What's Good for the Goose. . . .

Governor Christie of New Jersey delayed his budget announcement until March 16 of this year. On that day, he dropped the hammer (or should I say ax) on New Jersey's public schools, cutting nearly $1 billion in aid to those districts while sparing the richest New Jerseyans (including his wife) nearly $1 Billion in additional taxes.

This ridiculously large cut caused local school boards to scramble to prepare new budgets, primarily because while Mr. Christie's minions in Trenton were telegraphing to the local boards to expect 15% decreases, his cuts amounted to, in some cases, 4 times that much.

The scramble was because in New Jersey, we vote for our school budget this year on April 20. And with filing deadlines nearly 3 weeks before that, this late notice led to hasty cuts to the largest areas school superintendents and boards could find most immediately. In almost all cases, these cuts involved people. Large amounts of people.

The problem is that education is a service "business" - and anyone who knows a thing or two about business knows that service businesses rely on people. But unlike other businesses where things are "produced" (and thusly, when there are fewer people, fewer things are produced), education works backwards - it is the very "production" of things, namely kids, that keep the education "factories" - read as schools - humming.

And there is the disconnect - most businesses control their production. Education does not - the kids are produced whether there are service providers there to educate them or not. And state law does nothing to help, since it promises all of the products - the kids - a free public education. So just how is this going to get done with fewer educators??

Anyway, I digress. After the budget announcement, the local school boards banded together to ask our illustrious governor for a delay in the filing of budgets and the election. In fact, they asked that elections be forgotten for this year. While I don't think THAT request had a snowballs chance in hell of working, I DO think the request for an "extension" was reasonable - after all, hadn't the governor asked for and received an extension in the timing of his budget announcement?

So what is his response to this request? Of course, it's "NO". And so the scramble was on.

And now we are only 4 days away from the budget elections that promise to alter the face of the NJ Educational System more drastically than the invention of the hot lunch.

In the meantime, April 15 has come and gone and millions of Americans scrambled to turn in their tax returns on time. And, as has become the custom, most elected officials in the country set a good example and released their tax returns for all the public - their employers, after all - to see.

Except Mr. Christie - he filed. . . for an extension!!

You can't make this crap up. Only in America (or New Jersey) can a governor ask for an extension on his budget address (and get it), be asked for an extension on school budgets (and deny it) and then ask for an extension on his personal income tax (and get it). Only in America.

Mr. Christie - what's good for the goose, should be good for the gander. I guess you're the only one that doesn't see it that way.