Governor Christie On School Funding: We Have A Way To Fix This And Lower Your Property Taxes
WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 30, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — Governor Christie: The people in this state are being driven from this state because of high property taxes. We know that. We also know that children across the state, especially in those 31 districts, are being driven from a productive, happy, successful future by a failed education system. Neither one of those things are acceptable to me. So now you know the governor has put forward what is now called a ‘radical’ school funding plan.
‘Radical.’ This ‘radical’ idea that everyone should be treated the same, and not like I just came up with it out of thin air. We’ve had 30 years of treating people differently, and we’ve had nothing but failure for it and driving people from their homes because their property taxes go up and up and up. Listen, any problem that’s been around for this long is hard to fix.
And it means that there is going to be some people who get more and some people who get less. I don’t have a magic wand, everybody – where I am going to make everybody happy and I’m going to fix every problem and it is not going to make anybody upset. I think you all learned about me a long time ago that there are some things I’m concerned about, and making people upset isn’t one of them.
I’m the governor of New Jersey for God’s sake. We are perpetually upset, right? So we have got to have this conversation, it’s uncomfortable, it’s uncomfortable. But here is the thing, I walked in today, and I got a bunch of people protesting outside. That’s how I knew I was home. And they’re from the Teacher’s Union, and they protest this. Why? Why? Now, I could tell you I could understand it if I was cutting funding to schools. Well they would say, ‘We work at schools, that means there’ll be less money for schools, which means there’ll be less money for us and we’re against that.’ I completely understand that.
They are defending a failed system. How can you defend a 66% graduation rate in Asbury Park at $33,000 (per student) a year. How do you defend it? It’s impossible to defend it. Forget about from a taxpayer perspective, we know we’re getting shafted here. How do you defend it for those kids and their families? How do you say that’s good enough? I had some newspaper columnist write this week, ‘Well it’s better than some other states do.’ I’m like yeah, dude, send your kids there. I don’t know. They’re not sending their kids to Asbury Park. Not sending their kids to Asbury Park. We have to think this way: that every child in this state is our child. We’re paying enough for them, it’s almost like we are. Every child in this state is our child.
And for your own child, if they were in a school with a 66 percent graduation rate and you had any way of getting them out and getting them some place better you’d get them out. We have a way to fix this and to lower your taxes at the same time. It’s not a bad deal. It’s going to mean breaking some china, it’s going to mean making some people uncomfortable. Well, I’d rather have people uncomfortable than have them failed. I’d rather have people uncomfortable than to waste the potential of children.
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Press Contact:
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