You can be cynical all you want. But while you watch California burn know that it was a Democratic Governor who stopped unfettered development of the wetlands, it was a Democratic Governor who was forced to equalize education and rose to the occasion, it was a Democratic Governor who at least tried to balance the budget and we (meaning YOU) crucified him for it. Thanks Allen, your a great American!

When and where did that happen?

Do the people in the Abbott Districts know about this? Has this equalization found its' way into the classroom?

Because the latest stats from the NJ DOE show quite the opposite. There has not been any improvement in high school drop out rates and more and more students can't pass the high school exit exam so they get to take a personal test devised just for them so that they can get a diploma with their eighth-grade reading and math skills. While funding to these districts increase and increase.

If this is equalized, I hope the labor market is sensitive enough to adjust for these high school graduates with 8th grade skills.

But Corzine continues to pump money and support the current system as much as possible. And for his campaign, he promises more of the same.

You may know better than I but my understanding is that New Jersey's education funding formula was deemed unconstitutional by the NJ Supreme Court. Kean fought like hell against any changes and when Florio was elected he was confronted with either continuing to flaunt the law or try to find a remedy, Ala, Abbot Districts.

However, Regional Cooperation Agreements had the effect of trapping children and their families in dense, urban and often substandard educational circumstances. And here is where I agree with you and the evidence you cite bears it out; throwing money at the problem will not work

The abolition of RCA's that Governor Corzine signed will allow for children of different socio-economic backgrounds to grow together and learn from each other. Perhaps if kids had friends who were going to college, who were filling out applications, who had a future, they would follow.

I don't know what is going on in the Abbot districts but I'm willing to bet it ain't pretty. But can we agree that with the abolition of RCA's and the enforcement of COAH, Abbot Districts may become a thing of the past?

See I believe that where you live may be a reflection of your status in life and that's fair enough because usually you worked your ass off to get there. But public education is not supposed to be something we bequeth to our children based upon where we live. Chris Christie has stated quite clearly that he does and will do every thing in his power to gut COAH. Then we can have Abbot forever!

and the system we have now, the same system that Corzine supports and refuses to address its' problems and inequities, is a basic violation of those rights. Corzine has made it clear that he believes the system needs more money to work.

New Jersey has the highest per pupil spending in the US & this has been true for many, many years. The Abbotts have some of the highest drop out rates with more than half of their graduates getting high school diplomas with reading and math skills no higher than the average NJ eighth grader.

How many more students must we lose to a truly unfair, unequitable system to get even a modicum of reform? How much more in taxation can the average NJ family pay to an obviously failing system?

The bottom line..........The state of New Jersey gets a grade F in education.

Christie recognizes that the system is flawed and has made it clear that he supports alternatives - he is willing to look at innovative ideas that are already working in other parts of the country.

We need to truly address the Abbott School situation and it isn't coming from the current administration.

The only ideas I've heard of is expanding credits for private school. What is Christies plan?

And second, what do you think the effect of rolling back COAH for education will be?

I'm not trying to get argumentative I really want to know what you think.

Went to the Chrisitie website. I see what your talking about. No vouchers are even there so I was wrong on that. My bad! There is an emphasis on Charter Schools, something called CityTrak and money following the children where they go. Alright, I'm with you here. But what about the expansion of preschool under Corzine?

And what does this do to address concentrated poverty? As a matter of fact Christie wants more people to move into urban centers. You want to move to Newark?

I'm gonna chew on this for a while. See you Jersey Ed. I'm not convinced but this looks like the Corzine/NJEA underbelly.

While Corzine's numbers have not improved much, Christie has seen his 50% number drop under that benchmark and his negatives have increased by almost 10%.

Given the fact that the ads that are being run are pretty weak, I fear what they will come out with next. My guess is the real neasty stuff has not even begun yet.

Of course negative campaigning can and often does work depending upon the quality and quantity of the ads and when and where they are run. And negative campaigning can backfire to some degree.

But here's the rub: I conducted my own straw poll of women voters, some of whom I know to be GOP leaners in general elections. Most of the women I polled had never really seen Chris Christie. Most of them are not yet tuned into the campaign, but all said they voted in the last gubernatorial election and intend to vote in this one. Most were registered independents.

I showed the women I polled a somewhat flattering, full body photo of Mr. Christie. Almost all of the women polled said they had no idea Christie was so overweight. I asked them if his excess weight bothered them; they almost all said yes and that could influence their vote. When asked why it would influence their vote, they said that obesity is a refection of poor character and self discipline, something they don't want in a governor.

Women outvote men by a wide margin. In my view, once the campaign gets into full swing following Labor Day, the Corzine camp might go negative with lots of unflattering, full body photos of Mr. Christie. If my straw poll has any legs and the ladies are paying attention, Christie could lose this one on looks alone.

The author is correct in all of his assumptions on this race and the departure of Joe Roberts confirms those political realities. Corzine has nothing to say because he hasn't done anything in four years. Those closest to Corzine will readily admit he is a governor without accomplishment or record. His soft policy wonk approach to government and low key personality energizes nothing and no one except paid consultants looking for one more big payday before this guy is out of politics for good. Corzine should be running to the right of Christie on fiscal issues like cutting the size of state government. It's the best kept secret of the campaign. Corzine has surrounded himself with the most expensive, overpaid, under perfroming political operatives in memory. Hard core leftists completely out-of-step with political reality that keep telling themselves NJ is the bluest state in the nation. Can you say Speaker DeCroce? Vote Column "A"- All the way!