(TRENTON) — Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis D. Greenwald (D-Camden) issued a multimedia package Thursday in which he questions the reductions in funding in Gov. Christie’s proposed budget for education assistance for the blind and visually impaired.
The multimedia package consists of a video of Assemblyman Greenwald discussing the impact of the cuts and audio and a transcript of same.
The video can be accessed directly via our website — www.assemblydems.com — or by clicking here.
The audio file is available upon request.
A transcript of comments from Assemblyman Greenwald follows:
Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald (D-Camden), Assembly Budget Committee Chair:
“Well we’ve heard just remarkable testimony from children who happen to be visually impaired and they were very passionate, articulate and educated on what is an impact in their lives personally.
“There is a cut in this budget, proposed, of $1.53 million. It’s going to reduce the teaching staff by a third. We should be looking at programs that are failing and looking to eliminate those programs or restructure them. Don’t take a program that’s been wildly successful and scale it back.
“I think we always have to look at what are creative alternatives and solutions to problems. But we need to make sure that we’re not doing them on the backs of the most vulnerable.
“And it seems that time and time again, we come up and there seems to be decisions made — and you’ll hear them throughout the hearing with the Department of Human Services — where we are taking from the have-nots so that we can give more to the haves.”