Teaneck
has an election for Town Council on Tuesday, May 8th. I urge all readers from Teaneck to vote in
that election. While most of us do not
have children in the public school system we are still affected by public
policy as we’ve discussed when it comes to vouchers, aid to private schools for technology, charter schools, etc. While
many of these items are decided by the local school boards or at the state
level there is still a significant amount of influence that the local town
council has on these decisions. Deadline for a Vote-by-maill application is tomorrow, May 1st. Download an application here:
Last
week I sent out an email to the candidates running for council asking them
their positions on these issues. I will
post the responses as I get them. I
understand that people get a little emotional when it comes to politics but
please try to keep the comments respectful.
The candidates have taken time to address our issues and we should try
to comment on them with derech eretz. Comments
with personal attacks will be deleted. Here’s the letter:
______________________________________________________________________
Dear
Teaneck Council candidates,
I
am writing to you as the moderator of a blog that discusses Jewish Day Schools
in Bergen County (http://www.yeshivasanity.blogspot.com/) The site
gets about 1,000 hits a day, mostly from parents of day school students.
Teaneck residents make up the largest share of the parent body.
I
was hoping you could address some of the issues that affect parents of
non-public school children that you could impact in your capacity as council
members. While I understand that many of these issues are better
addressed by the school board, I understand that the Town Council has some say
in the matters as well, especially in years when the public gets to vote on the
school budget and the council gets to alter it in the event that it gets voted
down.
Some
of the issues are:
1. Courtesy busing for private
schools. Do you favor keeping it even in times of fiscal austerity?
3. What about charter schools with Hebrew immersion or other languages?
4. Do you support vouchers in general? (Not really a Teaneck issue but as a local politician State & Federal officials may seek your input)
5. There was a bill in the NJ legislature (A238) that would reinstate $7M in non-public school technology aid to NJ school districts that was cut from the state budget in 2010. Would you support a bill like that?
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my questions.
