Panel Discussion at Hightstown High School

I was privileged to take part in a very productive panel discussion at Hightstown High School on Monday, and I would like to thank the many residents who came out to discuss with my legislative colleagues and me their concerns about education funding and property taxes.

The East Windsor Regional School district is an excellent model for the future of education statewide. With one superintendent, the very effective Ronald Bolandi, overseeing the operations of five schools, students test scores are improving, and judging from the response at our panel discussion, parents are very happy with the results.

There were a number of issues that were raised on the 15th that expanded my point of view, including the opinions of school board members that if school budgets are under a certain cap, there should be no public referenda for their approval. In most cases, I tend to favor the option of giving citizens the right to vote on as much as possible, but some excellent points were raised, and I will be considering that further.

I was pleased to learn that so many audience members agreed that New Jersey’s educational system needs to be completely overhauled, both to protect education, and to bring some much-needed relief to property taxpayers.

I look forward to continued dialogue with the residents of Hightstown and East Windsor, and I hope all residents of the 12th District will feel free to contact me with their input on this very important topic. I am optimistic that reform will take place soon, and I pledge to represent the interests of students, parents and taxpayers to the best of my ability.