IT'S FOR THE KIDS – REMEMBER! - AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  Well, this didn't take long.  Some New Jersey students have decided to skip class so they can protest budget cuts and the massive rejection of school budgets in the garden state. 

Their anger is directed at heroic Governor Chris Christie, the newly elected Republican, who has actually decided to do something about New Jersey's financial crisis.  Christie, and some very angry voters, understand what "the kids" don't – that education budgets are often inflated, misdirected, and aren't necessarily related to the success of the schools. 

The New York Times gives, naturally, a loving welcome to "the kids," while providing absolutely no understanding of school budgets:

It was a silent call to arms: an easy-to-overlook message urging New Jersey students to take a stand against the budget cuts that threaten class sizes and choices as well as after-school activities. But some 18,000 students accepted the invitation posted last month on Facebook, the social media site better known for publicizing parties and sporting events. And on Tuesday many of them — and many others — walked out of class in one of the largest grass-roots demonstrations to hit New Jersey in years.

Oh, it's the sixties again.  Aren't you elated?  Get out those flowered jeans.  Snap on that Gene McCarthy button.  Everything old is new again.  We wonder how many of these students actually examined the budget of their own school district.  We wonder how many counted the "administrative staff" at district headquarters.  We wonder how many looked at pensions.

The protest disrupted classroom routines and standardized testing in some of the state’s biggest and best-known school districts, offering a real-life civics lesson that unfolded on lawns, sidewalks, parking lots and football fields.

Real-life civics lesson?  It's a great lesson to skip class and tests?  The New York Times has really sunk.

At Montclair High School, it meant nearly half of the 1,900 students gathered outside the school in the morning, with some chanting, “No more budget cuts.”

In the largest showing, thousands of high school students in Newark marched past honking cars stuck in midday traffic to fill the steps of City Hall under the watchful gaze of dozens of police officers.

The Newark school district, which spends well above the national average per pupil, had to be taken over by the state because of massive incompetence.  We don't recall any protests against that.

“It feels like he is taking money from us, and we’re already poor,” said Johanna Pagan, 16, a sophomore at West Side High School in Newark, who feared her school would lose teachers and extracurricular programs because of the governor’s cuts. “The schools here have bad reputations, and we need aid and we need programs to develop.”

That's the garbage they're taught by local "leaders," many of whom have racial agendas.  The schools have poor reputations because of a poor cultural atmosphere, not because of budget problems. 

Bret D. Schundler, the education commissioner, also urged schools to enforce attendance policies and not let students walk out of class. State education officials said they had a call from one district that had moved students taking standardized tests to another part of the building because of potential noise.

That pretty much nails what this was really about.   Who needs them tests?

The protests were initiated by a college student, Michelle Ryan Lauto, described by The Times as an aspiring actress.

Ms. Lauto, enrolled at Pace University, said she has always had an activist streak. In seventh grade, she tried — but failed — to organize a protest over a new dress code, and after President George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, she wrote “Going to Canada, Be Back in 4 Years” on a T-shirt and wore it to class.

Go play Lady Macbeth and leave us alone.

April 28