From the Star Ledger:
Struggling N.J. school district wants to raise taxes 36% in ‘shocking’ move
Local officials are facing off in Plainfield after the city’s board of education proposed raising local school property taxes by 36% — the district’s first tax increase in six years — to help close a budget gap.
Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp publicly criticized the move, saying it would further burden residents who are already facing financial struggles in the Union County city.
“This decision, which will place an even greater financial strain on homeowners, is a shocking abdication of the BOE’s duty to be responsible stewards of public funds,” the mayor said in a statement.
Plainfield’s median household income was $70,712 in 2022, according to Census figures. That is among the lowest in the county.
During the city’s March 18 board of education meeting, officials said the school tax increase was necessary to offset the dwindling state aid the district has relied on in recent years.
In a 7-1 vote, the Plainfield Board of Education approved a preliminary $338 million school district budget and introduced a measure to raise the local tax levy from 2.14% to 2.92% for the next school year.
The increased tax levy would mean school taxes would increase by about 36% — amounting to an $853 annual increase in taxes for the average homeowner, according to the board.
“I know that is not an easy pill to swallow, nor is it easy as a taxpayer here in the city of Plainfield, as a homeowner, to deliver,” Cameron Cox, Plainfield Board of Education business administrator, said while presenting the budget.
It takes an unfathomable amount of incompetence to alienate Japan and South Korea to such a degree that they lock arms with China against the United States.
So stupid. So dumb. So bad for the United States.
1 & 2
Nearly 100 years ago, the US enacted a tariff law that set off a global trade war and prolonged and deepened the Great Depression.
“This is going to be much bigger than Smoot-Hawley,” says Douglas Irwin, an economic historian at Dartmouth College, who points to both the expected leap in tariff rates and the amount of trade covered as likely to eclipse what happened in 1930. “Imports are a much greater share of GDP now than they were back in the early 1930s by a long shot.” Imports of goods and services are 14% of US gross domestic product — about triple the share they accounted for in 1930.
1st non stable genius.
Schools rely on state funding which is based on a weird formula. If that gets cut, towns like Plainfield have no choice but to raise taxes. They cannot close schools can they?
My 401k is turning 1k
UPDATED
TUE, APR 1 2025 7:40 AM EDT
Dow futures drop 200 points to start quarter on fears Trump’s tariffs will be more severe than expected: Live updates
Brian Evans
Lisa Kailai Han
I’m waiting for the day they actually make Jersey City pay for their schools.
I see France is doing a good job of defending democracy.
When the world stops buying American products, what is going to happen to those American businesses and the people who work for them? Without the competition of foreign products, what competition will there be to keep prices down at American companies? We already saw the greed of American companies during the bout of inflation a few years ago. Then you have all of these recently laid off government workers looking for jobs in the private sector, but with much less competition from immigrants driving labor costs higher. When one sector raises prices, then all of the others start doing it because it’s more expensive to purchase products and services. Without the competition from overseas, inflationary pressures will be increased. You have been warned again. After April, where demand was pushed forward for many large ticket items, it’s gonna be ugly, ugly, ugly right into the start of Summer. Then we’ll see how resilient the consumer will be among the backsplash of inflation and a tight labor market like it’s 2009 again. On the bright side, $600,000 was saved on menstrual research for transgendered.
Doesn’t it feel Great?
And just when you thought all of these Doge cuts might make a difference, Trump plans to cut the corporate tax rates which will diminish government revenue like it did last time, somehow increasing the debt even after making all of these cuts. And you wonder why Trump has been such a business failure. Meanwhile, Elon is using Trump like a butt wipe.
WI supreme court election results will be telling of the future. Can elections be bought?
Doge cuts are completely bullshit.
Smoke and mirrors while he strong-arms every agency into purchasing his products.
Public obviously dumb enough to believe the “fraud and waste” mantra that continually spews from their mouths. Nothing they are doing has anything to do with fraud or waste.
8:02, Jersey City schools received huge funding while central jersey school funding was cut. While I am all for distributing some of the property taxes around, the S2 calculation is a bit too unfair for central NJ schools.
The loophole to fix it – which is remove Chriaty’s 3% tax cap, will start having repercussions – as written in the main article by Grim.
