The Teach NJ act umbrella Organization of Modern Orthodox Jewish schools in New Jersey which has been advocating for tuition assistance has reached out to all parents to unite and support the campaign to bring tuition relief through a tax credit scholarship program to New Jersey. They say the bill is about to hit Trenton. A letter signed by the Rabbinical council of Bergen County (RCBC) said the bill will be presented to the legislature this month. The rabbonim are encouraging every member of the community to mobilize around the campaign for tax credit scholarships and to attend next Tuesday’s Bergen County Town Hall
Lakewood which was represented by the UENJ has voted in assemblyman Avi Schnal for the same tuition relief tax credit program, though have not released information about the bill.
Teach NJ is holding several Town Hall meetings taking place across New Jersey ahead of presenting the tax-credit scholarship program to NJ. The first meeting took place last night in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Letter from RCBC
Teach NJ took up my 2011 plan to get free public school teachers in mosdos. That would be a sure thing, it was already funded, and it can significantly reduce tuition, and at the same time, improve instruction. For example, there are a dozen frum teachers in Lakewood High School. The yeshiva, pursuant to the plan, has the choice in whom they want to hire. The mosdos rejected it (I was not involved at that time) just as they have perniciously rejected my litigation.
ReplyDeleteVouchers are a pipe dream. The chumps thought there was a tradeoff between me, and tens of millions of dollars a year to stabilize the public schools and our town financial structure, and whatever deal they made with the governor promising vouchers that would likely bring in less than a penny to Lakewood for education for each dollar we would get if I had some kind of political support. You can thank the Igud and Vaad for being on the same side as the governor. And we are going to win. A Lang
If the government is paying for public school teachers to teach in Yeshivas and they start hiring frum ones, they are opening themselves up to major lawsuits when they don't hire non-frum ones. The MO community doesn't have an issue with an non-frum teacher of secular subjects. In Lakewood they would.
DeleteTo anonymous 8:31
DeleteTogether with vouchers come unions, and requirement to actually teach subjects
None of this joke classes like now.
Regarding unions, see Igrot Moshe.
Maybe under NJ law but we have not seen such a case.
DeleteI wrote the following in a 2011 paper advocating public school teachers in nonpublic schools:
"Schools receiving federal money have a religious exemption from Title VII employment discrimination. Section 702 exempts religious entities from discrimination“ connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society of its activities.” 42 U.S.C 2000e-1 (LEXIS through 2011).
"Congress did not want to make hiring clergymen or teachers of other persuasions a condition of accepting federal money. Congress also excluded religious entities from retaining employees who violate religious doctrine. See Boyd Harding Academy of Memphis, 88 F.3d 410, 6th Cir. 1996 for consistent policy against fornication. If Congress intended not to force religious groups from compromising their faith by having employees of a different faith and intended not to force religious groups from compromising their faith by
having employees who violate moral values ingrained in the faith, then Congress also intended not to force religions from compromising their faith by violating the moral values ingrained in the faith.
"Yeshivas need not be weary of attempting to hire real teachers by advertising in public schools for either a male or female teacher. The yeshiva community maintains strict religious separation of the genders for reasons of chastity engrained in the religion."
What is the MO community? Believe me, I can defend Lakewood on this issue and even if we lose, which we won't, it will not cost anything other than my fee, but that is no longer going to be zero (Lakewood has so much "hakaros hatov," so they say, just slap yourselves on your backs).
I did the billion dollar case for free hoping to get a raise or promotion, and got nothing. Next case, I want $1,500 an hour. What a great investment for the people of Lakewood! After all, you can't divide by zero, so my value is really undefined, or infinite if you want to call it that, but I will accept $1,500 an hour.
BTW This is not legal advertising. Just cynicism over the perfidy of the bosses and pusillanimity of the cowardly voters, four fifths of the town, that follow their marching orders, who have gotten us into $200 million in debt and promised you tuition relief that even if it happens, will be pennies on the dollar of our encumbrance for not fixing the formula.
Anonymous 8:50 here.
