Posted on 04/27/2010 4:48:37 PM PDT by Huntress
Thousands of New Jersey high school students walked out of class Tuesday to protest budget cuts, a statewide event organized through text messages and social networking websites.
Students at Rancocas Valley High School in Burlington County left school just before 8 a.m. to show their support for teachers in light of Governor Chris Christie's proposed education cuts in the state budget.
Chopper 3 HD was over Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees just before 10 a.m. as students took part in the protest.
At Williamstown High School in Gloucester County, their protest plans backfired as officers arrived and according to the students, they were told to leave school. The students told Eyewitness News officers told them that they were not allowed to reenter the school.
Protests were held throughout the day as thousands of students throughout New Jersey joined the event organized through Facebook.
Last week, a majority of voters in New Jersey rejected 59 percent of school budgets in the state's 537 school districts.
It was the first time in 34 years that the majority of budgets were defeated.
The battle over school funding has been especially acrimonious this year since Gov. Christie's budget proposal last month called for schools to see their combined direct state and federal aid decreased by about 11 percent on average—with many districts getting bigger reductions than that.
Most of the state's school districts planned teacher layoffs and tax increases to make up for the lost aid.
Christie says layoffs can be avoided, though, if school employees agree to one-year salary freezes and to start paying 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health insurance premiums.
Most of the state's teachers unions have balked at the notion, though, saying Christie is unfairly trying to balance the state's budget at their expense. Christie has been unapologetic, consistently criticizing the leaders of the New Jersey Education Association for being selfish.
The NJEA says students are "engaging in civil disobedience" but shouldn't walk out of classes.
Governor Christie's office responded with the following statement: "First, students belong in the classroom, and we hope all efforts were made to curtail student walkouts. It is also our firm hope that the students were motivated by youthful rebellion or spring fever – and not by encouragement from any one-sided view of the current budget crisis in New Jersey. Students would be better served if they were given a full, impartial understanding of the problems that got us here in the first place and why dramatic action was needed."
Department of Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said he hoped schools would enforce their attendance policies and did not permit students to walk out.
Keep on protesting, just like yer parents!
wonder where the kids got this idea from, I eamn i bet the teachers said nothing about this to the kids did they
ARF
Now if my kids had done this then I’d be there right away taking them back into school and then telling the teacher and principle why the hell did they let the kids do this in the first place
The fact that these students support dems and rino spend and tax politics as usual shows that education is at an all time low in America.
So why not hand the students their diplomas and a bill at the same time.
Brain dead students.
Again I ask; who cares what children think?
Dig down far enough and you will find the Teacher’s Union organizing this.
Easy to solve this problem. Close the schools!!!! Take a year down then rebuild the entire education system.
These fools might as well carry signs that say,
“2+2 can equal 100, if we just want it to!”
Thats one way to reduce class size...
what? kids walking out of a classroom doesn’t have to be organized...
when I was in Catholic school some 20+ years ago the teachers went on strike- we joined them....didn’t care about their plight just wanted to get out of class!!
As far as I’m concerned, they can just keep walking.
Those stupid kids don’t know the first thing about this situation. If they did, the kids would realize that they will be the ones paying these bills that could bankrupt us and lead to even more drastic budget cuts! I wonder if this movement was fomented by teachers?
If so, they sure are in dereliction of their duties. It would be no surprise though, considering the rabid nature of these teacher unions.
p.s. If the federal department of education was terminated today, the country would save 200,000,000 dollars for a communist run communist staffed democart burecrat organization of scum sucking fool communists alone.
They would never be missed and no one but these overpaid scum suckers would be affected and education would improve if only the states had the guts to say no to the Washington DC scum polititions.
Punish them like smokers. Put a $1 tax on each text message. After all, it’s more noxious than second-hand smoke.
[would save 200,000,000 dollars]
200,000,000,000 billion that is.
no students, no need for teachers.
Lock the doors - start over next year.
All students returning are one year behind.
All teachers are out a year’s pay.
WHICH GROUP OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES WANT TO COMPLAIN NEXT ? WHO ? WHO ?
The fact is this:
Discipline must be swift & fines administered swiftly to the parents.
New Jersey has the highest taxes in America, Especially their school taxes.
Any Administrator who fails to act accordingly should be fired.
And who initiated the Facebook protest?
Once they were in,if teachers didn’t mark them as absent,then nothing is lost. You can bet the teachers did not mark them as out considering they were doing what the teachers want. Nobody wants to have to tighten their belt but most will when faced with that choice. The exception of course are unions who refuse to tighten or even admit that they are one of the major problems in our economy.
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