Yvonne,

I can always count on you to completely miss the point. Thanks for not dissapointing.

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Sorry, rescue, I back people who are genuine, people who activists, also people who will question the wise use of my tax dollars.

It's not so much a hatred of Fulop, though that's part of it. Fulop has distanced himself from the BOE elections at this point, and "Parents for Progress" and the various slates of candidates that they have endorsed have developed some independence. And the current board has not seen eye to eye with the administration on everything, the pre-K issue being the most prominent.

The antipathy toward the current board and the Excellence slate of candidates has to do as much with the perception that they have taken the mantle of reformer from long time "activists" like Yvonne. The usual line of attack is similar to what Healy's people tried to do on Fulop. "Downtown-centric" "don't care about 'real' Jersey City people."

Interesting allegiance for Ms Yvonne here. She supports the team who are backed by the teacher's union and generally go against her religious-right background (see: Lonegan endorsement). But- I guess the old adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" rings true here, as the JC Teacher's Union hates Fulop, so naturally whoever they endorse Yvonne will endorse. Love it!

I am sure this contract will also be part of JC soon, Cerf who had a say in appointing Lyles has his own company. He is not in JC now because there is an election. But after the election, this would not surprise me.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... by_cerf.html#incart_river

Of course there is waste, we are millions on contracts that the present board voted on. The substitute teacher who slapped the student is part of contract. We are spending more for out of town substitute instead of hiring locally at a reduce price. Some out of town subs are overwhelmed. So yes, moobycow, I agree with you.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol's_cost_disease

It's a real problem of rising costs that impacts a lot of areas of the economy that have not been able to be automated to the same degree as other sectors. It has little do do with gready teachers (it's hard to argue to easier to live on a teacher's salary today than in 1970).

If someone can come up with a solution they will be doing a lot more than helping fix education, they will be helping fix one of the larger problems of advanced economies around the world.

That's not to say there isn't waste in the system, I'm sure there is plenty, but there is also a fundamental economic problem at work that is driving up education costs.

The state of New Jersey spends more than most, so what is your point? You are trying to infer, the Children First Team is responsible. You probably were silent when the state started putting enormous money in public schools. I wasn't because I knew down the road, there would be some equalization in the state formula. If the present board cared about their funding, then they would be at council meetings during abatement hearings. Last year, to Marilyn Roman's credit, she attended a council meeting on another matter, but when an abatement came up, she spoke against it. As former councilperson under McCann she did vote for abatements but that was more than 20 years ago. Roman said the board of ed has more children with almost the same basic funding.
The Children First Team does not control the funding of Trenton, basically, this is nothing but a smear job.

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Do you have any reason to doubt the source of the numbers, or the methodology, or the presentation? If so, here is the link to their article, check with it first, they explain a lot on the subject.

If there are no objections to either, what's your point?

As for the picture itself, I find it useful to think about it like "what would I say if the price of milk tripled"? Or gas. Or rent. Or clothes. Or whatnot else. Three times as much with no quality improvement whatsoever.

Oh, and see, it is inflation-adjusted already.
This is ON TOP of the inflation.

The Cato Institute ? Really ? When will borisp cite the Heritage Foundation or Freedom Works ?

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Teachers do not live with students, some students come from single family homes where there is more stress, such as parents constantly moving several times a year, or drug/alcohol abuse. Do I mean all students? No, but enough to hurt the stats compared to the students in other communities. The fact some teachers take the risk and come to meetings and complain about the lack of supplies or no heat in the buildings show they care about their students. Personally, I do not take the 19% as a real figure. You cannot start low and want to go up. You ask for more and settle for less.

The raise seems really high. I would be more understanding if it was adjusted to the cost of living.........but anything more than that should be based on if test scores are up, graduation rates are up and college acceptance rates are up.

If you are concerned about the 19% raise, then your aren't you speaking at council meetings when Fulop who backed the present board of ed is granting 30 years tax abatements. Tax abatements pays zero dollars to the board of ed, but those buildings bring tons of children whether charter or public. Why aren't you speaking up at these hearings?

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Didn't you get the memo? The JC teachers feel entitled to a 19% raise over the next 3 years and walked out of the last meeting.

Get out of here with facts, stick to some tripe such as if we don't pay more for teachers, we won't be able to attract good ones and test scores will go down!

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+1 for borisp

Are they going to discuss this chart?

What candidates are in support of more access to pre-k in your local school in underserved Downtown area? Whoever supports that gets my vote. I will not vote for anyone Fulop endorses due to his position of being an obstacle to increased pre-k downtown. Bussing 3 and 4 year olds is ridiculous.

