Page 26 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • April 28, 2010 through taxation. The Ridgewood Education Foundation and the various Home and School Associations and the Wyckoff Education Foundation and the various Parent Teacher Associations give the schools six-figure donations every year to sustain or introduce all sorts of programs that expand learning and make school more enjoyable for the kids. Most towns have similar volunteers, but Ridgewood’s and Wyckoff’s are the two most outstanding I know of. Neither group convinced the majority of the voters, despite the narrow defeats in both towns, to join them in supporting the best possible education. Elections come and go, but the problem remains. The schools are vitally important to citizens who have schoolaged children, less important to childless people and those who send their children to private schools, and an absolute threat to most people on fixed incomes. Northwest Bergen County is so hospitable to civilized people of some breeding and intelligence, and so willing to help people acquire that breeding and expand that intelligence, that a lot of people simply do not want to leave. The churches, the libraries, and even the shopping are an important source of enjoyment and sometimes of consolation. It’s indecent to force decent people out of town because they thought a paid-up house and the interest on a halfmillion would see them through once they opted for Social Security. High taxes and low interest rates, not to mention the collapse of the stock market and some pension funds, has turned that gentle dream into a nightmare. For older people who are not seriously rich, school taxes and other property taxes turned Northwest Bergen County into a disaster area long before the snowstorm, the windstorm, and the “boil-water” order. How do you build a school budget that everyone can take seriously and perhaps even support? If people are primarily motivated by self-interest – let’s call it greed – on both sides of the equation, you can’t do it. The existing problem includes the people who move into a town when the kids start middle school and leave when the last kid gets into college. These are usually not the people who donate large amounts of money or time to the schools, although there are exceptions. Some of the older people have grown grouchy through endless fiscal abuse, and may wish fewer kids were around. I don’t mind the kids. I tutor a lot of them, and they are surprisingly nice people when they aren’t trying to impress their peers. The common ground has to be saving the kids without regarding the school system as an entitlement job program. Most of the kids find school tolerable because of friends and sports or other activities, but that is not why their parents send them there. School is about education – not sports, sex, drinking, or drugs. Ask any honest kid or police officer if you think I’m kidding. The key to saving the schools could be to upgrade the economic program so the kids who are not academic competitors in honors and Advanced Placement classes could learn a full roster of business skills or an entry-level trade skill and be employable the moment they graduate. The other piece of that puzzle would be to insist that a realistic minimum wage could make it possible for people to become self-supporters without two college degrees. We also need to realize that special education kids need our help and support, but pretending that any amount of academic education can compensate for serious disabilities is a very expensive fantasy. It may be too expensive for the present economic situation. Educational decisions must be made on the basis of what is practicable, not on the basis of what group of parents screams the loudest. Last suggestion: Get rid of tenure. A few years ago, we had a teacher who knew advanced math well but could not speak English well enough to answer the students’ questions. Incredibly, she served three years and messed up some previously straight-A transcripts before the board of education told her she was not coming back for the fourth – tenure-conferring – year. She cried, and the teachers picketed the school to demand she be reinstated even though she could not teach. Some students showed up to defend her. Some parents showed up. One of those parents, who has an advanced degree in the subject she taught, confirmed that she was not qualified to teach in an American public school because she could not speak enough English. This should have been an absolute no-brainer. It was not a racial thing. Some of the objectors came from the same quadrant of the planet as the teacher did. Teachers are supposed to teach. They are not supposed to band together to defend a peer who ruins students’ lives. Most people do not like paying too much money for teachers. What they really do not like is paying too much money for teachers who cannot teach. The dust has settled and this corner of Bergen County is split down the middle. In the towns I cover, half the people are smiling. In some places, people are smiling because the school budgets went down to a narrow but conclusive defeat. In other towns, people are smiling because the budgets were approved. Nowhere is everybody happy. Here are some of the ironies. Impartial observers generally find that