And for a more nuanced view, here's today's Star-Ledger editorial:
Of course, that's like asking any vampire to swear off blood; like the Count Orlok of "Nosferatu" fame, school officials are by nature loath to restrain their inbred thirst.
All of these cost-cutting moves are worthy of review. These are no ordinary times, and districts need to respond quickly to an economy that is forcing everyone to do more with less.
At the same time we have to wonder: What took so long?
Fair enough. But does anyone really believe that we're going to make meaningful changes in the costs of educating children in New Jersey by tweaking purchases like copier paper and baseball uniforms? Certainly, the power of the NJEA is not the root of the problem -- our 611 locally controlled school districts get that honor -- but if we don't at least acknowledge the issue of inflated salary increases then we're pretty poor students of our own school system.