I almost sound republican…ugh
8:37, Elon’s software products are “free”… so they avoid checks and balances (Lutnik said it in his interview with Chamath and David). He will be compensated in other ways!
Can’t make this sh1t up!
remove Chriaty’s 3% tax cap? That won’t fix it.Newark property taxes only raises 300 million a year for it’s schools, the state has to kick in over a billion every year. Most expensive per student funding and arguably some of the worst results in the country.
There has to be a better way, nearly unlimited state funding has not worked, decades upon decades of failing to educate those children.
Fix is easy.
Consolidate schools at the county level, or force consolidation at the municipal level.
But neither will ever happen.
As far as property taxes go and schools it’s important to remember one thing. It’s all for the children!
will this happend then ?
https://x.com/mnhousegop/status/1906044126857990572
Grim is correct as usual.
We need regionalization. But your kids would have to go to school with black and latino kids, so that’ll never happen here. Especially under MAGA rule.
It would also help with all of the school districts that are forced to pay millions defending special needs cases in courts and the cost of sending them to private schools when they lose (which they always do).
Happened down here. Howell, Freehold Township, Freehold Boro, Manalapan, Marlboro and Colts Neck regionalized into a single school district. The reward was that Trenton reviewed the per pupil spending and decided that they need to cut state subsidies. So being responsible and frugal meant that money got shunted elsewhere. Good lesson for the children.
grim says:
April 1, 2025 at 8:47 am
Fix is easy.
Consolidate schools at the county level, or force consolidation at the municipal level.
But neither will ever happen.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freehold_Regional_High_School_District
Instability seems to be good for some people. Gold is over $3,100 an ounce and the defence industry in the EU is operating like it’s on steroids.
It’s always amazing to me how the Left will defend any amount of spending at the federal or state level for god knows what while simultaneously criticizing the local school budget and consistently being against teachers ever gaining a leg forward on salary.
We need regionalization. But your kids would have to go to school with black and latino kids, so that’ll never happen here. Especially under MAGA rule.
Lib, that’s complete BS. There’s only one side here that systematically ensures those kids are trapped in their own segregated districts.
Dear High school child, is your guidance counselor educated enough to predict which path you need to take for the future? Or is she just thinking about how much her home has gone up in value, her hair appointment, and her retirement date with pension? Do you really think she gives one shite in life about you and if you sink or swim in the future?
The United States is on the cusp of a massive economic shift due to AI, and it’s likely to cause greater change than anything President Donald Trump does in his second term. Much good can come from AI, but the country is unprepared to grapple with the need for millions — or perhaps tens of millions — of workers to shift jobs and entire careers.
Fem N’ Ism.
Not safe for work, or anywhere else for that matter. Only women can get away with things like this:
https://x.com/SeeRacists/status/1906865427785146684
Dark Phoenix,
I remember a book by an economist titled “The End of Work”. He basically said that with automation fewer workers would be required in the future and what should society do with all of these unemployed people. Maybe with automation and AI we are now at that point. We’ll be paying people not to work in the future.
No. We will just cage them up in El Salvador.
We’ll be paying people not to work in the future.
Chad Powers says:
April 1, 2025 at 9:52 am
Dark Phoenix,
I remember a book by an economist titled “The End of Work”
And I remember a movie titled “Revenge of the Nerds”
Starring Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos.
Boomer, you did this, every f’n bit of it. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Lib, that’s complete BS. There’s only one side here that systematically ensures those kids are trapped in their own segregated districts.”
If it were up to the right, any families without the means to pay for private school wouldn’t go to school.
Again, that’s total bs.
but what was interesting was your town of Montclaire systematically ensured nobody went to school nearly the entire duration of the 2020/2021 school year.
I might also point out that you yourself defended it and claimed it was no big deal.
BRT says:
April 1, 2025 at 9:36 am
We need regionalization. But your kids would have to go to school with black and latino kids, so that’ll never happen here. Especially under MAGA rule.
Lib, that’s complete BS. There’s only one side here that systematically ensures those kids are trapped in their own segregated districts.
::::::::::::::::::::::
Well, you have that down south don’t you? It’s segregated down there as well. The rich kids go to private schools, and the poor kids go to schools where the teachers make a salary similar to an NJ Burger King worker.
