New Jersey Education Ain't That Good!

The New Jersey education system certainly has failed if 44% of the population still believes Christie is doing a good job!

During his administration:

*New Jersey’s credit rating has been reduced six times

*A $400M federal education grant was lost

*“The Governor” signs and promotes a law regarding pensions and then reneges on it a year later (then  he proclaims at a Town Hall Meeting – “A deal is a deal” – what BS!)

*An unnecessary election costing $24M was held for his political benefit

*The New Jersey unemployment rate has lagged the national average

*Millions of dollars of tax relief was given to corporations while no notable increase in jobs has occurred

*Sandy relief funds were mishandled by a 'good old boy' corporation selected by him

*The GWB debacle continues

*The shady handling of the Hunterdon County Sheriff’s situation has yet to be resolved

*“No new taxes” except for those who had their Homestead Rebate “postponed”!

*“The Governor” wormed his way into a Sandy ad spot (including his family) by paying the ad company an inflated price

*“The Governor’s” brother gets a cushy deal resulting from the renovation of the PATH station in Harrison.

*“The Governor” parcels out $3M (taxpayer money) for his lawyers to write him an excuse for the GWB  issue.

*And now he’s going on 14 “field trips” out of state attempting to become a presidential candidate! 

God help us but I guess in a country that elected George Bush twice – anything is possible!

If “The Governor” was a teacher I think he would certainly be rated “ineffective” and that’s being kind!

PS I am sure that you can think of more screw-ups. Please feel free to contribute.

An Old School Teacher - Gone But Not Forgotten

Would you please send out an e-mail to all retirees that Tom Gallucci, Athletic Director at Nutley High School for many years, passed away.  He will be laid out at Shooks Funeral Home in Cedar Grove.  Details to follow.

Thank you.

Sue Peters

Living Life in a Bubble

In a recent conversation with my son's friend I was surprised when he told me that he was still paying a student loan debt of $600 per month. I was surprised because he is 38 years old and I assumed that student loans would be long paid off by this age - 15 years after graduation that is!

Well, my assumption was obviously wrong and then a short time later I saw the article below. It appears that the plight of my son's friend is far from unusual.

After reading the article I began to think about the recent housing market bubble. It was kind of the same thing in that people were loaned vast sums of money without regard as to whether they could really handle the debt. But then I began to realize maybe the student loan problem is even worse! The housing debacle at least had some collateral behind it even if it was poor collateral it was better than none. What collateral do student loans have?

You might say that the projected income after graduation is the collateral but my further reading on the subject revealed that only 16% of the degrees obtained are in the highly employable STEM areas.  A large portion of the rest is in fields that have poor employment prospects and are likely to leave those graduates unable to pay off their loans. Additionally, only two kinds of debt are immune from discharge in bankruptcy, taxes and student loans and therefore I  wonder if they can even be legally written off by the issuer? This means that these loans will follow individuals for a lifetime (continually accumulating interest) until they are fully paid.

If the housing problem was called a "bubble" what term can be used to accurately describe this? I don't think "bubble" will do! How about "economic Armageddon"?

After thinking about all this for a while it occurred to me that maybe all my dread is unwarranted. The advent of on line learning could come to the rescue. College costs should surely plummet when students can take course at home with no classroom or actual instructor required.

Well, I'm wrong again!

Look at the article below this one describing the cost of on line course at SNHU, a highly advertised New England college.

Say It Isn't So Joe - Why Joe D Got in Bed With "The Governor"

And he gets to collect his pension while still working the same job !!

So much for Christie's "Pension Reform" !!

A Deal Okay - A Raw Deal

The man is a cheat and a sneak. I am sure that he knew when he signed the bill in 2012 that he would not come up with the money to fund the pension when the time came in spite of his promises. 
By not honoring the agreement which he touted, he created another opportunity to demonstrate to all his conservative buds how tough he is on unions and how willing he is to piss on public workers. He could  show how firmly he stands behind the wealthy and his donor interests. He could clearly show how his outreached hand was really there to give a slap in the face to hard working, middle class public employees rather than it being an indication of cooperation and honesty.

A Deal is a Deal ? Oh Really "

A Little Good News - Finally!

At least there is a little good news interspersed amongst all the bad (the recent Supreme Court decisions).