Governor Ralph Cramden (aka Chris Christie) to NJ teachers on low pay...

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/26/10 at 10:35pm

Words cannot express the contempt I have for this man. He's a sick, sick, sick individual.



Christie the *sshole Updated On: 5/30/10 at 10:35 PM

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 5/26/10 at 10:54pm

I hate him. I'm only 15. Bigot.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 5/26/10 at 11:10pm

And this guy is telling all these sports reporters who don't know better that the 2014 Super Bowl is a carrot for him to get re-elected. This man has no concept of true issues or carrots for that matter.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/26/10 at 11:15pm

Snide bastard.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/26/10 at 11:18pm

I'd love for him to spend just a day in my classroom doing what I do. Maybe he'd change his tune, but given what a pompous dick he is, I tend to doubt it.

[jasonf]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 8:04am

adamgreer -- I thought that for a while too, that if he'd just spend a day doing what we do -- and then I realized I don't want him anywhere NEAR my students. He is a disgusting, revolting excuse not just for a leader but for a PERSON. Perhaps as reprehensible (and frightening) are those who support his insanity.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 8:22am

He really is an asshole.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 8:34am

i'm always heartened by the high-minded and sage rhetoric i hear from those tasked with educating our children.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 8:39am

Eh I call em as I see em.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 9:12am

i'm always heartened by the high-minded and sage rhetoric i hear from those tasked with educating our children.

He's been nothing but contentious to teachers since the moment he announced his candidacy. I have no respect for a man who has none for me or my profession.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 9:14am

I don't know...I'll stand by my asshole comment...but I'm not sure all the fat jokes help the cause.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 9:15am

"Asshole" is a kind way of describing this piece of s*it.

And whenever I watch something like this, I'm reminded that Chris Christie pays the person who updates his Twitter account $60K a year. Obviously, that person has skills that our educators lack, and totally deserves his/her money.

Updated On: 5/27/10 at 09:15 AM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 9:39am

Well the REAL problem is that Christie and Schundler know NOTHING about education and their idea of reform (charter schools, vouchers, low pay)is exactly what all current research shows DOESN'T WORK! But it's the GOP's dream and the Tea Party loves it.
So instead of doing REAL reform....consolidating school districts, paying for highly qualified teachers, reducing the RIDICULOUSLY top heavy administrations, and stop spending billions of dollars a year and focusing all instruction on some stupid, pointless, standardized test.
Instead he chooses to demonize public schools and teachers, even though NJ Public Schools are consistently ranked among the top of the nation.
So like I said, I stand by my asshole comment.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 9:56am

Even Diane Ravitch, the person who pretty much started the movement, has come out against testing and vouchers.
The Death and Life of the Great American School System by DIane Ravitch

[jasonf]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 11:59am

It's flat out disgusting what Christie has done to this state. The schools have been consistently ranked the top of the nation -- watch that number plummet once all his cuts go into effect. If nothing else, I could tolerate the cuts if they were coming from an honest, open, and sincere place. Christie is mean, underhanded and a bully. It is DISGRACEFUL for someone in a position of leadership to talk the way he does about ANYONE.

I feel leaders deserve respect only if they show it to those they are leading -- he doesn't, and so deserves none in return.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 12:22pm

Another perspective:

Kevin Manahan is a member of the Star-Ledger editorial board.

My father spent nearly his entire career in public relations at AT&T, so he was always dispensing advice on how to handle personal crises, big and small. And when I would come home from my high school job of stocking shelves at King’s Supermarket, complaining about some ungracious customer, he would remind me:

“AT&T spends millions of dollars trying to shape the public’s opinion of us, but it takes only one rude telephone operator to flush all that money and ruin all of my hard work. The same thing could happen at King’s.”

His lesson was clear: One bad decision, one stupid miscalculation, can wreck years of good will.

Which brings us to the New Jersey Education Association.

In an astonishing fall from grace that has taken only months, teachers have gone from respected and beloved members of the community to some of the most reviled. In a blink, they have trashed years of good will.

Once the patient darlings who nurtured our kids, teachers now look like insensitive, out-of-touch, can’t-think-for-themselves union robots who, when forced to face economic realities, clung to an insulting sense of entitlement, heartlessly sacrificed the jobs of colleagues, called the governor naughty names and used students as political pawns.

All while blaming everyone else.

At Saturday’s rally in Trenton, teachers wondered when the Earth started spinning in the other direction.

“It’s like we woke up one morning and the world had changed,” said Linda Mirabelli, a music teacher in Livingston. “We were liked and respected, and now, overnight, people have turned against us.”

How did it happen? That’s easy: One bad decision, one stupid miscalculation: An overwhelming majority of teachers refused to accept a pay freeze. They could have won taxpayers’ eternal gratitude, but instead demanded their negotiated raises and fought against contributing a dime toward budget-breaking health insurance benefits. Teachers could have pitched in, but they dug in.

They thumbed their noses at taxpayers, who have lost their jobs, had their pay cut, gone bankrupt and fallen into foreclosure. As taxpayers made less, teachers demanded more. You do that, you become a villain. Fast. It doesn’t matter how many stars Junior gets on his book report.

Teachers listened to their overpaid brain trust, the architects of this disastrous public relations strategy. Together, NJEA president Barbara Keshishian, executive director Vincent Giordano and spokesman Steve Wollmer earn more than a million dollars. Keshishian, who has been outmaneuvered by the governor at every turn, earns $256,450 annually. Giordano, with salary and deferred compensation, earned $550,203 in 2009, and Wollmer makes $300,000.