Y’all gettin’ that same NJ type pension down in the Carolinas? Why do all the old goats of Jersey not stay here when they retire with the big cash pot?
Like any other whore, they are here for the money, and there to keep it.
Controversial take. End mandatory schooling and kick out the students who are there to disrupt not learn. This will result in smaller class sizes and less discipline problems.
Teachers were afraid they were going to die, and had the ability to run like Forest Gump or the Uvalde PoPo.
Me and my trainees, nah, we soldiered up Hamburger Hill.
God I miss that first group of trainees that I had. Those girls were tough as nails. Dragging body bag one after another with me, with some of these girls only 100 lbs at most. Things I will never forget.
BRT says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:13 am
but what was interesting was your town of Montclaire systematically ensured nobody went to school nearly the entire duration of the 2020/2021 school year.
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:18 am
Controversial take. End mandatory schooling and kick out the students who are there to disrupt not learn.
So the ones that need the most help, have family problems, had a parent die or lost their job adding to their stresses.
But we will still spend the money on 300 pound boomer who has heart disease and needs 2 hips, all that could have been avoided with less fast food, chips and dip.
Controversial take.
Controversial take.
How about we stop sending our tax dollars to bomb places like Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Ukraine and just about anywhere else? How about stop sending ANY of our tax dollars to ANY other country as a form of support to them, and support our own at home?
Maybe we could then afford paved roads, teachers, and medical care.
Oh, and Afghanistan.
How much of the deficit went to dropping bombs in the desert?
Mama always said these shoes would take me anywhere…
Dark Phoenix wants to spend more money on schools and provide services to fix broken children, bold move cotton…
We should make a coin. Educoin. It would raise billions. Maybe clone Twitter and call it EduSocial? Raise another 100 billion.
Let’s allow children to work in factories again iffn they Cain’t sit still fer book learnin’
Haven’t heard Trump saying he is going to protect jobs in my field. No shortage of foreigners in my line of work. He planning to cut off the container loads of Filipinos coming to work in America?
Think those emergency rooms look bad now?
Lib: Stop with the MAGA on the school thing. It’s the leafy, wealthy, upper Bergen County towns whether the residents are liberals or conservatives who don’t want their kids going to school with Tyrone, Jose, Shonda, and Consuela. The more diverse towns like Bergenfield, Dumont, River Edge and Fairlawn among others already have their white kids going to public schools with diverse populations. It’s the uber wealthy towns that don’t want regionalization on a county level, and they don’t want multi family housing in their towns either, as it will bring down their properties values, and steal their sunshine, and horrors, Trey might end up dating Consuela. Yet many of these same people will proudly announce how liberal and tolerant they are
Dem kids could also enlist early in the armed forces. Say 14? Just boys though & no trannies. The girls would hafta find their own way.
I would have loved to pay for your father’s vasectomy, and I am willing to pay for yours.
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:27 am
Dark Phoenix wants to spend more money on schools and provide services to fix broken children, bold move cotton…
It’s not a liberal/conservative thing.
It’s a wealth thing.
I believe the children are our fuuuuuture. -Crackhead Whitney
10:32 Dark Phoenix performs vasectomies with it’s mouth….
Wealthy conservatives want their tax dollars to pay for private school vouchers so their kids can go to excellent white private schools.
Wealthy liberals want their tax dollars to pay for excellent white public schools.
Not much of a difference here at all. Until you see the impact of these funding differences.
Though, I won’t ever argue with you that throwing money at poorly performing public schools is a mistake. I am one of the few who would support forced integration. Send white kids to Newark and black kids to Glen Ridge. What you will learn is that peer selection has everything to do with school performance in the ghetto much like socio economics has everything to do with school performance in the leafy wealthier districts. But vouchers will do little more than defray private school costs while destroying public schools.
Job openings hit lowest level since September as labor market cools.
MAGA
Are we Great yet?
MAGA ‘winning’.
Job openings, down.
Unemployment, up.
Prices, still going up.
Stock market, down, a lot.
Consumer confidence, down a lot.
“What we voted for”.
