Blogging Again

I voted today for 3 positions on the Jersey City School Board. It was the most depressing time I've ever voted. There is no money for the schools, and the taxes already are crazy high. I talked to a woman at the local city council office who described herself as broker than broke. People are unemployed/partially employed (that would be me) and they would normally support a raise for their teachers, but the teachers are asking for a 4% raise each year with zero inflation - and no one on the board has even seen a copy of the contract that was negotiated. Everything here in NJ seems to be done in some swapped-out deal in a deep dark back room and now the state is totally broke, and a lot of elected officials are either under indictment for something or pleading guilty to bribery and corruption charges. Meanwhile there are plenty of people at the top of the School Administration system and other government offices still making 6 figure salaries and driving mercedes. The vote was for 3 School Board positions and whether or not to ratify the contract for the teachers. If you ratify the contract the taxes go up and if you don't ratify it the teachers are devalued and either way there's going to be layoffs.

Total lose/lose scenario.