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On Monday night I had the privilege of speaking before the State Assembly Budget Committee regarding the proposed merger of Thomas Edison State College (TESC) into Rutgers with zero appropriation for 2011.

The good news is that the Committe members were engaged and considerate, listening to every speaker. I arrived with my fellow alumni and students at 6:00pm, and waited close to three hours for our turn to speak. They listened to every one of us, and we left with some cautious optimism and confidence that the Legislators on both sides of the aisle were for the most part opposed to the merger. The appropriation will be another battle.

The takeaway for me was that our representatives in the State government care about their constituents, and will listen to us if we engage them. They cannot do everything we ask, but they will listen.

In order to ensure that the State Legislature is keeping checks and balances on the Governor, it is imperative that we call and write to them, even visit their offices if possible.

To find the State legislator for your district, see the link below:

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

I started this page in a wave of anger upon learning of the budget cuts in all the wrong places, proposed by this new Governor. My first reaction was "Recall! Impeachment!".

After all, his War on Education includes zero funding and virtual elimination of my beloved Alma Mater, Thomas Edison State College, with an ill-conceived idea of a merger into Rutgers, dishonestly and cynically presented as a downtown revitalization plan for Trenton. Each of us who has read the proposal has our own pet peeves about this Governor's policies. 

As blogger deciminyan so eloquently states in his recent blog post, recall and/or impeachment are not realistic options at this time, as the Governor has not committed any crimes. In fact, it could backfire and empower him further if not successful.

What needs to be done, now, and continuously, is to call and write your State Legislators - Assembly Members and Senators, where we still have a Democratic majority, and fight back.