It’s all too easy to criticize Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget.
We are frustrated at losing valuable programs and services. We’re anxious about how our profession will fare, and who will have a job come September. We want to maintain the high quality of New Jersey education for students.
Yet Gov. Christie was dealt a difficult hand. A decade of spending and a national recession combined to create an $11 billion gap. Taking office while New Jersey was in a state of fiscal emergency, Gov. Christie took the steps to close that gap.
It was a daunting task and one not unfamiliar to us at New Jersey Association of School Administrators (NJASA). As chief education officers, superintendents of schools are the ones who make those tough decisions at the local level. Many of our members have already taken salary freezes or reductions. We are working to educate principals, teachers and parents about the need to do more with less. The decisions have been painful, with superintendents meeting face to face with parents, teachers and community leaders to explain why favored programs and nontenured staff won’t be around next year.
These changes may not be popular, but we recognize that they are a necessity at this point. We have the choice to embrace them, and reinvent ourselves within the new budgetary framework to ensure the continued success of our schools. Otherwise, we will simply play the victim and our students will suffer.
The NJASA will be actively involved every step of the way. Chief education officers and their school boards worked quickly and diligently to create vastly pared-down budgets and we will continue to adjust in the districts where budgets were defeated on April 20. Most recently, we have asked Gov. Christie for a meeting to discuss how chief education officers can work with him toward a solution. The sure path to success is to do this together, government working with school administrators, boards, principals, teachers and parents.
The government has spoken. We have a job to do and we’re up to the challenge.
Richard Bozza
Executive Director
NJASA
Trenton