DeleteYes, there was a recent case of an administrator who was let go for religious reasons (Catholic or Christian, I believe).
But there also was a case of a teacher having a child out of wedlock, California early child care, I believe.
However, employment discrimination is separate from vouchers. Employment discrimination applies there now, too.
I was referring to requiring a realistic secular curriculum, which Lakewood affiliated Yeshivot do not have.
And teacher unions.
And to the 8:27 following, the vouchers will never cover the entire tuition, just a part of it.
And I bet you the mosdot will just raise tuition to cover the voucher.
Ask them for a commitment to not raise tuition, they'll never agree.
They may raise it, but can they enforce it?
DeleteYay no more tuition bills throw them out in the garbage. We were promised free tuition by the schnall campaign and now it is bh coming to fruition
ReplyDeleteWhy can't they present bullet points online so that people can read it? Or the bill text link?
ReplyDeleteFirst they will evaluate how far they can milk the frum out of their values for it.Like an auction house.
ReplyDeleteLike a Trenton auction house.How much are you guys ready to give away for it
ReplyDeleteThen you'll be left holding the bag
They sold me out. That is what they gave away. "Yes sir, Governor Murphy," said our askanim, "We know good an well that you oppose Lang."
ReplyDeleteNot sure if they said the following to the governor but they have been saying it since I filed in 2014. "We too oppose him. Why? After all, he has been pressing for an administrative job since 2007 that would have cost us over $100,000 a year and we already have over 25 administrators and a lawyer making a million a year. No, we'll take a paltry voucher program, or drive busloads of students to Trenton in protest of the funding formula, instead of moving him up a step on the pay scale."
Is Schnal submitting the bill?
ReplyDeleteWhy is he so quiet he's only talking about helping seniors
Why can't Gary Schaer submit the bill
אין הברכה אלא בדבר הסמוי מן העין
ReplyDeleteYes the tuition relief is so well hidden, you're never going to find it.
ReplyDeleteIf we deliver the billion dollars can we reform the sixth grade ignorance in governance of Lakewood? I am handing you the ability, sign, sealed and delivered. If you can't defy the bosses, then what kind of men are you?
ReplyDeleteThrow them out. I am out of the district so it is no longer a question of getting a raise. Be men, when there is only one man other in town. Actually, the gedolai hayeshiva are with me. My candidates will run in the next election. If we delver and you still follow your marching orders, you are less than wimps, but female victims. What are you little boys, damsels in distress. Be men!
ReplyDeleteMoreover, all of you are not acting like smart people, because We, here, are smarter than the Israelis, the second smartest Jewish people. Smart people have accountable government because they study the issues beforehand and don't do whatever everyone else does.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Yukesiel Weistien always said, "You can't go against the rabbim." So I take back what I said about our men being little girls. Sorry. But they also say, "It is what it is," and it is not. And they say, "You can't fight city hall," and we are.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Yukesiel also said when I was the Shabbas mashgiach/boss in the lunchroom (and I had the keys to the chulent), "You have to make everything your own job. Nobody (in BMG) is going to tell you what to do (except the bucharim, they used to snitch to the Rebbetzin)."
That was my attitude when I was the first yeshiva man in the school district. I saw that we had a tuition problem and I came up with a plan of free teachers just based on the current regulations not requiring separate legislation such as NJ Teach got passed. I designed a plan for free professional and trades course for the community. Then, finally, I tackled Lakewood's greatest problem of the century, or millennium, it's totally collapsed financial infrastructure. Problem was, Rabbi Weinstein, Rabbi Finkelstein Rabbi Kuperman (aad 120) and the Rebbetzin were out by then, BMG had corporate leadership and the little boys in the Igud have control (it still is hard to know who is the top boss). Lakewood has never had secular leadership.
"Jewish kids were tough as nails back then.. Now, at least here in town, they are wimps, no education and don't even fight. Maybe my expectations are low but they grow to be somewhat gutless and cowardly. Don't care about anything but money, getting ahead without putting in the years
ReplyDeleteSo you know that I'm the Lone Ranger. Don't blow my cover. "One riot, one Ranger." I don't want to end up like Clayton Moore.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you keep referring to the Igud. There are at least 150 mosdos in Town. I'm willing to bet that 130 to 140 of them don't know who the Igud is or who runs it . And have never been to a meeting of the Igud , if any have even taken place in the last 10 years .