Lol
Lib: Plenty of white liberals that would have no problem using vouchers to pay for public schools, and plenty of white conservatives who want their tax dollars funding good public schools. Liberals can be just as racist as any conservative or MAGA supporter, they are just subtle about. I have a multi ethnic/ racial extended family, so I get to hear lots of interesting perspectives on race etc, and often times it does not line up with the liberal orthodoxy. This of course goes back to many liberals having little to no interactions with people of color/ ethnic minorities, but of course they know best.
Money that could have been spent on Americans, and money that belongs to American taxpayers. Use it to fix the sinkhole, healthcare, education, or homeless American Veterans. It’s our money, needs to be used to take care of our own, not handed to foreigners.
Ukraine ($17.2B)
Israel ($3.3B)
Jordan ($1.7B)
Egypt ($1.5B)
Ethiopia ($1.5B)
Somalia ($1.2B)
Nigeria ($1B)
Congo (Kinshasa) ($990M)
Afghanistan ($886.5M)
Kenya ($846M)
3b spend some time working in a title 1 school. Stupid people of all colors exist.
Want better schools?? Make education a privilege not a right. Make expulsions easier and give power back to classroom teachers.
10:47 how much of “that” is humanitarian aid ? CA spent $24b on homeless yet the rate of unhoused people went up and no one knows where that money went….
Just because you are ineffective at your job doesn’t mean the kids are unteachable.
Maybe you should try working harder. 8 hour days are for wussies.
Stop crying and step up your game.
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:48 am
3b spend some time working in a title 1 school. Stupid people of all colors exist.
Want better schools?? Make education a privilege not a right. Make expulsions easier and give power back to classroom teachers.
California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the past five years but didn’t consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation, according to state audit released Tuesday.
With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country’s most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S.
Despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California doesn’t have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn’t improve in many cities, according to state auditor’s report.
“This report concludes that the state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs,” State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers.
The audit analyzed five programs that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding. It determined that only two of them are “likely cost-effective,” including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that provides housing assistance to prevent families from becoming homeless.
Under the $3.6-billion program that converts hotel and motel rooms, which is a linchpin in Newsom’s homelessness plan, the average cost of a room is at least 2.5 times cheaper than building a new home, the audit found. The housing assistance program, which has received $760 million over the past five years, gives an average of $12,000 to $22,000, depending on which county, to help a low-income family stay in their home. That’s a fraction of the roughly $50,000 the state spends on a person once they become homeless.
The remaining three programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, couldn’t be evaluated due to a lack of data.
10:53 hahaha – I work four hours a day in an untested subject. Zero fucks given.
But thanks for the attempt at a personal attack psycho.
Healthcare in this Country is a joke. But the punchline is you die! Penniless.
I don’t care what it’s for. It’s American money to be spent on Americans. If Americans are so generous, they can donate as much as they want to the respective countries they like. After tax payment, that is.
Then you can prove, Americans, just how generous you are, not how “generous” your government is with your money, especially when it is being charged on the taxpayers credit card, with interest.
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:52 am
10:47 how much of “that” is humanitarian aid ? CA spent $24b on homeless yet the rate of unhoused people went up and no one knows where that money went….
In other news my recent trip to my beloved Europe, revealed that for the most part people are terrified of what Trump is doing regarding how he is treating NATO allies and his insistence that they spend more on defense. The Germans have already got the message, the other Western European countries are scrambling. The economy in Europe is fairly weak, but expected to pick up this year, at least before the tariff madness. Where the money comes from to increase defense spending is yet to be determined. The UK economy is pretty much dead at the moment, lots of cut backs, high inflation, and low growth. Their military is overall in pretty sad shape from what I have been told. The young people in both the UK and EU, seem to be going to the extremes of left and right, not sure which side ultimately prevails, but right now it’s not the middle ground.
As for the migrant problem in Europe, Muslim integration is a big problem in Europe, and both left and right agree on that. Anyone that says it is not is clueless. By the way Edinburgh is a beautiful city, I highly recommend it. And, the food has gotten so much better, since my earlier travels. The food in England still ain’t great, but better, oh and Manchester airport is a dump.
The homeless in California scare you, it’s why your running for the hills.
They might just knife you in your Bimmer. Maybe buy a beat up Corolla perhaps?
You have to stop for gas sooner or later….
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:53 am
With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country’s most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S.
