Contentious School Election Day in NJ

Voters were casting ballots on school budgets across New Jersey on Tuesday, a typically low-turnout election that could garner more attention this year amid a war of words between the governor and unions over property taxes and the quality of education.

The state's education world is watching closely to see if this is the first year since 1976 when the majority of budgets are defeated by voters. School board candidates are also on the ballot.

Under Gov. Chris Christie's proposed state budget, schools would get less money from the state and federal governments.

Most districts are planning layoffs and tax increases.

Christie says layoffs can be avoided if teachers agree to freeze their salaries and start contributing to their health insurance premiums. He says voters should reject budgets where teachers have not made those concessions.

Teachers in 20 of the 590 districts have agreed to change their contracts to freeze or reduce their salaries. Teacher contracts in about 200 more districts will expire this summer and be open for negotiation then.

Union officials say the governor is a bully intent on cutting school budgets even as people who make more than $400,000 are seeing their taxes go down.

The state's largest teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association, on Tuesday asked for Christie to apologize for comments a day earlier when he said students at some schools were being used like "drug mules'' to send information home about voting.