Here is my video on the Children First Team:
http://youtu.be/0ztRaKXd5Vs?list=UUPZCDR4rCUMJtCl7__MaEag

I have been attending board of ed meetings since the board of ed decided not to videotape the public. I have come to admire the Children First Team. They are always there, questioning spending. I am shocked by the board of ed response, with the exception of Marilyn Roman and perhaps Valentin, that board needs to go. They are indifferent when parents or teachers complain about no heat in buildings or no supplies in schools. All of my tax dollars apparently go to contracts. We don't spend enough money on sports. Perhaps if we did, maybe some students would want to stay in the system and graduate. Personally, I will vote for the Children First Team because at least they know the questions. The present board of ed should resign with the exception of the two I mentioned.

Children First - naturally after all the no show/no work/central office jobs are fully protected and the appropriate dollars flow to the machine.

After all that is squared away this slate would love to think about the children and actual education.

Previous videos were from last school board meeting.

Jersey City Board of Education candidate Gina Verdibello sat down with Hudson County View to discuss her candidacy, facilities issues, union contracts, and charter schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o0jNY94t_g


JCBOE Candidate Gerald Lyons talks vocational programs, union endorsement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yodEqKHJukQ


JCBOE Candidate Lorenzo Richardson blasts current board, promises accountability/transparency

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQmdUxDIKCQ


Upcoming debates:

Historic Paulus Hook Association, Inc.
PS # 16
96 Sussex Street
10/23/2014
6:00Pm-9:00pm

NAACP Political Action Committee
Lincoln High School
60 Crescent Avenue JC, NJ 07304
10/31/2014
6:00pm-8:30pm

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Yep - with peanut allergies. Watch her you-tube link. Keep nuts out of her kid's school dinners and she's happy. Doesn't seem to care about her kids quality of ed, nor success.

Well Gerry Lyons is a teacher. Not in JCPS but in the Hudson County District. You won't see JCPS employees running because they would be conflicted out of almost every vote.

I'd like to know what is the academic background of those involved in the 'Children First Team' before I make my vote.

How many frontline educators are there and their years of experience - I'm no fan of community members, activists and even some parents dictating (having a say) or running the DoE.

I would love to see frontline active educators, frontline active administrators of education, frontline active child psychologists, frontline school guidance counselors, frontline active school accountants / bookkeepers, frontline active principals etc running the DoE.

Being sympathetic to the needs of kids or having a kid in the system isn't grounds to be an effective DoE candidate, nor do we want someone with a political ambition or biased towards a political candidate - Let's have the best and qualified candidates running the DoE ... we've had a history of wannabe's, inept do-gooders pretending to do 'good' for our kids !

I am pretty sure Gina has kids in the school system.

I watched all 3 youtube videos. And honestly - FABs moniker sprung to mind - STOP ELECTING IDIOTS.

Children first? Seriously? In all 3 videos, only Richardson had anything concrete to say about kids education - and that amounted to getting more math books into schools, and the grad rates in JC suck. Really? No solutions?

Lyons - leads off with teachers contract and an ACLU letter.
Richardson - leads off with cinder blocks.
Verdibello - leads off with her kid's peanut allergy.


None of them put CHILDREN FIRST - at least in their youtube videos (falling cinder-blocks and peanut allergies aside).

Are these the kind of morons we want in control of the $600 million+ JC education budget? View their youtube vids for yourselves. I wouldn't trust any of these 3 at a Shoprite checkout - never mind with over half a billion dollar JC school budget.

Do any of these candidates currently have children enrolled in the Jersey City public school system?

We pledge to bring back to Jersey City what has been missing...TRUST and TRUE COMMITMENT to EVERY CHILD.
Mission

To provide quality education for ALL children and to create an environment that is healthy, peaceful and safe for children and staff!

The Children First organization is a collective of parents, teachers, community members and education activists who are committed to ensuring that every child receives a quality education. We believe that the focus starts with the children and then extends outward to the surrounding community of teachers and staff who make a quality education possible. Children First advocates for issues on a local and statewide level on behalf of the children of Jersey City, with a well-rounded approach that puts the child 's needs first and extends to Academics, Staffing, School Facilities, Safety, Budgets and special issues.

Vote on November 4th
H-1 Lorenzo Richardson, H-5 Gina Verdibello, H-7 Gerald Lyons

https://www.facebook.com/TheChildrenFirstTeam

Gerald Lyons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbSdd2qzkQ

Lorenzo richardson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRLKzxtQ7rs

Gina Verdibello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y_tmAec7PQ