11:02 I’m already in the hills, psycho. Wildfires “scare” me as does owning uninsurable property.
If we stopped sending money to foreigners, it would go a long way to lowering bills here in America.
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 10:56 am
Healthcare in this Country is a joke. But the punchline is you die! Penniless.
Northern CA is home to the big biotechs. The only reason people are living longer is because the science there. The healthcare system that delivers it is like DoorDash.
The food in England still ain’t great.
Absolutely terrible, to be honest with you.
We eat a lot of curries when we are out that way.
Is 24 hours up yet?
Still waiting for Trump to end the war in Ukraine.
Lib: It’s still pretty bad in general, unless you go to one of the really pricey places, and even then it’s not as good as other countries and it costs more. That said the food has improved somewhat.
3b,
How was Edinburgh? I‘ll be there next month for one week. I went ahead and got my ETA. The price is going up from £10 to £16 in a few days.
3b – Not really, its about the wealth. Wealthy towns have good public schools.
Ridgewood:
White (Non-Hispanic): 67.1%
Asian (Non-Hispanic): 16.4%
Two or More Races (Hispanic): 6.03%
Two or More Races (Non-Hispanic): 3.64%
White (Hispanic): 2.75%
Black: 2.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native: 0.4%
Hispanic: 10%
Bergenfield:
White (Non-Hispanic): 33%
Asian (Non-Hispanic): 26.4%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 30.2%
Two or More Races: 11.4%
Other: 9.48%
Black or African American: 6.90%
Nor Cal 10:4
I agree with you completely, but ironically many Liberals would disagree with you. Your position is more aligned with the Conservatives position.
11:21 I know, I’m what they used to call a Blue Dog Democrat. Moderate and even a little conservative. I don’t align with the far left or the far right.
I’ve also spent far too much time in the classroom watching 2 or 3 kids torpedo a class of 30 and literally have no business bringing there. Not kids with IEP’s either. Undiagnosed psychos with idiots for parents.
See folks, apples never fall far from the tree.
Chad: Edinburgh was beautiful, it’s one of the prettiest cities in Europe in my view. Edinburgh Castle, Old Town with the cobbled streets, the city is surrounded by hills so the natural beauty is there as well. The city is divided into 2 levels, with Edinburgh castle on the upper level. We did not find Edinburgh all that expensive compared to NYC, and as I said the food was good. I had the haggis one day, which I enjoyed, but my wife passed. In my view Edinburgh is much prettier and cleaner than London.
Not Cal It’s a lonely place to be these days, I understand. You are considered suspect by both parties/ sides.
Fab: Wealthy towns don’t like diversity, that’s why they don’t want multi family housing in their towns.
Ten 415. Touched 413
Dedicated to Dark Phoenix:
https://nypost.com/2025/03/30/us-news/florida-dog-mom-films-herself-having-sex-with-chihuahua-cops/
Chgo: Depravity.
Everywhere I go, I get slandered, libeled
I hear words you never hear in the Bible
3b, welcome back from KGB training.
I was re-watching a Sopranos episode where Paulie and Chris chase the kgb guy in Pine Barrens, and you crossed my mind.
Rent: You sir are an Amadan. And as such I will ignore your ranting and ravings, and wild ill informed speculation.
Crazy, off-topic, getting in touch with my gay side, question.
I have a cold air nebulizing diffuser that we use to scent our home. After years of using reed diffusers, I upped the ante and absolutely love the impact it makes on the home. The problem is, the oil is friggin expensive. Any of you guys willing to admit you use one of these things and if so, where do you buy your oil from? I have the magic scent diffuser. Got it for free (btw).
Hey, for $1,000 I can see Lara Trump among my fellow Legacy of Liberty Patriots
This Patriot thing is a hell of a marketing tool.
Lib,
Looks like you have a first world problem there with your cold air nebulizing diffuser. I worked in South Korea for 18 months and the apartment I rented had something similiar to what you are describing.
NewsMax raises another 77%
Grim, time to take this ship IPO
Lib,
Doesn’t the aerosolized oil settle on everything in your home?
