Well well well, whaddaya know? When working with fewer dollars, a Board of Education in cash-strapped New Jersey actually can tighten their belts and make sane budget decisions.
In the spring, my town voted down its school budget proposal and forced the Board of Education to cut $1.5 million. When many N.J. towns similar results, legions of union-instigated teachers protested in the streets, warning of the apocalyptic harm that would befall our children due to the cuts.
Lo and behold, this article is found in my town’s local free weekly paper:
Board of Education, cuts $l.5M, no jobs
Board of Education members found five areas in the defeated school district budget to cut $1.5 million without eliminating any jobs, In May, the board voted to accept the … Council's $1.5 million reduction in the school tax levy, The board had the option to appeal the $1.5 million reduction to the Commissioner of Education.
Both the Township Committee and XXX Borough Council were required to review the $108 million school budget after the state last year merged the two communities into one district. Both governing bodies agreed to the $1.5 million reduction, which represents a savings of $140 for taxpayers with a home assessed at the township's average of $350,000.
… [T]he five areas of cuts, totaling $1,1302,451:
- A $118,298 cut recommended by the Township Committee, involving funds for district employees who retired after the creation of the school budget, as well as increments for nonaffiliated employees.
- A cut of $73,455 recommended by the Township Committee, involving a bus initially funded in the budget. School officials later were able to fund the bus through a federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant the district received as stimulus/special-education funding.
- A $122,319 cut recommended by the Township Committee, involving state aid adjusted in the district's favor following the budget defeat. The state provided the district with what is known as "extraordinary aid" for tuition students.
- The school board will go ahead with projects to refurbish an intercom at XXX School and a curtain at the high school's gym. The remaining capital projects will be suspended and re-evaluated in September. The cuts total $472,760.
- The school board's quote for health-insurance premiums is 4.8 percent less than what had been previously budgeted, amounting to a savings of $715,619.
Township officials recommended other cuts, such as reducing the number of vice principals at the high school, … intermediate and middle schools. …
The one about the health insurance premiums is very interesting. It suggests they either switched insurance companies or found a cheaper plan for their employees. Either way, it’s amazing what a bunch of public officials can do when there is less money being siphoned from the taxpayers. No teachers need to lose their jobs, children don’t need to write with blood because of a dearth of pencils, and no apocalypse.
The moral of the story: Just like a household or a private company, public government entities can do with less.
So to the spoiled, open-handed, greedy teacher unions: STFU.
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