EDUCATION 4 NJ
​
"New Jersey Schools are lacking in tremendous ways. Poorer communities, typically in urban areas, suffer tremendously as funds and technology lag. While I believe in rewarding the programs that are Star Magnet Award winning schools, I also believe every child should have a chance to attend those schools or quality programs like them. I am an advocate and firm believer in Education Equality!" - Matt Riccardi
The Problem: Not all of our schools are well funded and performing well. The differences between the "haves" and the "haves not" is striking. Even schools that are doing well are bloated with budgets that do not reflect reasonable costs for providing educational services to our children. We want the best education for our children, we want to have the best teachers, and we want to have safe and healthy buildings that provide a great learning experience for our children.
The Solution: We need to bring schools back to the local level. The best people who know how to educate our children and to get the most out of our educational resources are the local School Boards. Thinking that people in Washington DC and Trenton know what is best for your student is political elitism at its worst. We want to provide the financial support and resources to help our educators and children, but we need to allow those that are closest to the students to be the ones making decisions about their education. Outside regulations, unfunded mandates, artificial test standards, and ineffective, inefficient government programs are creating disparity and ineffeciciencies in our schools.