Not if you buy the good stuff. $110 for 500ml. I’ve probably done about 5 hours of research on this alone. It seems like you have to pony up for the good stuff to avoid the problems. Because I don’t overdo it on the time the diffuser is diffusing, that $110 should last me close to a year. The 70 ml bottle that came with it (of this brand) lasted over two months. My on/off cycle is 30 seconds on/5 minutes off. They recommend 5/minutes on and 5/minutes off. Of course, they are in the business of selling oil at saffron prices. Plus, I don’t need my house to smell like a rose garden at max bloom. Just not smelling like stale Rheingold and Pall Mall’s is enough for me. Even at this impossibly low setting, our guests always comment on how amazing it smells in here. We are partial the Aria Hotel scent. Of course, if it was up to me, I would make it smell like cigarettes and spilt beer as a cruel joke.
Boomer,
You need a powerful nebulizing cold air diffuser and you need to make sure the oils used do not have paraffins and the like. The carrier is mainly grain alcohol so it disappears completely. There isn’t even oil residue on the up firing machine. The oil-free fragrances don’t work. They smell only when they are spraying.
I’ve pondered making my own, but it seems like you would waste a ton of money experimenting and the grain alcohol ain’t cheap to waste. Maybe when I retire.
Stop farting so much and open the windows Lib.
Yeah. That too.
NMAX up 105%. WTH
Ford back under $10 was $25 under Biden.
Tesla up 5% today and having quite the month.
Hmmmmmm.
Of course, MAGA can do no wrong.
Rent,
It’s the same morons living the FoxNews inspired dream. What do dummy Patriots invest in? Truth Social, Elon Musk, Trump Coins and now the conspiracy news network. It’s all they really live for. Want to laugh, I’ll share some comments from the DJT stock conversation boards.
“Maybe if the media would stop pushing fear and instability and start telling the truth the markets would react as badly.
Forever everyone had said the auto manufacturing is the true test of the American economy. Well with the UAW backing the Trump tariffs it seems to me that’s a great thing for the country. How does anyone not want jobs brought back to our country! Also why is the MSM refusing to talk about all of the billions of dollars being invested into the US work force.”
“The bleeding has to stop. I was on the cusp of retiring. Now it’s looking like 5 more years of work due to this”
“Raising Cash to pay us our cash dividends !”
“We appreciate this Sir, but with all due respect, what we really need right now is an EO ending the stock market manipulation.
Even just something as simple as banning the Market Maker Exemption would go a LONG way to ending Wall Street’s criminal fraud hurting retail investors.”
If there is one thing that is true about Truth Social posters. It’s that none of them understand the proper use of the English language.
Here comes the likely market plunge. Hope you all got out on yesterday’s gift. :P
When I make it big, I will hire someone to walk around after me, and whaft with the use of a large banana leaf, the scent of freshly ground coffee beans.
I’m in Nashville today. Every commercial and municipal lawn is mowed, modern signage/lights everywhere, good roads. A place like Teaneck is like being transported back to 1899 in comparison. Where does the money come from?
Tired of flying back to NYC metro from almost anyplace and going “sigh.. back in this dump”.
Lib, this is what we use…..for smells. “Saje” brand diffuser
https://www.saje.com/products/aroma-om-deluxe-cool-mist-diffuser-white?variant=48443542438185&srsltid=AfmBOorb7mKmTyKyTB6A_T7W4zhg0H8goKqhLbvCvDgRAZQdLtRtiaAAwTA
Thanks Ex.
2:11, And I thought this board was for the frugal
Boomer,
Go to the Goo Goo clusters store and get a fresh one. It is the best candy ever made. When I was a toddler, my rich grandparents on my real father’s side used to get these for us. When they are freshly made, there is nothing in the world like them.
https://googoo.com/
Nashville kicks ass in so many ways. When you have time, go check out a live show at the Grand ol’ Opry. Good luck parking.
Rent,
I got mine for free! Casino gift.
Nashville is great, I’ve watched it grow leaps and bounds since first coming here in 2011. This is my first time in Franklin, a corpo park area outside of Nashville. Seems like an easy life here.
Traffic can be horrendous there.
2:34 Dog owner here. Kinda need it!
Nashville is great, started going years ago before all the big country stars started opening their own bars. Going to a bachelor party there at the end of April. The old guys were invited. Then a few of us are going to the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg about an 1.5 hour trip. I have been there and could skip it, but they want to go, so we will go.
