I’m writing in response to Nihat Guvercin’s recent op-ed, “Here’s How New Jersey Can Support the School Choice Movement.” I am a physics teacher in a public school district in this state.
Guvercin, who runs a charter school agency, advocates for growing school choice by expanding charter school offerings and using more public funding to do so.
Here is my position: All true public schools in New Jersey should be adequately funded to provide adequate resources and quality staff such that the zip code a student lives in is irrelevant. Their neighborhood public school, wherever they live, should be just as good, if not better, than any privately funded or administered alternative.
Parents already have a choice of the schools their children attend. They can send their child to the religious or non-public school of their choice. If the answer is that some parents cannot choose where they live or cannot afford a private education, the solution is a matter of economics – wages and salaries – not education policy.
As long as we tolerate regressive fiscal policies, the wealthy can create their own parallel institutions to avoid having to interact with the general public. Meanwhile, the rest of us should pledge our shared resources and values to one another.
Public education is a service, an asset and a public good, but involves a commitment we make to each other that we have been degrading for decades. We must invest in everyone’s collective well-being if we want our children to succeed, be aware of the world around them, change it for the better, and take better care of our society than we have. We need to change the way we value education as a whole, and we need to do it quickly.
Wayne Ernst, Township of Egg Harbor
The jobs agenda beats the revenge agenda
While Republican congressmen love 2nd Dist. U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew pursues an agenda of revenge and irrelevance, Democratic President Joe Biden’s policies put people to work.
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! More than half a million new jobs were created in January alone. Biden’s agenda is to keep food on the table and money in the pockets of those who want to work.
Van Drew and the Republicans are simply embarrassing each other on an epic level in Washington.
Fortunately, our great country will continue to move in a positive direction despite Van Drew, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga.; and other Make America Great Again adherents who just want to tear the country down.
Biden understands the importance of working people. Too bad Congressional Republicans have other priorities.
Michael J. Makara, Mays Landing
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