Dear Editor:
One of the biggest difficulties in Hoboken is all the transient style residential construction. The buildings attract high-income couples, perhaps with pre-school aged children who buy condominiums hoping to make a good profit within a short timeframe. Once their kids approach school age, it is sell time and off to the burgs where they can find excellent public school education for their kids.
It is a similar problem facing St. Mary Hospital; people come to Hoboken with no intention of establishing real roots. They continue to see the doctors they were with previously and thus, do not take advantage of St. Mary, a self-fulfilling prophecy for the hospital and its staff.
So, what is so bad about our public schools? Well, for one thing, the State average of high school children taking the SATs is 80 percent; in Hoboken the average is 39 percent; that is less than 50 percent. It is deplorable! One of the biggest reasons is the lack of early intervention, particularly with kids who are set up to have problems with literacy. We must include the families too, and strongly impress upon them the need for home encouragement and support in learning skills.
A candidate should make these improvements:
Literacy – Focus on all students fully educated in English language skills; reading strongly encouraged; language; more options, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese. All over the world, children learn English. Our kids need to become fluent in the languages of tomorrow that will be essential to opening up higher-level employment opportunities.
Another bugaboo is social promotion. How does it happen that we have kids in high school who are barely literate? We could be producing tomorrow’s United Nations representatives. Why not?
Civics – Students today hardly know how America functions. We need to educate our kids in the workings of their government: we could be creating the lawyers, judges and politicians of tomorrow! Why not?
Math and Science – Our kids need the best skills in math and science with the future in biotech companies, pharmaceutical research and development, and the ever-increasing need for professionals in the field of medicine. Higher levels (AP classes) of these critical subjects must be mastered by our students to broaden the scope of their options after college and yes, graduate school or medical school. Why not?
Hoboken’s public schools are in need of immediate improvement – hey, the Mayor’s kids go to private school, as do many of the children of existing school board members. What is the problem David?
Our public schools are bleeding to death financially. The Abbott funding is now in question. The allocating of existing funds is ill prioritized. We have people like David Mussara who received the top in overtime pay while he was running for Council on Frank Raia’s ticket. Our “custodial engineers” are racking up over $100 thousand a year in overtime? Hoboken’s average cost per student is $21 thousand, which is some three times higher than the affluent town of Westfield. Where is that money going?
The time is here to begin considering options for upheaval on the school board, and there are three seats opening up. Please consider Theresa Minutillo and her “Kids First” mantra for School Board on Election Day, April 18, 2006 from 2 to 9 p.m.
Louise Friedman