Union Simply a Collective Bargaining Unit

To The Editor:
Public education in New Jersey is one of the state’s few institutions with a record of success. Shouldered with many cumbersome regulations, and in desperate need of a different financing scheme, the system’s management needs an overhaul. Manipulation of the facts leaves the taxpayer uncertain of the problem’s basis. Political opportunists seize the moment to blame it on the “union.” The union here is, as in most cases (certainly not all) simply a collective bargaining unit of qualified employees wanting to be the best that they can be and properly compensated.
The union is only one side of the bargaining process, and has no input to policy and funding, which is unfortunately, political issues. Our governor seeks to take advantage of the inherent mistrust for unions to defeat a political enemy and dissect our public school system. The trail of misinformation involving concessions and givebacks is just one part of a large scheme. The voucher system the governor would like to install will reinvent segregation not only to ethnicity, but to many other definitions as well. This system will cause an elitist group and fail for the public at large.
I have supported the Middle Township Board of Education in most of its endeavors. I believe the majority of board’s members serve out of a true dedication to the community. I disagree with their handling of the current crisis. The board has played right into the hands of Christi by using teachers and other employees to carry the burden of the financial cuts. The board is backing in the numbers by subtracting salaries until they achieve their goal. When asked how the personnel cuts would affect curriculum, there were no answers, but in fact statements that showed they had no idea. This question was posed by a tenured teacher who was teacher of the year last year and is now facing a lay off.
This may be the simplest solution, but certainly not the best. Our children will suffer the consequences. Our board is doing what most boards in the state will do, taking the easy way out and facilitating a coup by an enemy to public education. I don’t pretend to know the answers but just look to Lower Township to see a different approach.
We are in a time when new ideas are needed. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” was never so appropriate. We need to change the members of our citizen panels to reflect the times. We need to support these panels to give them the confidence they will need to preserve our communities. We need to vote for change while supporting the budget so that no further cuts are politically initiated. The Board of Education elections this year are far more important than a few people and an annual budget; they are to protect the future of education for the very people our governor seeks to disenfranchise. The people who are this state, you and I.
SAM KELLY
Swainton