Christie's attacks on court come as no surprise

[hay rick]

2. Abbott school districts.

Your information is out of date. One of the biggest political issues in NJ is the state funding of "Abbott districts"- named after the landmark state supreme court decision (Abbott vs. Burke, 1985). The Abbott districts are poor, mostly urban districts that get the lion's share of state aid for education. Catch up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_district

There is a lot of disagreement (much along predictable partisan lines) about the impact of the Abbott spending. I think it is safe to say that the Abbott schools are much better than they would be without the state investment and also- they still are not remotely comparable to the better suburban districts.

New Jersey is a high cost-of-living state and the cost of schools (and police, and town, county, and state services) all reflect that fact. NJ school districts could probably save some money by consolidating some of the smaller districts and the same holds true for municipal services, but in the end, NJ will always have a place among the most expensive states in the union.

My first-hand experience with county school systems came when my family moved from NJ to WV in time for my senior year of high school. Their local taxes, on comparably valued properties, was less than a third of what they had paid in NJ. Unfortunately, the local school was absolutely inferior to the NJ school.

I later returned to NJ and spent most of my adult life there. I just retired and moved to Florida. Getting away from NJ's high property taxes definitely factored into my decision.