Hundreds of high school students spilled out onto the streets of Montclair, New Jersey today to protest the proposed cuts to their school’s budget. The spontaneous one-day strike shut down most classes at Montclair High School and was a first response to the package of cuts to education being proposed by conservative New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Students expect the protests to continue until the official closing of the school at 4:00 pm today.
Handmade signs calling for the defense of foreign language programs and to “Cut Class Not Classes,” urged the students on. Christie’s education proposal would reduce tax-payer support to public education in the state by $820 million leading to the closure of schools and sharp reductions in academic and extracurricular programs. At Montclair, the Star-Ledger reports that the girl’s gymnastics program is slated to be closed leaving 15 students without their favored after-school activity. This is part of a $100,000 cut to the athletic budget at the school.
“The cuts are dumb,” said Trevor Pason, a member of the Socialist Party of New Jersey and a student at Montclair.”We walked out to say no to the budget cuts and to demand a stop to the firing of our teachers.”
Opposition to the full package of cuts has grown so rapidly in New Jersey that an umbrella group of community, trade union and political groups has formed to take their fight to the state capital. Take Back Trenton aims to “put New Jersey back into the hands of the people that make up this great state.” The group is calling for a May 1 march on Trenton to begin at 1 p.m. outside of the New Jersey State House.
Today’s action at Montclair High School may the first act in a much larger struggle for residents of New Jersey. As the 15-person gymnastics team at the school has now learned, politics and budgets matter. With budget cuts scheduled for more than 40 states in the country, there are sure to be similar stories of disenfranchisement and, perhaps also of regular people mustering the strength to speak truths to the powers that aim to marginalize them.
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Billy Wharton is a writer, activist and editor of the Socialist WebZine whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Counterpunch, Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, the NYC Indypendent, Links, Spectrezine and the Monthly Review Zine.
Comments
Regarding Students at Montclair High School:
How dare You? Most of you Ungrateful Malcontents, come from a Rich, Affluent community, where most Tax payers are Fed-Up paying for you rich, spoiled brats to go to school and get everything and anything you want. Not to mention all the corruption within the school system with Teachers and Administrators giving thier selves excessive Pay Increases, all at our Expense. How Dare You ?
Governor Christie is absolutely correct in his decision to allow the tax payers of New Jersey Vote on this issue, and the majority have spoken.
What you did is awesome. Teachers in Orange County are on strike and the teachers in Oakland will go on strike on the 29th. Tax the Rich not the Poor! The March 4th movement in California supprots you!
LA March 4th Committee
2 thumbs up Montclair students. Stick to your guns. Your Governor is in a tough spot w/ the NJ budget - but the schools shouldn't be taking the brunt of the hits.
To Robert:
How dare you talk as if you know everything about the citizens about Montclair. Yes, there are some wealthy Montclair High students, but there are just as many if not more middle class students who are very much against Governor Christy's budget cuts! Quality teachers who don't have tenure are a risk of being fired, and the gymnastics team was only the first sport to be completely cut from our school! Who knows what else might be lost because of these ridiculous budget cuts. What we did we right, so don't talk as if you know about Montlair, because you obviously don't.
Sorry for the typo, *Montclair.
Robert, I think what these kids are doing right. If they have a belief they should stand up for it. I think that you are being rude, these kids are gaining there voice and they should be proud.
I was at that. thanks for all your guys support. And Robert,you clearly know nothing about our town, most of the people in our town are middle class not rich, and we don't get "everything and anything we want". And if we could vote the majority would have spoken diffrently. but all you care about is saving some money on your taxes. so i ask you Robert how dare you?
To Robert:
How dare YOU to judge Montclair students as if you know them! I am a sophomore at Montclair High School who did NOT participate in the protest, though I am against the budget cuts. I do NOT come from a wealthy family, but middle class. I'm a member of the SVPA, a giant arts program at our school which is currently being threatened to be cut. You don't know what our school will lose due to these cuts.
I actually met Governor Christie at NJ PAC two months ago, attending a Beethoven concert. If he cares about the arts, why would he allow them to be cut from the schools? What about ROTC? Everything else? These are preposterous!
Montclair is known for its economic diversity, but most of the students from rich and affluent families don't go to the public schools. It is the middle class students going to public schools. The teenagers from rich and affluent families might go to public elementary schools, but by high school most of them are still living in Montclair, but attending nearby private schools.
Christie did not actually have a choice in his cuts. HE HAD TO MAKE CUTS. I am a liberal and disagree with him on many issues. I am not happy to see sports and arts programs being cut. But would you rather have see a 15 person gymnastics team or a teacher go? Christie does not decide where the education cuts go. I would rather sports and arts be cut than teachers. Also, I am a student at Montclair High and must say that many of it's students are in fact wealthy.
