Categories: News

Dialogue of the Day

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.

Laura Waters

View Comments

  • BYRNE: "What you’re saying, in effect, is that poorer districts are suffering. I concede that. That’s a money question."

    Honestly, what the heck is Byrne thinking? Wait a minute... He's simply thinking like a Democrat.

    Urban schools in NJ spend upwards of $25,000 to $35,000 per student annually, making them not merely the highest funded schools in New Jersey or even in America; NJ urban schools are the highest funded public schools IN THE WORLD!

    But repeating the same NJEA mantra for the last 45 years is all Democrats can do. Schools bad? Throw more money at them.

    Hey Brendan, your solution has not worked for 3 generations now.

    UGH! It's so darned frustrating.

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