KUDOS to our governor for riding the zeitgeist and making fear, anger and loathing the wind beneath his wings. As a result of his formidable skills, is anyone absolutely certain that greed does not motivate everyone who seeks or leaves the position of public schools superintendent?
Even I wonder whether my self-professed commitment to the mission of public education was all sham all of the 38 years that I’ve made it my living.
Too many are unemployed, underpaid, underappreciated or otherwise underwater. Recognizing the opening these plights present, our governor draws a direct line from their taxes to the salaries, pensions and benefits of public employees who should not only “share the pain” but who might be proffered as reasons for why the
RECORD COLUMNIST
NEWARK has laid off 167 cops, 13 percent of the city’s force, including nearly every officer hired since 2006.
Facing an $83 million budget gap, Mayor Cory Booker says layoffs are unavoidable. This batch is the largest since 1978, when Kenneth Gibson, then mayor, dismissed 200 officers, resulting in a spike in crime.
There will be no such spike this time, vows Police Director Garry McCarthy. He has reorganized the department’s command structure to keep crime in check. Well, we will see.
Camden, struggling with the second-highest violent-crime rate in the country, is taking even more drastic action to hold down costs. It is preparing to lay off nearly