Are New Jersey gentrifiers taking us for a ride?

Believers in gentrification understand neither fairness, nor justice. Yet, since Christie signed bill A-355 into law in 2010, they’ve been provided with yet another powerful arrow in the arsenal of neighborhood destruction and running the vulnerable out of town. This is a racial issue in New Jersey, since our poor are mostly urban Blacks and Latinos.

Christie’s education voucher law allows public school students to attend schools in another district, with your tax dollars paying the receiving school’s tuition fees and the complete bill to, “provide and pay for students’ transportation to new schools up to 20 miles away.” Sounds a bit like specially chartered buses and other things extraordinarily expensive, doesn’t it? Wowza!

The Star Ledger reported, “It’s unclear who would bear the cost if a student sought admission to a school more than 20 miles from his or her home district.” Good question, though.

Thanks to David Berry for the great foto and to Elizabeth McGrady for sharing the article. I just asked the other day, what our state’s status is concerning school vouchers. Hoped for better news but at least, now I know where the battle line has been drawn.