No longer a must-read

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It's a pretty sad commentary. My son went out and got our copy of The Record of Woodland Park today. I looked it over briefly, putting the sales circulars, classifieds and Sports section into the recycling bin, then went back to reading my Costco Connection magazine.

After I finished the magazine, I read the former Hackensack daily -- no longer a must-read -- even on a Sunday.

The Page 1 story on the war between Governor Christie and public schools is another in a series in which The Record has portrayed teachers and police officers as the main reasons municipal property taxes are so high.  

Maybe if New Jersey's finances weren't so screwed up, it could fund public schools completely, as many other states do. And how reliable is coverage of unions by a newspaper that has none -- the Borg family having fought successfully against employees who sought to organize them?

On the front of Local,  one storm clean-up story is about Palisades Park and the other concentrates on towns to the north and west, with nothing about Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck, not to mention a bunch of other towns -- not even the name of the Hackensack man who went into cardiac arrest while shoveling snow and died Friday.

Obituaries on L-1 recall the lives of two dedicated history teachers -- one in a public school -- a seeming argument against the governor's call for big education cuts.

 An editorial in Opinion salivates over the prospects that Teaneck and Bogota police will merge, and that West Milford will successfully cut three officers. Is that really a good idea in this sprawling township (see map above)?

Before you know it, readers will be turning against the cop on the beat as well as their kids' teachers, if they believe the newspaper's drumbeat that they keep property taxes high.