Congressman Bill Pascrell’s office put out a press release Monday to trumpet the fact that the legislator got $52,403 for the Verona school district. He did, but we’re never going to see a dime of it, and here’s why.
The funds were part of the $14.5 billion earmarked for so-called Title 1 activities under the Department of Education Appropriations Act for 2010. But when Washington doles out money like this, it doesn’t simply send us a check. That would be too easy. No, the money has to be routed through Trenton and Trenton’s rules are that Verona is too small and too wealthy to get Title 1 money. So the state reallocated the money to an Essex County vo-tech school that happens to have a Verona address (it’s in the building just west of the Community Center).
If all this makes any sense to you, you have a future in Trenton or Washington.