Robert,
Budget cuts effect the quality of education, therefore a society that values spending in the education sector will produce citizens of a higher intellectual caliber.
I know this is petty but it proves a point...
Your sentence fragments and improper use of capitalization seem to show you are not well educated or a good writer. Do you want the generations after you to disregard grammar the way you do? If New Jersey cuts the education funds, will we all turn out ignorant and rude as well as poor writers? Since you seem to think you know everyone in Montclair and all the facts, I think you can stand to be used as an example of an ideal New Jerseyan. If you are an ideal New Jerseyan, I'll move because I'd rather not be surrounded by pompous and self-righteous people who insult children when they are trying to improve their own society. Should we teach our youth to sit back and take it or should we not teach our youth anything? Sounds like you would be fine with either tactic
By the way, the text box cut me off before the last period. Some people still know when to use punctuation.
About Montclair High's budget...
Their extensive school's budget has mostly been used to pay for football coaches, the numerous assistant principles, some guy working in the Annex building who claims to be a hypnotist, hundreds of Mac computers that rarely work (and when they do are never used for anything productive), upgrading the scho---
I'm going to stop, you get the picture. You know, I dislike cuts as much as the next person, but the money everyone is complaining about loosing simply doesn't exist... The people simply don't have pockets deep enough... We're going to cut back and it'll hurt, but it's time we learn some discipline.
If you've got idea's to reduce the damage or convert the targets of cuts, please preach them... Otherwise the cutting is inevitable, this public display simply confirms that tax payer's funds are being ill spent... Should the students not be learning math? Montclair has horrid math scores...
About Montclair High's budget...
Their extensive school's budget has mostly been used to pay for football coaches, the numerous assistant principles, some guy working in the Annex building who claims to be a hypnotist, hundreds of Mac computers that rarely work (and when they do are never used for anything productive), upgrading the scho---
I'm going to stop, you get the picture. You know, I dislike cuts as much as the next person, but the money everyone is complaining about loosing simply doesn't exist... The people simply don't have pockets deep enough... We're going to cut back and it'll hurt, but it's time we learn some discipline.
If you've got idea's to reduce the damage or convert the targets of cuts, please preach them... Otherwise the cutting is inevitable, this public display simply confirms that tax payer's funds are being ill spent... Should the students not be learning math? Montclair has horrid math scores...
Just to clarify, the gymnastics team had more than 15 students and more students were planning on joining. Our team was one with a very low budget. and just recently a $120,000 football coach was hired. This is considerably more than any teacher at our school makes. Not to mention football is only 1 season, and only for a few hours after school. And many of montclair high's students ARE NOT WEALTHY.
As a student at Montclair High, I am embarrassed by the fact that many of these comments declare how most students are "middle class". Which is true, I suppose, if one were to compare ourselves to a town such as Short Hills. If you can afford the exorbitant income taxes to live here, you are most certainly well off.
The school, as RipperDipper points out, has spent its money in quite strange ways. Nobody likes to have a smaller budget, but we do now and will have to deal with it--perhaps minimizing the bureaucracy would create at least some efficiency within the Montclair High.
This being said, I also disagree with Christie's politics. It is unfortunate, but the entire nation is cutting education, and we are not the only ones suffering because of it.
Robert
It is obvious you know absolutely nothing about my high school. Montclair is an EXTREMELY diverse high school and has a wide variety of different types of kids. In no way are we all "Spoiled Brats". It is one thing to comment on what you think is the right political decision, but it is another to make fun of children and then singling them all out when you do not no any of them and are probably making these assumptions on what you have been told. Just because we have had some minor incidents in the past, does not mean those incidents represent every single kid in the entire school. Your Bias fool and you make fun of children you don't even know. Real mature.
Regarding Robert's previous comment,
How dare us? How dare you to call us ungrateful malcontents as well as spoiled brats when you have no idea what your talking about. And how moronically ironic of you to state that we "get everything and anything that we want" on an article about us protesting something that we are not getting. Get your facts straight you ignorant fool.
as a student of Montclair high school as ask HOW DARE YOU Robert?! Yes, it's true many families in montclair are considered rich.However the High School is mainly made up of middle class children and kids form the surrounding towns. Nearly all of these wealthy kids go to MKA, the Co-op, or any of the other private schools found near Montclair. Also with these budget cuts Governor Christie will be eliminating important programs like STARS, which helps kids improve their grades so they can pass when they would otherwise be forced to repeat a year. How can we, the next generation, hope to live a successful life without a proper education. This does NOT mean only state required classes. Students NEED the art and specialty programs that will help them to express themselves. We have protested because we are NOT getting what we, the students want and deserve a proper education.
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