To my fellow teacher knotties...

mscutieri

I stole this from a friend's FB status (and made it my own)...

A prayer: Dear Lord, this past year you took some of my favorite actors, Patrick Swayze, Britney Murphy and Corey Haim. You took my favorite singer, Michael Jackson. I want you to know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor. Amen.

It gave me a good laugh, hope it helps some of you that are affected by his stupidity.

mbcdefg

Fi got a laugh out of that.

tinydancer842

Brad is my favorite knottie...

DMLJ

A friend of mine also had this as her status- very clever and man would it solve alot of problems

mscutieri

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_fellow-teacher-knotties?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:90Discussion:169734d7-5a9f-4af8-81bb-402d94e3d849Post:46c008f2-bb15-4d66-9aed-c3237d115960">Re: To my fellow teacher knotties...</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>A friend of mine also had this as her status</strong>- very clever and man would it solve alot of problems :)
Posted by DMLJ[/QUOTE]

You aren't referring to me are you?? LOL

felicia220

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_fellow-teacher-knotties?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:169734d7-5a9f-4af8-81bb-402d94e3d849Post:9e7bddc1-8492-43c1-8e1a-0a11efe58ecc">Re: To my fellow teacher knotties...</a>:
[QUOTE]Brad is my favorite knottie...
Posted by tinydancer842[/QUOTE]

<div>While I try to stay away from political posts, this was to funny to pass up.  Where is Brad, he is sooooo entertaining!</div>

DMLJ

haha no Michelle- a non-knottie friend had this up yesterday

Denise91980

I saw that on FB the other day too...I have to appreciate it because I am considered a state employee and I hate Chris Christie.

USER876

I feel for state employee's (including my mother), but unfortunately we are not just magically going to get the state out of debt with making cuts.  Gov Christie inherited a mess, and is dealing with it better than previous Governors have; they took the easy way out while building a tremendous budget deficit.

I think the Gov is trying to force towns to own this problem along with him. While that may hurt many towns, they need to control pay raises, and now they might have some leverage. However, teachers in Cape May just won a 12% raise over 3 years, so it will take a while before towns can apply pressure for reasonable raises.

He may not be doing what everyone else wants, but at least he's doing something in an attempt to reign in an unsustainable budget deficit.  My only gripe is that it seems to be hurting the middle class most, why not start at the 'top."

akmackay

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_fellow-teacher-knotties?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:90Discussion:169734d7-5a9f-4af8-81bb-402d94e3d849Post:36119522-1cad-4756-860e-13bf5c97cad8">Re: To my fellow teacher knotties...</a>:
[QUOTE]I feel for state employee's (including my mother), but unfortunately we are not just magically going to get the state out of debt with making cuts.  Gov Christie inherited a mess, and is dealing with it better than previous Governors have; they took the easy way out while building a tremendous budget deficit. I think the Gov is trying to force towns to own this problem along with him. While that may hurt many towns, they need to control pay raises, and now they might have some leverage. However, teachers in Cape May just won a 12% raise over 3 years, so it will take a while before towns can apply pressure for reasonable raises. He may not be doing what everyone else wants, but at least he's doing something in an attempt to reign in an unsustainable budget deficit.  My only gripe is that it seems to be hurting the middle class most, why not start at the 'top."
Posted by USER876[/QUOTE]

Amen to that.

Nothing against teachers (if I didn't have this job, I would be one as I have my teaching certificate) but Christie is asking teachers to do something that I had to do without being asked last year. We had a freeze on raises and our insurance costs went up. Still waiting to hear if there will be any raises this year. If the union just agreed to the raise freeze and paying for insurance, there would be less if any layoffs. It just seems silly to me when something is so obvious and people put down a Gov who is trying to get us out of the mess we are in. Do I agree with everything he is doing? no. But I think this is a very reasonable thing to ask the teacher's union to do.

Flame away.

Julephenia

I guess what makes me mad about Christie is that Corzine tried to do this for his entire stint as Guv. People raised a stink about the tolls going up - they hadn't been raised since I was BORN. (Don't forget, Corzine also didn't take a salary, a la Bloomberg.)

It's just like... UGH. Whitman and all the Guvs from the end of the last century left us in a complete mess, and the last few Guvs have been trying to fix it... and everyone says only the current one is trying to fix it.

