of education. Twenty-four percent (24%) believe the union places the quality of education first.
Fifty-two percent (52%) think public employee unions like the NJEA put a significant strain on the state’s budget. Twenty-eight percent (28%) disagree, while another 20% are not sure.
It’s clear, too, that New Jersey voters are following the budget spat between the new governor and the teachers’ union. Ninety percent (90%) of voters in the state say they have been following news reports about it at least somewhat closely, including 55% who are following very closely
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1280719b841e7605