DNA 54 cents away.
I’ve had family in Bellemeade forever. Nashville people. Owned Bittner’s formal wear and rented to generations of country stars. My sweet ol’ Aunt was related to Dina Shore. Nice place! My dad was born there and has stories about going to parties at Peggy Lee’s
Re: the article at the top of the thread.
Plainfield is a district that always appears to be “hiring”, meaning it must be a miserable place to work. Churn is real in the teaching biz.
The ratings for the large high regional high school are middling. I wouldn’t want to foot the bill for mediocrity there.
Talking of Bergenfield, it made the list.
https://www.nj.com/education/2025/03/trump-is-trying-to-claw-back-85m-from-20-nj-school-districts-state-says.html
When I woke up this morning, I legit thought that the headline about the Booker overnight filibuster was an April fool’s joke.
On the original story du jour, NJ and NJ Teachers’ unions will forever resist allowing parents to have more choices for their students. Their take will come first, even if they help keep your kids stupid and poor.
I’m sure Plainfield schools would either up their game if they had more competition, or they’d rightly be shut down.
BRT, what % of the teachers and administrators in that district would you guess are subpar, worthless, or offer negative worth?
Florida has been pretty aggressive on that front, though I don’t have any first-hand experience dealing with it.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/26/desantis-florida-school-closures-00159926
I am surprised by the market action today, but it’s first of the month so anything could have happened. I expect tomorrow and the rest of the week to be like last night’s weather. Rolling Thunder.
FloRida
We don’t need no educashun, we don’t need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers, leave them kids alone
Hey, teacher, leave us kids alone
All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall
All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall
The House version would allow 13-year-olds to work during the summer of the year they turn 14, 16- and 17-year-olds work full time, and ease rules for some 14- and 15-year-olds.
Proposals going through the Florida legislature removing several child labor protections were just amended to allow some 13-year-olds to work.
The legislature last year passed policy allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work 30-hour weeks. This year, new proposals in the Florida House and Senate would allow them to work full-time and ease rules for 14- and 15-year-olds who are enrolled in homeschool, virtual education, or those who have already graduated. The house version would allow 13-year-olds to work during the summer of the year they turn 14.
CA has school choice and a proliferation of Charters.
Talk about weird, I taught in the Valley for two years. Celeb kids, rich weird and high maintenance. I have also spent time in Downtown LA (Dystopian) and the Foothills around Sylmar. Bizzare.
The district that I am in currently is top flight.
They wouldn’t happen to be chihuahuas would they?
NorCal says:
April 1, 2025 at 3:02 pm
2:34 Dog owner here. Kinda need it!
Basset Hound is the soul survivor. Lost a great dog last week. Came here with four! 8 years later, one 14 year-old Basset remains.
No One,
I am a big fan of charter schools as I’ve seen the success of quite a few in Newark. But completely missing from that Politico article is any information on how these Charter Schools enroll their students. Many in Newark do not work by lottery and are known to handpick the best and brightest of the former public schools students. This is a clear detriment to the public schools as they are left with classrooms filled with poorly performing students as the charters reveal great successes. There have been quite a number of questionable schools too. Such as French Only speaking schools in the burbs and other schools where the administration gets rich off of the handpicked students vouchers and the teachers get paid less than even their low paid public school counterparts. Competition is the driving force that makes charter schools successful, but just try to get your special needs kid into one. It’s not a level playing field. Clearly, the issue is the poor administration of the public schools and the lack of accountability of their funding. In my opinion, this is where the fixes should take place. Of course, the teacher’s union, wasting all of their dues on buying of politicians doesn’t help much either. Either way, I would love to see the overall academic records of all Florida kids to honestly measure if the voucher system is working. That article tells you nothing without it.
Grade inflation is a real issue especially in Charter schools. The real test is how the kids perform on the college entrance exams.
Seems to be the day for NJ schools. Pumps is this your district?
https://www.nj.com/education/2025/03/nj-school-district-wants-to-lay-off-40-staffers-get-rid-of-cops-in-schools.html
A Passaic County school district is weighing whether to lay off 40 employees and cut additional costs by using its own security officers rather than paying police, local officials.
