The Bridgewater-Raritan School District Budget Conundrum

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.

NJ Court Hits Foul Ball

This week, in another miscue, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that local municipalities can no longer prevent registered sex offenders from living within mere feet of schools, day care centers and playgrounds.

The New Jersey legislature is expected to act quickly to enact Megan’s Law modifications which will change that dunderhead decision by the high court. The ruling by the NJ Supreme Court demonstrates just how irrationally selective that body can be.

There are few things any more heinous that the mental ravage caused by psychopathic sexual predators, as they stalk and abuse New Jersey children. The statistics clearly show – over and over again – that the recidivism among this class of criminals requires close and constant monitoring of their whereabouts.

The court’s ruling has made it possible for malignant sex offenders to fly under the radar and to rent or buy a home close to a grade school, playground or day care facility anywhere in New Jersey. This is a chilling reminder that courts can often be devoid of the most basic understanding of what motivates criminal behavior.

Let’s hope that the New Jersey legislature has a better sense of judgment and fixes this loophole in Megan’s Law. If there is any misgiving whatever about the rate of recidivism for convicted sexual abusers, it’s better to give the benefit of the doubt to a community’s children than it is to provide comfort to the predators among us.