(TRENTON) – Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Passaic/Bergen) released the following statement Monday after the Assembly Budget Committee upon which he serves heard testimony from the Department of Education and Schools Development Authority:
“The testimony we heard today continues to leave me worried about the wrong direction education policy has taken under Gov. Christie. The concerns are many, and as far as I can tell the administration lacks a long-term overall plan for education in our state.
“Educating our children needs to be a priority, but consider:
- Gov. Christie has never fulfilled the state’s school funding formula, short-changing school districts, leaving schools without essential resources and driving up property taxes across the state;
- Gov. Christie has failed to timely appoint members and organize numerous task forces, including the Special Education Task Force, the School Security Task Force and the Education Task Force;
- The state lacks a coherent plan to transition authority in state-controlled districts back to the local citizenry;
- The proposed budget does not fully fund pre-school;
- The Christie administration refuses to facilitate a discussion of mandatory full-day kindergarten statewide; and
- School construction remains inordinately slow and burdened with expensive and wasteful administrative overhead.
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“Education is no place for catchphrases and slogans. It’s time for Gov. Christie to get serious and get to work developing a long-term education plan that takes into account all the needs of children, schools and taxpayers in New Jersey.”