I attended last night's Board of ED meeting last night and this article represents my reflections on what transpired. It represents just the opinion of one Hoboken resident, but I will try to bring in other points of view in my assessment.First off, as I have stated before, I am a progressive and mostly liberal person when it comes to the role of Government in our lives. I don't mind paying for services that the Government provides like fire, police, infrastructure and Education. I am a single white male (hello ladies) in my early 40s with no children but value very highly the commitment to Education and the Public Schools.
I was raised by two great parents who made a commitment to the Education of their two sons even before they had children. I am a by product of very good Public School system in Upstate NY. My school had a very diverse student body with respect to incomes and I believe it gave me a very good foundation for college. Without that foundation, today I would certainly not have the technically demanding job that I have now as a Software Project Manager.
My egalitarianism has been figuratively been beaten into me both my parents and my own experiences and conscience. Lately at times, I have lashed out in my dialogues and sometimes silly poems because I have been extremely frustrated with the lack of transparency and inefficiencies within the Municipal body, the various political factions, and now recently the Hoboken School system. As a result, in one case I have hurt someone who wants similar goals that I want and that person is Lane Bjardi. To him I have apologized. However, if I aired things publicly that some view as destructive to the reform movement I do have one defense, I didn't get the memo.
His speech and Maureen Sullivan's stand up for two main points: 1) Hoboken needs to do bottom-up and not top-down budgeting to assess what Hoboken needs going into the future and 2) The Hoboken Administration and Teacher's Union needs to be accountable for the abysmal test scores that they have in their district. The heckling Teachers Union's sudden silence at the mention of that statement by Maureen was an indication that Union knew it was true.
With baseball players like Alex Rodriguez making millions of dollars and morally bankrupt financial sheisters like Bernie Maddoff making billions off the buying and selling of others, I can completely understand why teachers would say they deserve a pay raise and they do. Teaching is a hard job and I will not be lumped into being one of those people who says it is not. During the latest economic boom, many in the private sector enjoyed unprecedented gains in income and wealth. With this latest financial and asset bubble collapse, those gains it turned out were based on a stacked deck of cards. It is a sad dose of reality for those in the private sector and I was appalled at the meeting that more in the teacher's union could not at least empathize with those whose taxes have just gone up. The conduct of quite a few in that audience was a poor reflection on the School system and a bad example for those they teach.
The reality is this, Hoboken Schools have one of the highest per pupil costs in the country and are poorly performing in many key areas. I know Carmela Garcia pointed out that there are many programs that they have been working on and I am sure that many teachers are doing their best. To say that we are here for the children is an empty platitude and nothing more. It does not also address the need to be judicious with public funds to provide the Education. It is about responsibility and accountability. If the School System was truly doing it for the children they would also take into account the financial constraints of those parents who a trying to put their kids through the public schools and stay in Hoboken. Do that and you are "doing it for the family". The Public sector is structured differently than the private sector and for that teachers and other public servants get a certain degree of job security and benefits. The Unions also have seniority clauses and tenure so the types of remedies available to executives in the private sector for cost cutting can not be implemented here. This point I think most people get.
I was frustrated by the fact that neither the teachers nor the Public had access to the details of the contract before this went to vote. Many of the public speakers also brought that up. This is an issue of transparency that can easily be remedied. Once the contract is finalized for vote, let the teachers and public see it. Jack Raslowsky talked about mis-information being present at prior meetings and I think transparency will eliminate that concern but he and the Board have to make it happen.
The teacher's union now has an increase of 4.3% percent for the next three years. I do congratulate them on a hard fought victory. However, I now expect to see that those test scores and other measures of student performance go up. If they don't, I will be personally reticent to give any more increases until the Union holds it's teachers more accountable for performance. Also with Jack Raslowsky's pledge to not apply for a cap waiver, there is a big risk that the teacher's Union could see layoffs if he holds true to his word that the cap won't be exceeded. If an analysis of staffing levels is done analytically and honestly and compared to other school districts the answer is clear with respect to the reason for the high cost per pupil. If the district would be willing to find out how many students are not from Hoboken and send the bill to the appropriate municipalities for those students, maybe the hard hit taxpayers of Hoboken would be more appreciative of an attempt to Regionalize the School System if that is the intent.
Jack Raslowsky has stated that there will be three meetings on the budget in February and March and I urge all to voice your concerns. Temper your anger over the high taxes and understand the need for good and well paid teachers, but hold them accountable as well as their parents and the administration and keep asking the questions like is all this spending really needed to educate Hoboken's children? ◦
