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April 3, 2009

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Governor Corzine:

In your eloquent speech delivered March 10, 2009 you spoke of priorities and core values that have guided the decisions of your Administration since you took office. You indicated that your core values “reflect a lifetime of experience and are informed by the voices of our fellow citizens, not just the loudest voices, but those who too often don’t have a voice.” Could this mean our children? You emphasized the importance of our vulnerable citizens including our children several times, 10 to be exact, with statements
such as “nurturing our children, honoring seniors, and protecting the most vulnerable among us. There are certain parts of our government’s work that we must sustain. In NJ, we recognize the importance of our children. They are our bright hope for the future.” You go on to say for that purpose you have increased classroom funding for K-12 education.

So I ask you, what happened to the most vulnerable among us? Are not K-12 grade children classified as profoundly and multiply impaired, severely physically and emotionally handicapped, court adjudicated, pregnant and parenting teens among this group? Actually, they fall under two of your three postulated categories. Inclusion and/or mainstreaming these highly specialized needs/at risk populations has not worked for many of them. Unless you put a stop to this travesty, these vulnerable children will be placed in precarious situations that could set them up to fail or worse.

Transferring students to Local School Districts or, in the case of the most fragile students, privatizing to special education facilities, will not save the state money when you consider the funding sources that bring in revenue (NJ Department of Education, US Department of Education, School Districts, State Facilities Education Act, and other public grants). The Office of Education (OOE) receives Special Education Medicaid initiative monies from which 5 million is refunded annually to the State Treasury. If students were returned to their school district, the funds generated by this initiative would remain with the districts and be lost to the state. Therefore sending these students back to their districts will cost the state more money. Historically, the public schools were unable to successfully address the needs of this student population. They admitted they were not equipped to educate students with severe behavioral/emotional difficulties. Public schools had failed and the OOE in the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been accomplishing the task of educating these students ever since. Quality services can not be guaranteed which is what the students placed in DCF’s Regional Schools receive now.
Every aspect of their education has been monitored and evaluated by highly trained and educated teachers, supervisors and support staff that comprise the Office of Education within the DCF, formerly Department of Human Services for the last 30 years.

You plan on pouring 3.9 billion dollars into school construction to offer a clean, safe, and stimulating environment for learning. Eighteen of these schools already exist. Why abandon them in order to put “15,000-20,000” construction workers back to work for billions of dollars? Why layoff and/or shuffle workers all over the state in order to put “New Jerseyan’s to work”? Why close schools that bring in revenue via tuition from sending (home school) districts? And what about State responsible students who are wards of the state or whose parents cannot be located and thus have no identifiable school district?
The OOE manages this group of children and must continue to do so. What will you do with them? How can you have them listed among other appropriation decreases such as Legislature Furlough Days, Subsidy to the Hunters and Anglers Fund, Chief Executive Efficiencies, etc? This does not meet your very own criteria of being fiscally responsible. It’s not even “real”.

You boast how you’re spending wisely to improve the lives of children who require placement outside of their homes. What about those who require placement outside of their schools? You acknowledge the DCF has gone from being among the most poorly rated in the country to among the very best. You exclaim how your budget priorities make it clear kids count! Yet in the same breath you begin the undertaking of a 4 step phase out plan to eliminate the Regional Schools beginning with Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Wanaque, Warren and Middlesex by June, 2009 and closing the remaining 13 by June, 2010. We implore you to rethink this senseless mistake. Stop the notices and countless meetings to “identify necessary strategies, communications and collaborations to ensure that youth continue to have their educational needs met.” Stop driving Regional School staff into an uncertain future during an economic storm, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the breadline days of the 1930’s. Let them do what they do best, i.e. nurture and educate the most vulnerable children in the great state of New Jersey.

Sincerely,


Thomas J. Palermo, President
CWA Local 1039

c. Hetty Rosenstein, NJ Director CWA
Ken McNamara, President CWA Local 1037
Paul Alexander, Assistant to the President, CWA Local 1034
Kimberly Ricketts, DCF Commissioner
Laurie Hodian, DCF Administrative Director
Debra Stewart, Director of Education
Loretta Weinberg, Deputy Majority Leader District 37
Sheila Oliver, Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore District 34April 3, 2009