Former New Jersey governors Brendan T. Byrne and Tom Kean in the Star-Ledger on the prospects of legislative hearings and other RTTT matters:
BYRNE: Children are suffering and everyone is trying to figure out which Republican to blame. This is a luxury for Democrats.
KEAN: The Democrats shouldn’t wallow in this. I don’t think the hearings will tell us anything we don’t know, so I wish the Democrats and the Republicans would get back on a platform to improve the woefully bad schools in the state that just aren’t educating kids. That should be the issue.
BYRNE: The schools are not woefully inadequate. I’m told that in my hometown of Millburn seven students were accepted at Princeton last year. To me, that’s awesome.
KEAN: Congratulations to Millburn. But that’s one of the richest towns in the country. We have to concentrate on Newark, Irvington, East Orange, Camden, Paterson — towns where kids are not getting a decent education. And we shouldn’t rest until they are.
BYRNE: What you’re saying, in effect, is that poorer districts are suffering. I concede that. That’s a money question.
KEAN: No. No, that is not a money question. It’s about reforming the system. And we’ve lost momentum in that area because of this latest controversy.
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