Categories: News

If the Education Committee’s Session Wasn’t Enough of a Hoot

…the Senate Education Committee is considering a bill, S295, that disqualifies school board members from service without criminal history background checks.

Perfectly reasonable, right? (Though, of course, school board members are volunteers yet would have to foot the cost of their own finger prints.) Then, according to PolitickerNJ, Mary Catherine Sudiak, a board member from Cranford, inquired, “‘Why are board members being singled out given the other legislators,’ Sudiak said, before dropping the Central Jersey smackdown: [Legislators] Joe Vas, Daniel Van Pelt, Neil Cohen.”

Oh, snap! Assemblyman Joe Vas: indicted on charges in 2009 for conspiring with Perth Amboy employees to bill the city for clothing and sneakers, plus rigging a housing lottery to benefit his personal driver.

Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt: convicted in May for accepting a $10,000 bribe from a corrupt real estate developer.

Assemblyman Neil Cohen: pleaded guilty in April for distributing child pornography.

Laura Waters

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  • Get with the program!

    The cost of background checks will be subsumed in a candidate's necessary fund-raising once voting is moved to November and school elections become a subset of local club politics.

    Haven't most of our recent public-service miscreants attempted to defend themselves with leftover campaign funds?

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