Who says you get what you pay for? Union members are shelling out a lot of money for lousy representation. They should stage a coup. Instead they joined hands at Saturday’s You-And-Me-Against-The-World rally and tried to convince each other they’re doing the right thing.

To compound the troubles, the NJEA does something stupid almost every day. They insult the governor; teachers (and administrators) let kids walk out of class to protest cuts in aid; union members refuse to give up their seats to private-school students at a hearing in Trenton.

And now the NJEA is now running TV commercials, attacking Christie (again), this time using cops and firemen for cover, hoping the public still likes those guys. The firefighters union, realizing the teachers union is now toxic, says it never would have approved the commercial, but the NJEA never asked.

NJEA leadership should have seen the backlash coming. Tenure, raises, pensions, health care benefits and an aversion toward merit pay have irked taxpayers for years. The recession ignited that anger, and no last-gasp advertising blitz will change the perception of insensitive teachers who told taxpayers to eat chalk.

So, the question is: Was it worth it?

The average public school teacher makes $63,000, and the average raise this year was roughly 4 percent, so teachers traded $2,520 for these scars, which never will heal. And because Christie and taxpayers asked only for a one-year pay freeze, it’s money teachers could have recovered next year.

Imagine how differently teachers would be perceived today if they had agreed to a pay freeze and willingly offered a few bucks toward their health policies. They’d be heroes.

Heck, we would have staged a rally for them.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 12:50pm

I would like to see name-calling remain as the political tool of the Republicans. Frankly, we're too good to engage in that sort of thing.

[jasonf]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 2:54pm

That article is so misleading! First of all, I'd love to know where the average salary number comes from. This site:

http://www.employmentspot.com/employment-articles/teacher-salaries-by-state/

shows an average of 56,000 which is more in line with other reports I've seen.

Second, teachers do not get 4% raises per year. That number is the raise per CONTRACT, which is spread over a three year period.

Third, and most frustrating, there were very solid reasons teachers did not take the wage freeze. 1)To do so would be to reopen already negotiated contracts -- what's the point of contracts if they can just be redone at a moment's notice 2)wage freezes were no guarantee of saved jobs as they are being advertised in the press - indeed, districts that took the freezes lost as many jobs as those that didn't, 3)the wage freezes were a tactic used by Christie designed to make the teachers look bad -- even if every district took the wage freeze the saved money would only be half the necessary money needed to be saved in the budget, 4) a wage freeze for us, because of the way our salary is structured, is MUCH more damaging in the long run than to someone whose raises can adjust for the missed money in "good times" and 5)though it seems like a ridiculously obvious argument -- the teachers are not the cause of the budgetary mishaps in the state by any stretch of the imagination - to ask middle class workers to make a sacrifice when the "millionaire" tax was allowed to expire, coupled with the absolute vitriol spewed at teachers - is a huge insult.

The level of disrespect shown to the profession by the governor is indicative of an angry, antagonistic, and very poor leader. That articles such as this that further his agenda, especially when coupled with half-truths and flat out lies, are viewed as impartial truth by so many is a very sad commentary on the value system of the state.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 3:25pm

Why are we the only profession who are considered evil and disingenuous when we support our union? No one would call tradespeople "union robots" for standing with the AFL-CIO.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 3:28pm

Listening to the average talk radio station, and people just think the unions are the devil in general. Doesn't matter if it a major one like a Player's union in sports, teachers, nurses, public employees, etc.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 3:28pm

and unshockingly that explanation pretty much confirms the whole point of the article. thanks, jason. you're nothing if not predictable.

[jasonf]

Posted: 5/27/10 at 3:52pm

You're welcome. Glad I could enlighten you :)

[violet72]

Posted: 5/28/10 at 8:30am

I am fed up with people who say we don't pay into our pensions. I will show them my paycheck, we do pay into it. The state hasn't paid into it for 15 years. I wish I could do that with my mortgage.

I am a second generation teacher. My dad is retiring this year after 38 years of teaching. In his 38th year he is making $75,000 that is 100,000 less then our governor.In order to support his family my father has also driven a bus for NJ Transit. He did this so my brother and I could go to college and want for nothing. My father is still an excellent teacher. He keeps in touch with many of his students. He wanted to work to his 40th year but he would be losing too much of his pension. So he is retiring.

I am sick of being demonized. My "raise" that we are being critisized for taking works out to be $30 a paycheck aka gas money. I watched the call in show last night with the governor and had to turn it off because I was so disgusted

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/28/10 at 11:57am

I'll agree that the NJEA has done nothing to help their public image during this whole debacle. But the pay freeze issue is a JOKE. Teachers...who get paid crap...should take a pay freeze while administrators who already make six figures continue to get raises? Believe me our 2% increases that barely cover the cost of living increases are a drop in the bucket.
Plus, districts were told if they agreed to freezes they would receive more state aid to avoid layoffs. This never happened, so the twenty some districts that did agree to freezes still had lay offs.
The union needs to start talking about reform too. The current tenure system/seniority system is a joke and needs to go. All it does now is protect bad teachers.

[jasonf]

Posted: 5/28/10 at 4:09pm

violet - I lasted about 15 minutes before I had to shut it off - how long did you go? I figured I'd let him TRY to explain things, but when the caller asked about what his admin. will do for the mental health for pre-K kids and he completely side-stepped the issue by saying "districts in urban areas that need it will get help" I couldn't take it any more.

He's the governor for the whole state - EVERY district needs it!