[reposted from the MOMS Club mailing list - it's not appropriate to discuss political issues within the MOMS Club framework, so if you have opinions on this topic, or would like to start a discussion, please feel free to do so here on this forum. --Lisa]
Hi Moms
There are currently 2 bills to be voted on Monday 1-22-07 that could change schools in NJ drastically. While Morris County is not one of the targeted counties it is my understanding that this would be statewide. There is more about it in the Star ledger and independent press this week and a huge article yesterday in the star ledger about Chatham moms gathering in a gym in one of the schools and just continued calling all the important numbers for two hours...after an hour and half, Codey's office stopped answering the phones!!
This is how a friend described what the bill would do:
Corzine's idea to lower property taxes which my husband said would raise our taxes anyway....is to combine all towns in the county, to make a 'super district" and have one major superintendent, which then means that if a kid from another town, under no child left behind, needs a better education they could take our kids and stick them in another school in anther town and put that kid in our town. We would have no say in the budget for our town, that super superintendent would, teacher hiring would be different too...they could take our teachers and move them all around the new district (any town in the county) which would mean that all the good teachers in our town move to other towns and vise versa.
This is the link to the actual bills themselves:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillsByNumber.asp>
Here is what you can do:
Call or email you legislator:
Senate President Richard Codey: (973) 731-6770 or SenCodey@njleg.org
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts: (856) 742-7600 or AsmRoberts@njleg.org
Senator Thomas Kean: (908) 232-3673 or SenKean@njleg.org
Assemblyman Eric Munoz: (908) 232-3673 or AsmMunoz@njleg.org
Assemblyman Jon Bramnick: (908) 232-3673 or AsmBramnick@njleg.org
You may wish to email Governor Corzine.
To do so, go to www.nj.gov and follow the prompts to email the Governor. You fill out a form and put the following script at the bottom.. OR You can also call the Office of the Governor at 609-292-6000. You tell them that you are strongly opposed to the bills A4 and S10. They tally your response and pass it on to the Governor.
A sample script of an email that you can send is as follows:
Dear ,
My name is _____________ and I am a strongly opposed to bills A4/S10 and A8/S7. I believe these bills offer no real property tax relief and are extremely bad for the children of New Jersey.
Thank you.
In the subject section of the address, put “vote no for A4/S10 and A8/S7 “
