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Posts

Brigid D'Souza

Op Ed: Invest in Our Schools Now!

May 11, 2020/in Education, header, Latest News, Opinion /by Brigid D'Souza

This is a guest opinion piece by Brigid D’Souza and Dr. Jyl Josephson who are parent leaders with Jersey City Together’s Education Team. Ms. D’Souza is the parent of two children at PS 3 and the creator of CivicParent.org (and a writer for this publication) and Dr. Josephson is the parent of a child at PS 26 and an associate professor of political science, women’s & gender studies at Rutgers University Newark.

For the last two and a half years, Jersey City Together’s Education Team and parents across the city have been engaged in a focused fight to increase local funding for our public schools. For the first two years, our work helped create incremental progress — an extra $5.3 million in 2018, another $6 million in 2019.

But this has not been nearly enough.

Jersey City Public Schools is a 40-school Pre-K through Grade 12 district serving nearly 30,000 students. Our public schools are the most diverse institution in the city. Seventy percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch while 38% of our students are Hispanic, 27% are Black, 18% are Asian, and 14% are White.

This is the diversity our political leaders lift up every chance they get. It’s the kind of institution in which they should be clamoring to invest.

But, for the last decade, while gleaming skyscrapers and luxury apartments have gone up across the city, Jersey City has instead stripped educational resources from the children — mostly black and brown, mostly lower income — attending its public schools.

At a time when state funding is repeatedly being cut and our schools are already $125 million underfunded, Jersey City sends only 24 cents of every dollar of property taxes to its schools. Last year, we saw the immediate impact of this when our schools lost 250 staff, including 160 teachers.

It is utterly unconscionable.

This year, however, the Jersey City Public Schools have had a real leader in Superintendent Franklin Walker.

Superintendent Walker stepped out and offered a budget that spoke to the real needs of the children of the district, adding $50 million to the budget.

His proposal would rehire the hundreds of teachers we lost last year, hire 13 new social workers, 3 new high school counselors, a mental health specialist, and other support staff. It would invest in English Language Learners, visual arts, STEAM programming, and make targeted investments in some of Jersey City’s highest needs schools.

These resources will be all the more important next year as we deal with the fallout from this pandemic.

But the reaction from the political class in Jersey City has been both swift and exactly what you might expect in Hudson County politics.

One BOE trustee said new teachers aren’t needed because “class sizes don’t matter.” Another trustee was dismissive because the people who called in to support the budget were “just moms.” More than one claimed they didn’t want to take anything away from children, while at the same time proposing cuts that would do just that.

In short, Superintendent Walker is being told to lower his sights. Our children, it seems, are not worth the investment.

While it may seem politically expedient now to demand the district reign in local property taxes, we believe we will look back on this moment and see these calls as more than just cowardly. They are proposals that will actively harm our city’s most vulnerable residents.

Education policy experts agree that budget cuts during the Great Recession hurt kids like those in Jersey City Public Schools. Now, they argue, is precisely the time to invest more in our public schools, particularly if we claim to care about inequality.

There is still time for board trustees to make the right choice. But time is running out.

It is always a good time, and a responsible decision, to invest in the next generation. But the current moment demands that investment even more.

 

Header: Public speaking at the January 30 Board of Education meeting, courtesy Jersey City Together’s Facebook page

Brigid D'Souza

Understanding Your Property Taxes

December 3, 2019/in header, Latest News, News /by Brigid D'Souza

Courtesy Brigid D’Souza / civicparent.org

News Briefs

Assemblyman Nicholas A. Chiaravalloti (D-Hudson) is joining Governor Phil Murphy at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City for the signing of Bill A4410 / S2743, which will permanently codify the Community College Opportunity Grant Program into law. Students enrolled in any of the state’s 18 community colleges may be able to have their tuition waived. Students must be enrolled in at least six credits per semester and have an adjusted gross income of $0 -$65,000 in order to be considered. 

Jersey City Library Director Jeffrey Trzeciak is leaving to take a job in his hometown, Dayton, Ohio after serving for just 15 months.

An ordinance creating a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) scheduled for introduction this week has been pulled, pending further discussions.

Ahmad Broadway, age 26, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty to charges related to his involvement in the January 11, 2019 shooting inside the Newport Centre Mall in Jersey City that injured two people. 

The Hudson County Regional Arson Task Force and the Jersey City Fire Department are investigating a two-alarm fire that killed an 84-year-old woman Thursday morning at 270 Clerk Street in Jersey City. 

Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez has announced the indictment of three people in connection with the July 6, 2020 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Tyeah Garner on Rutgers Avenue in Jersey City. Heavenley Cherry, 19, and Jahquell Carter, 25, both of Jersey City, were charged with Murder and other related crimes. Izmae Tinker-Trent, 19, of Jersey City, was charged with Hindering a Murder Investigation.  

The Jersey City Education Association has started a GoFundMe campaign to support the family of 11-year-old Desire Reid and eight-month old Kenyon Robinson who died in a house fire on Martin Luther King Drive on Wednesday night. Here is the link.

Vaccine-eligible individuals can make an appointment online by visiting hudsoncovidvax.org.

The 2021 tree planting applications are available. If you have an empty tree pit on your block or a street you can fill out the form and the city’s arborists will handle it.  bit.ly/adoptatreespri…

Keep abreast of Jersey City Covid-19 statistics here.

Governor Murphy has launched a “Covid Transparency Website” where New Jerseyans can track state expenditures related to Covid.  Go here.

For info on vaccinations, call Vaccination Call Center and our operators will assist you with scheduling one: 855-568-0545

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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