Ridgewood has the best, or one of the best, high schools in this area, and the district has some of the best elementary schools. Other districts around the state and the nation buy Ridgewood educational programs canned for external use, yet Ridgewood’s budget was defeated at the polls by just over 100 votes -- even after the board and administration made responsible cuts. Glen Rock’s budget was approved by a substantial margin after the superintendent sent a detailed letter to the governor asking that Glen Rock not be punished because of abuses elsewhere in the state. Glen Rock has a good school system, though the district needs to remember that great sports coaches do not always great history teachers. One history teacher who is now retired from the Allendale K-8 school district once saw how impressed I was with her knowledge and fascination with her subject. “You’re probably wondering why I don’t teach in high school,” she said. “You’re right,” I replied. “I don’t coach sports,” she explained. Multiply that phenomenon exponentially and you have the answer to a few other questions: Why do schools host guest seminars in “Participatory American Democracy”? The United States is not a democracy, as ancient Athens was, but rather a republic, as ancient Rome was. An intelligent and qualified attorney who had volunteered to speak at one of these seminars caught that one on the rebound when he saw me in the audience at a council meeting. I hope he explains the difference to the kids and the coaches who teach them. Why do kids graduate from middle-class high schools with upper-class tax rates and still not know the difference between there and their, or then and than? Why did we invade Iraq when the Sept. 11 terrorists mostly came from Saudi Arabia? Wyckoff’s budget also took the chop by a narrow margin. Wyckoff K-8 schools are generally very good, though the administrative structure has had issues. No one has completely forgotten the fact that a former business administrator embezzled about $1.7 million from the district less than a decade ago, and that money was never recovered. I suspect that voters also remember the scene last year in which members of the Wyckoff Education Association voted “no confidence” in the superintendent at a public meeting because of what were largely cost-cutting decisions. The irony is that Ridgewood and Wyckoff, where the budgets both went down in defeat, have many residents who support education out of their own personal or corporate pockets and not out of their neighbors’ pockets Some school budget questions and ironies Area Most taxpayers have already filed their federal tax returns, but many may still have questions. “Here’s what the IRS wants you to know about refund status, recordkeeping, mistakes and what to do if you move,” said New Jersey’s IRS Spokesperson Gregg Semanick. Taxpayers may go online to check the status of their 2009 refund 72 hours after the IRS acknowledges receipt of an e-filed return, or three to four weeks after a paper return is mailed. Be sure to have a copy of your 2009 tax return available because you will need to know your filing status, the first Social Security number shown on the return, and the exact whole-dollar amount of the refund. There are three options to check on a refund: Visit IRS. gov, and click on “Where’s My Refund?” Call the IRS at 1-800-829-4477. Service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for automated refund information. Call the IRS refund hotline at 1-800-829-1954 during business hours. You filed your tax return and want to know what records to keep. Normally, tax records should be kept for three years, but some documents -- such as records relating to a home purchase or sale, stock transactions, IRAs, and business or rental property -- should be kept longer. Keep copies of tax returns you have filed and the tax forms package as part of your records. They may be helpful in amending already filed returns or preparing future returns. Need to Change Your Address? If you move after you filed your tax return, send IRS Form 8822, Change of Address, to the Internal Revenue Service. Form 8822 is available on the IRS.gov website and may be requested by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM. If you are expecting a refund through the mail, you should also file a change of address with the U.S. Postal Service. Errors may delay your refund or result in notices being sent to you. If you discover an error on your return, you can IRS offers post filing tax tips correct your return by filing an amended return using Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. Form 1040X is available on the IRS.gov Web site or requested by calling the IRS at 1-800-TAX-FORM. The IRS website is a one-stop shop for a wide array of tax information. Extension and late filers can still prepare and file a federal tax return – for free – through IRS Free File for those whose income is $57,000 or less. Check out 1040 Central on the Individuals page for the latest news. The Online Services section includes several online tools that will help you with your taxes, including the IRS Withholding Calculator, the Alternative Minimum Tax Assistant, and the EITC Assistant. Visit IRS.gov for more information on refunds, recordkeeping, address changes, and amended returns.