Students have vowed to protest state aid cuts by walking out of class today
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
Students have vowed to protest state aid cuts by walking out of class today but it's unclear how many students will participate or which school districts will be affected.
A Facebook page launched by Michelle Lauto, 18, a former Northern Valley Regional High School student who is now in college, encourages students to cut class for the protest; more than 13,000 have signed up to participate.
The page, called "Protest NJ Education Cuts – State Wide School Walk Out," exhorts students – with incorrect spelling at times — to express their outrage against state funding cuts. The planned protest comes one week after a majority of school budgets were rejected for the first time in 34 years. Voters in 537 districts turned down 59 percent of the budgets. Bergen County was the only county in the state to pass the majority of school budgets.
The walkout was planned before the school elections, but after Governor Christie announced he was freezing aid promised to districts this year and cutting $820 million for fiscal 2011. Christie says the cuts are necessary to close an $11 billion state budget gap. The governor has asked teachers to freeze their salaries for one year to soften the impact of layoffs and program cuts caused by the loss in state aid.
"This is one of the most serious things to ever happen in the state of New Jersey," the Facebook page says. "The only potential for change lies in the students. The youth who will be effected [sic] by all these cuts need to rise up and do something."
Students from Hackensack High School, Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, Academies@Englewood, Rosa Parks High School in Paterson, Cresskill High School and Rutgers University are among those who pledged to join the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. walkout.
The Christie administration has insisted students belong in class and accused teachers of staging a recent student walkout in Cliffside Park. On Friday, New Jersey Education Association spokesman Stephen Wollmer echoed the view that students should stay in school.
"We do not endorse a student walkout," Wollmer said. "It would be totally inappropriate for any educator
FILE PHOTO BY TARIQ ZEHAWI
Buy this photoMore than 500 teachers protested education cuts last week. Now a NJ student group on Facebook is urging students to stage a statewide walkout on Tuesday.
The page, called "Protest NJ Education Cuts – State Wide School Walk Out," exhorts students – with incorrect spelling at times — to express their outrage against state funding cuts. The planned protest comes one week after a majority of school budgets were rejected for the first time in 34 years. Voters in 537 districts turned down 59 percent of the budgets. Bergen County was the only county in the state to pass the majority of school budgets.
The walkout was planned before the school elections, but after Governor Christie announced he was freezing aid promised to districts this year and cutting $820 million for fiscal 2011. Christie says the cuts are necessary to close an $11 billion state budget gap. The governor has asked teachers to freeze their salaries for one year to soften the impact of layoffs and program cuts caused by the loss in state aid.
"This is one of the most serious things to ever happen in the state of New Jersey," the Facebook page says. "The only potential for change lies in the students. The youth who will be effected [sic] by all these cuts need to rise up and do something."
Students from Hackensack High School, Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, Academies@Englewood, Rosa Parks High School in Paterson, Cresskill High School and Rutgers University are among those who pledged to join the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. walkout.
The Christie administration has insisted students belong in class and accused teachers of staging a recent student walkout in Cliffside Park. On Friday, New Jersey Education Association spokesman Stephen Wollmer echoed the view that students should stay in school.
"We do not endorse a student walkout," Wollmer said. "It would be totally inappropriate for any educator