Grr.

/end political rant

USER876

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_fellow-teacher-knotties?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:169734d7-5a9f-4af8-81bb-402d94e3d849Post:84433cf6-1d2b-42f0-be54-c0a1b3646f1b">Re: To my fellow teacher knotties...</a>:
[QUOTE]I guess what makes me mad about Christie is that Corzine tried to do this for his entire stint as Guv. People raised a stink about the tolls going up - they hadn't been raised since I was BORN. (Don't forget, Corzine also didn't take a salary, a la Bloomberg.) It's just like... UGH. Whitman and all the Guvs from the end of the last century left us in a complete mess, and the last few Guvs have been trying to fix it... and everyone says only the current one is trying to fix it. Grr. /end political rant
Posted by Julephenia[/QUOTE]

In addition to the tolls, he raised sales tax and where did that get us....no where.  Like anything else it's not what you make, it's what you spend.

Taxpayers in NJ are taxed at a rate that is among the highest in the nation and that forces residents out of the state.  How much more can they ask for?  The clear solution is to cut spending......

Julephenia

IIRC, Corzine tried to cut spending and was thwarted by the State Assembly at every turn. Eventually he just raised tolls and taxes in frustration.

I grew up in a tiny, tiny town in South Jersey. We had our own police department, fire department, and K-8 school (which only half of the town's kids attended - the rest of us went to private school). We were not allowed to attend the neighboring town's high school - though it was a highly-ranked high school - without paying tuition. Instead, we had to go to another neighboring town's high school, which was poorly ranked, along with another town's kids - a town that was 20 miles away!

Frankly, it was ridiculous, and the town would have been better served by pooling resources with the bigger towns around it.

That is one way - albeit, unpopular - to cut spending.

USER876

It sounds like your town did pool resources, and use a a neighboring HS rather than make the taxpayers build their own.  It seems, though, that you were not happy with the arrangement because a higher ranked HS was also in the area.

While I agree with pooling resources, it also opens a can of worms.....

People pay big bucks and high taxes to live in areas with top schools, and fund those schools to maintain their rankings.  So now you just let kids from Union into Milburn HS?  Milburn school system probably couldn't afford to absorb the cost of that without considerably raising Union's taxes.  That is probably what happened to you and why you had to pay "tuition" to go to the better school.  Your alternative would of been to move to the town with the better school and pay no tuition, but a higher price for the house and higher taxes.  It's easier said than done......

akmackay

User, I'm bowing down to you. Thank you for saying what I can not always articulate myself.

Julephenia

Here's the thing - the town with the better school? Lower incomes all around.

I grew up in Riverton. It's an admittedly posh little town right across from Philadelphia. Out of the 11 kids on my street, I know 9 went to private schools (the other two, I have no idea - they *might* have gone to public school, but I think not, in the end). Not the Cinnaminson High School (the one down the street, but off limits), not Palmyra High School (the tiny little high school that had to ship in kids from 20 miles away, as well as our town), but private schools. As in Moorestown Friends, Westfield Friends, and all the various Catholic schools down there. As far as I'm aware, Cinnaminson WANTED Palmyra and Riverton to join their school district. Two tiny little towns with probably less than 120 kids per grade.

There was a reason most people from that town sent their kids to private school - not all of them could afford it, but it was a better choice than the public school. Many of them would have jumped at the chance to send their kids to Cinnaminson (and, no, I don't know why they didn't live in Cinnaminson, then). The K-8 public school in Riverton had one class per grade, a superintendent, a principal, a vice principal, and an assitant superintendent. Not to mention the other school administrators. It was a bad set-up, and perpetuated by the locked-in school board. I know there were votes on integrating with other school districts, and, somehow or other, they always got knocked down - usually after ticking off half the town.

It's not about the money people paid in Cinnaminson to send their kids to school there. Frankly, Riverton was more expensive (older, bigger houses, quieter streets, etc.). Moorestown is still insanely expensive. It was more about Riverton being snotty about the "new" suburb of Cinnaminson, and not realizing that Cinnaminson had more money and resources, simply by being a heck of a lot bigger.

THAT'S why I'm all for pooling resources. I see Riverton struggle, and raise tax after tax, instead of joining up with a bigger town to help both. It's just... pointless.