TOMS RIVER, NJ – On April Fool’s Day, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy joked about joining the cast of the MTV show Jersey Shore, but he remains dead serious when it comes to leaving Jersey Shore school children critically underfunded.
Although the governor signed a $100 million emergency funding bill proposed by New Jersey State Senator Vin Gopal, the situation in school districts at the Jersey Shore is no laughing matter.
“BREAKING: Sammi Sweetheart isn’t the only one returning to Jersey Shore this season,” Murphy said.
Even on the festive holiday of April Fool’s Day, New Jerseyans weren’t laughing.
Responses to the governor’s tweet criticized the governor’s lack of interest in the plight of residents of the Jersey Shore.
Whether it’s his unwillingness to investigate the unusual rash of dolphin and whale deaths along the shore or his pushing to allow for the development of a toxic waste dump in Toms River or his neglect of the public school system at the Jersey Shore, shore residents didn’t laugh at the joke.
Many in the area feel there is a link between offshore sonar testing being performed off the coast. That work is being done to prep a massive off-shore wind turbine farm at the shore.
Additionally, most Jersey Shore residents do not identify with the show that pits North Jersey and New York ‘guidos’, out of touch with the real culture at the Jersey Shore into situations many of us who grew up here quite frankly, would never be in.
Even the star of the show, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi wasn’t laughing.
“Can you please stop killing the whales and dolphins? My son Angelo, a future marine biologist, isn’t happy,” she tweeted.
Murphy is also pushing the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to build a city atop an active superfund site in Toms River, the seat of Ocean County.
The governor’s office is pushing to allow the owner, BASF to build a 250 acre residential community at the site of a chemical manufacturing facility that poisoned the Toms River water supply in the 1970s and 1980s.
Then there’s school funding. Schools at the Jersey Shore have seen their state funding radically slashed since Murphy took office. Many feel Murphy’s proprietary school funding formula intentionally targets Jersey Shore school districts, most of which are Republican-leaning when it comes to Election Day.
In the end, like many voters at the Jersey Shore, the cast of the television show Jersey Shore have already voted against Murphy being on the show.