New Jersey Assesses the School Vote Damage
By LOIS DESOCIO AND JEAN-PIERRE MESTANZAThe voter turnout for the board of education elections and budget approvals was the largest in years, both locally and across the state.
But the voter backlash from the cuts by Gov. Christopher J. Christie and the resulting impact on school administrators to cut, trim and pass their budgets in a matter of days was huge.
The reverberations are only just starting to be felt throughout the state, and it’s not much of a leap to predict the political forecast for New Jersey in the coming weeks: stormy, with a high probability of thunder and lightning. And watch out for plenty of local damage.
Of the 541 budgets up for a vote, 316 were rejected. That’s 58 percent voted down, the largest failure rate since the New Jersey School Boards Associationstarted keeping track in 1976, according to today’s Star Ledger.
For a good look on the numbers, the New Jersey School Boards Association’sWeb site lists the county-to-county school budget election results for the last 10 years.
Locally, the budget was approved in Millburn by approximately 60 percent of voters.
The budget is not on the ballot in South Orange and Maplewood. The Board of School Estimates approves it.
But as reported in Winnie Hu’s article in today’s New York Times, the message, “‘enough is enough’ resounded across the state, from urban to rural districts…,” including our neighbor, West Orange, where “heavier steps, like