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who is in charge. I have been trying to figure it out since 2014.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, the "Igud," I am told by Rabbi Weisberg of the Vaad, is a loose collection of the mosdos, today run by this person called Balsam. He was there at least twice when the Vaad tried to help me get a promotion.
l was told that this Balsam, Mandelbaum and someone name Vershleisher reinstalled Inzelbuch as boss of the district in 2017. When I spoke to the Rosh Yeshiva before this last election, there supposedly is another group that has his ear that I don't even know. Or maybe it is the same people and corporate headquarter does not want to oppose them. There is a nursing home tycoon in NY.
The whole place is a mess. No leadership. How can you get cooperation to bring billions of dollars to town or get anything done if you don't know who is the boss? Supposedly, this guy Schnall, Balsam and Inzelbuch officially oppose my litigation because it interferes with their connections in Trenton. (These misguided children think that power flows from connections but not from knowledge). This opposition was revealed when the Igud bosses and Vaad last met after we won in the Appellate Division, for the final time before I resigned, to try to work out a promotion for me so that I could make a livable wage.
So to answer your question, the Igud is Balsam because he is always meeting with the Vaad leader. In 2014 the main Igud person was someone named Sanders. They had an Igud meeting in May, 2014 when I said I was going to file. The BOE members and township committeemen were there also. They mostly all (except Weisberg, Meir Hertz and Meir Lichtenstein) shouted me down.
Now that we won, their excuse is going to be that they were always on my side, or that they did not think I was capable of winning. That is false. Weisberg circulated emails to all of them explaining who my mentor was, and that he thought we had a good case, and that the monitor Mr. Azzara said it was convincing, so did the PhD superintendent person from the retirement community, and Lakewood UNITE, and so did people at the ELC. They all knew, or should have known, that we would win. Weisberg even told the Igud people that if they did not support me, they should all hand in their resignations.
Amazing that someone who enhances the bottom line of an organization, brings relief to its shareholders, the parents and children of Lakewood, and has a vision that will bring a century of stability and prosperity to our citizens, is not good enough to make go onto the administrative (executive) pay scale that at least 25 others are on. I have been trying to get a pay raise since I got my superintendent certification in 2007. You can't support a family on $45,000 a year. (Eventually, after 21 years, I made $80,000). I then, misguidedly thought if I got a law license, I would be promoted. I my final mistake was to litigate to get the loans forgiven and the formula changed. Something is wrong in this town and with its voters.
ReplyDeleteMassively understated
DeleteBalsam is just a secretary who sends e mails. He doesn't run the Igud . You woukd have to ask him who does. About 15 years ago there used to be meetings but as far as most mosdos know , there are no meetings or elections and it's just 1 or 2 people who decide what to do . Nobody even knows who those 1 or 2 people are .
ReplyDeleteThat's how they wish
DeleteWell then shame on all of you for letting someone speak for your organization and keeping me at $45,000 a year when I am worth over a billion to the district. (the new contract brought us up in pay but I was still at the bottom even though I was the most senior teacher and never go promoted, even though I had more certification and know more subject content than almost any teacher in the state. They could not even make me assistant principal, which is six digits, when the principal recommended me.) It was pashut from the beginning that I was going to win the case.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you dump Inzelbuch? Who is worth more? Who was it that told Ben Heinemann, Rav Malkiel and Weisberg, they all met via Zoom or something, to endorse the BOE incumbents, because the Vaad supposedly does not have a say in the BOE (what kind of stupidity is this. If we had a mayor I would have gone to him. I am offering 100 years of life to this town and there was no one to go to) when I specifically ran candidates who would support my case. The BOE is on the governor's side. Shame on all of you. The history books will not look upon all of you. One hundred years from now posterity will see the mosdos as evil for installing bad people on the BOE and Inzelbuch, for not giving me a raise, and ultimately for my resignation and losing my job altogether. Shame. Shame. Shame. What are you going to do about it? It is the same with Rabbi Blech, president of the Vaad. I went to him screaming that the Vaad endorse the candidates that have been keeping me at the bottom of the company ladder and opposing me in court and I received no pay from the district for ten thousand hours of work. He said he did not know anything. How can you be president of a group and not attend its meeting. Ultimately he sent me to Ben Heineman who said the Vaad and the Igud person(s) met with and already made a decision even though Ben and Weisberg said I can meet with them first. Then I found out a week later when Ben went to his uncle, Rav Dovid, the governor gave them the shake down in opposition to me. They hid that also. They should have told the governor, had they asked my advice, to settle with me by forgiving the debt and changing the formula to bring another $100 million to Lakewood each year. Instead, everyone was high and drunk on the silly voucher stuff. I should really quit and let Lakewood sink into financial collapse because when the state decides to pony up, and even a friendly governor might have to do it because the debt is too big, NO ONE WILL LIVE HERE ANYMORE because the school tax will quadruple.
I can't exaggerate how they have violated the public trust, ruined my life in terms of parnasa, and all the people who stand by and do nothing share in their deed.
When I use the pronoun "I" what I mean is that I deserved to move up in the district but really, I could not have won without others, and the z'chus ha'rabbim. But they will have to answer to me one day for what they did.
Had similar experiences in other klal spheres.The tragic nature of a prophet is to be stoned
DeleteThanks. I am glad that I am posting all this on an old post. No one needs to know that my story is riches to rags. I come from corporate America where if you produce, enhance the bottom line, get an education, you move up. My father was an high ranking executive at Shell Oil in Houston, my brother runs the largest investment fund in America. All my friends parents were VP and Presidents of large oil or chemical companies such as Texaco and Amoco. And here I am for 21 years the low man on the totem poll. It is not the professional life I envisioned. And it was time to resign from my dead end job. The people made their choice in the last election, and it is the American way to accept the results.
DeleteBy no means I want to present myself as a victim. I win every time in court when the BOE opposes me. The BOE has been trying in court to get a change in the formula for over two decades and lost every time. I will be teaching in another district hopefully and my anger will subside. But my opinion of Lakewood as being a town full of cowards, or as the Athenian call men who did not show up to vote or become familiar with public affiars, "idiots." How does someone live in a free country, a republic, and is ignorant of the issues that effect him most. The last BOE election was more important than any federal election in my lifetime. As a result, they all are going to fall. My goal is educatio of the kids. If we save Lakewood, and we will, because the current financial structure is ripping it apart, that will be secondary. But, the mosdos will not be at the table. No one will protect their interest. Good riddance.
ReplyDeleteHow dumb the people are? They get all excited to elect someone to have a seat at the table, when we (me) already own the table. They are not there!
I apologize for the complaints. Let no one accuse me of being a victim. It seems to be my destiny not to have the cooperation of the Lakewood Establishment. Gam zu l'tova. I am just a shliach. The brains are my co-counsel and advisors.
ReplyDeleteEverything that looked bad turned out good. For example in 2016 when Aaron Kotler brought the BOE into the case, it came in as a participant, at my request. I was not happy but they had the right. However, when MI took over, he tried, albeit too late and the eve of the trial, to come in as a full party, the judge did not allow it. So what Aaron did, consenting to coming in not as participant rather than a full party, was good. Same with my personal parnasa. I guess they knew that even if I got a promotion, I would not be their lapdog, but at least the lines of communication would have remained open. Now I do not talk to any of them. I want nothing to do with them after the perfidy of the last election, which ultimately my last ditch effort to get some kind of support and stay in the district.
So when it comes to how the tax structure will be changed, what happens to our local fair share, how the state works the formula, who gets what, bussing, out-of-district special education, private school interest, guess what? I will owe no one anything. My efforts will only be for the kids and parents without any form even appearance of shochad or conflict whatsoever. So gam zu l'tova.