|
|
JCEA Strikes A Blow Against
Democracy
Schundler promises to continue fight to bring
school choice to Jersey City
Press Release, September 30, 1993
Jersey City
The following is Mayor Schundler's response to Judge D'Itaia's ruling that prohibits a
referendum on school vouchers from appearing on the Jersey City ballot in November because
of a legal technicality. Jersey City will appeal this decision:
"Today, special interests struck a blow against democracy. Judge D'Italia's ruling to
prohibit a referendum on school vouchers from appearing on the Jersey City ballot was not a
ruling on the merits of school vouchers. It has no effect on our intention or ability to get a
voucher plan passed in Trenton. It was merely a ruling by the court that because Jersey City
is not empowered to pass this legislation on its own -- only Trenton is -- then the question
should not appear on the Jersey City ballot. Even so, the ruling was unfortunate, because it
means that the people have lost the right to express their opinion based upon a legal
technicality.
The Jersey City Council wanted nothing more than to ask the opinion of the voters on
an issue of great importance: the education of our children. But the teachers' union fought
viciously to stop you, the citizens, from even having the right to be heard!
This is incredibly hypocritical, since many of the plaintiffs who joined the
union's suit were themselves amongst those who placed a school referendum on
the ballot last November. No one challenged their school referendum, because
it is an outrageous thing to suggest that the people's voice should be repressed.
But now, these same plaintiffs have denied the people the very right which last
year they themselves asserted.
Teachers' union President Albert Shanker once said, `When school children start
paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.'
(Meridian Mississippi Star, August 13, 1985) The National Education Association has
written, `The major purpose of our association is not the education of children; it is or ought
to be the extension and/or preservation of our members's rights.' (National Education
Association Oregon Uniserv Bulletin, October 1981) And two former state executive directors
of the National Education Association have stated, `The National Education Association has
been the single biggest obstacle to educational reform in this country.
We know because we worked for the NEA!' (Bill Boyton, former Nebraska NEA Executive
Director; John Lloyd, former Kansas NEA Executive Director) Today, the teachers' union
has demonstrated that it is not just educational reform and accountability that it will oppose,
but that it even opposes the free expression of dissent relative to the current educational
system.
Well, the battle has just begun. The people elected this Administration
to bring school choice to Jersey City, and we will do so. We will appeal this
decision so that the people's voice may be heard. And if we are still denied upon appeal,
then we will poll the voters ourselves on Election Day; and we will seek
to have the legal technicality that suppresses the people's voice overturned, so that future
referendums may be administered without intimidation by the powerful, vested defenders
of the unjust status quo!"
Get A FREE Bumper Sticker!
Hudson County, New Jersey is a place of many firsts - including genocide and slavery.
Political corruption is a tradition here.
First in a series by Anthony Olszewski – Click HERE to find out more.
COMPUTERCRAFT
|