The K-12 Wayne Township Public Schools district has held at least two school board discussion sessions on a proposed $197.9 million budget for the 2025-26 academic year.
NJ Charters for the win.
https://www.nj.com/education/2025/03/school-with-njs-highest-paid-superintendent-ordered-to-close.html
A public charter school in Mercer County led by the highest paid superintendent in New Jersey recently had its charter revoked and is slated to close at the end of the school year in June.
The school, Trenton Stem-to-Civics in Ewing, and its founder, Leigh Byron, were the subject of a 2024 NJ Advance Media investigation into excessive salaries funded by taxpayers paid to top officials at some of the state’s charter schools.
The state Department of Education revoked STEMCivics’ charter in January, effective June 30 of this year. The revocation came after the school failed to implement a remedial plan following its placement on probation in February 2023 for issues regarding compliance with its charter, state laws and regulations, according to a DOE letter first published by the Trentonian and obtained by NJ Advance Media.
With a $360,000 salary, Byron, 69, has regularly topped New Jersey’s list of highest paid superintendents, according to publicly available state data. The NJ Advance Media report found Byron actually made $671,867 in total compensation for the tax year between July 2022 and June 2023, according to tax forms filed by the school last year.
That salary seems excessive. Note: NJ also has lots of admin making $200k with lifetime six figure pensions and free healthcare. Most of these “Supervisors” are worthless and have zero contact with students. Just a big ol’ bloated salary for very little value add.
xxx Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has become the focus of exasperation inside the Trump administration ahead of the president’s “Liberation Day” implementation of reciprocal tariffs — with one saying the sentiment is so prevalent, it is “like being a mosquito at a nudist colony — where do you even start?” xxx
That’s awesome.
EXCELLENT!
Dark Phoenix says:
April 1, 2025 at 4:41 pm
They wouldn’t happen to be chihuahuas would they?
Stu – I use Apex Flavors.
You can find a good selection of higher quality food grade extracts and oils.
You can buy these in pretty small quantities as well. Now, they are all food-oriented flavors and aromas, so they aren’t going to carry whale puke or beaver anus and that other shit in perfume.
They are arranged by alcohol vs oil solubility. Though honestly, everclear can disolve a lot of oil. 200ml of a 10x folded, de-terpenated oil might last you an entire lifetime.
They do have florals as well. Citrus blossom and honeysuckle are awesome.
I have a box full of bottles I keep by my desk. I love folded citrus oils.l,
Hyper hyper clean aroma profiles.
Thanks. That’s exactly the info I was after.
I was on my school advisory board for a couple of years. Not an official position but volunteer – formed to strategize on budget shortfall.
Total budget for 2024: $190M.
Salaries: $80M
Healthcare: $30M
Transportation:$20M
Roofing:$10M
And bunch of other stuff.
The teachers deserved their salaries… at least 90% of them. Dealing with stupid kids is no joke.
But healthcare, and its raising cost, raising faster than inflation was very hard to control.
How much for retiree pension and healthcare?
DoorDashers don’t get paid much. So it most be the greedy big biotechs that are running up the tab.
NorCal says:
Northern CA is home to the big biotechs.
The only reason people are living longer is because the science there. The healthcare system that delivers it is like DoorDash.
RentL0rd says:
But healthcare, and its raising cost, raising faster than inflation was very hard to control.
Retiree pension was not a line item that came up.. Not sure why. School budgets are actually public information… you can google/perplexity and find out. I will see if I can dig it out.
Also, the average cost per kid comes to about $10K.
Not bad considering the school provides so much. My kids had Tubas, Violas and Cellos given for free for example. The bus is awesome and I am impressed with the teachers. Class size is about 22.
One of my daughter had a tough time in middleschool.. but that was because of online bullying and the school did a good job helping her.
Inspite of the taxes, I feel it is a bargain compared to private schools.
But if you don’t have kids… Or just one kid, it may not be a good bang for the buck.
Californians envy our schools.
California schools are “spotty” at best. Ranking well below NJ.
There’s also a 50% poverty rate in California.
Middle school we sent our child to Chatham Day school.
Socially it wasn’t a high point for her, but by the end of 7th grade she was in CA.
Thrived in middle school and high school. Lockdown for my family kicked ass. We had fun!