The main thing about the Bridgewater-Raritan school budget surprise is that it is a surprise at all. It’s been clear for at least several years that the situation was building up to crisis level, but few were paying attention – perhaps few wanted to.
I don’t blame anyone in particular for this. Everyone in Bridgewater and Raritan wants the best educational system possible – I don’t doubt that. But there is a cost to everything. Sometimes that cost simply gets too high or, as in this case, it grows beyond the ability of people to pay. The national and state financial crises have focused Americans upon that fact in a way that nothing else could.
Some have attributed the fault in this school district’s budget shortfall to Governor Chris Christie, because he recently withheld $4 million anticipated by the B-R School District as part of $475M in state aid for all other districts. But placing the onus on Christie is a fool’s game – the problem is very big, pervasive, and structural. It needs a major fix.
Still, there is no doubt in my mind that, over the years, the B-R School District has been adversely shortchanged by a succession of administrations in Trenton; as well as by the Education Law Center which successfully convinced the New Jersey Supreme Court to siphon disproportionate amounts of cash to the Abbott Districts.
There is nothing we can do to change the past. But we can learn from it. Governor Christie is not the bogeyman in this game. He may be the one person that New Jersey has who can give this state the medicine that it needs.
Thanks for reading. Stay engaged.
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