By Fran Trees
On April 20, 2010, the school budget in my township was PASSED. In an average year, approximately 70% of school budgets in NJ are approved. On April 20, 2010, close to 60% of the school budgets in NJ were defeated.
Politics probably contributed to the defeat of the majority of school budgets, but this degree of defeat has not occurred since 1976. The new governor of New Jersey recently proposed mass cuts in state education funding, freezing aid promised to districts this year and cutting $820 million for fiscal 2011.
Today, April 27, thousands of high school students across New Jersey walked out of classes to protest education funding cuts proposed by the governor. The protests were initiated by an 18-year-old college student who set up a Facebook event page about a month ago encouraging the walkouts. This event page has over 16,000 members.
Many students fear the loss of teachers, extracurricular activities, and special programs. In most areas of NJ, computer science is a special program. Will these budget cuts affect computer science education in NJ?
We, CSTA, strive to improve education in our schools. We seek to educate our constituencies about the importance of computing disciplines in our curriculum. We dream of a national K-12 computing curriculum in our schools. These cuts affect our progress.
What suggestions do you have for the NJ folks? How do we continue to move forward?
Resources:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/thousands_of_students_expected.html
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/nj-governor-and-njea-react-to-student-walkout
http://www.njea.org/page.aspx?a=4145

http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2010/03/gov_chris_christies_school_cut.html
http://blog.nj.com/njv_publicblog/2010/03/an_open_letter_to_governor_chr.html
http://www.goodporkbadpork.com/2010/03/teachers-open-letter-to-governor-chris-christie/
NOTE: The New Jersey Education Association did state that they do not support or condone students walking out of school.
Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison