I grew up in the area. Paterson and Passaic have been hellholes for forty years. High crime, drugs,corrupt governments,bad schools.
So the libs passed in 1976 the state income tax and a lib judge created the 31 Abbott districts. All hellholes. Some are so bad, like Newark and Camden, they had to be taken over by the state.
Tax money has been siphoned off to these districts, and property taxes are raised in the other districts to make up local needs not funded by the state.
Paterson and Passaic are old industrial towns that have ALWAYS had high percentage of immigrants going back over a hundred years ago.
80% disadvantaged, 22% special needs? Yeah, right.
And the kids are dumber and dumber each year. But it’s not their fault or the fault of the education bureaucracy. IT’S THE LACK OF FUNDS,YOU KNOW!
Hell the amount of money spent on NJ education is bigger than the GNP of about half the world’s countries.
Thirty years and the places are worse than ever—not only in the schools, but in everything. Paterson was America’s Arsenal of Democracy in the 19th Century(Civil War) right into WW2—the industrial base rivalled Detroit in his massiveness and variety.
A proud city brought to ruin by the libs.
But don’t worry, next year they’ll ask for more money, after all it’s for the children.
That’s one reason I live in another state now.
“Tax money has been siphoned off to these districts, and property taxes are raised in the other districts to make up local needs not funded by the state.”
I live in the northern part of Passaic county and I know the feeling.