Chris Christie may want us to believe that he has no animous against the state teachers union, but his actions say otherwise. The New Jersey Education Association is the governor’s favorite target, a useful totem that he can trot out when he needs to deflect blame or anger from his questionable priorities.
He has called the union an array of nasty names, with bullying rhetoric designed to foment the festering tax revolt that has helped plunge the state deep into debt. Yes, the state spends more than it should on any number of things, but a lingering anti-tax sentiment (which first showed itself during the Florio administration) has exacerbated the problem. We want the programs we want, but we want them for free — a mathematically impossible equation.
But that is a topic for another blog post. The topic at hand is Gov. Chris Christie’s fevered assault on the state’s teachers union, one that no longer is just rhetorical.
Addressing the press today in an otherwise empty science lab at Montclair High School, Christie outlined a proposal to give districts money if teachers agree to wage freezes — a move the treasury department said could return just over $27 million to schools that saw $820 million in budget cuts.
Christie, essentially, is backing up is rhetorical assault with cash — a bribe designed to divide his critics and disarm them. The idea is to put the state’s nearly 600 school boards in the position of chasing scraps — the new aid pot amounts to just 3 percent of what was taken away — to save a handful of jobs and make the teachers union look like the bad guy. Local bargaining units that don’t accept pay freezes would be costing the district more than their salaries. They would be costing districts aid, as well. The governor could then use this refusal as a stick to beat the union down/
The reality of this proposal, however, is that the money won’t go very far. Consider South Brunswick, which lost $6.3 million in aid and is considering wide-spread layoffs and charging students to participate in extra-curricular activities. The district is likely to could recoup about $200,000 under the plan (about 3 percent of the aid lost), which is equal to about a quarter of a cent on the tax rate or maybe four or five jobs.
The state is in a budget crisis. It has been spending more than it has been taking in for too long. But just slashing spending — especially spending on schools and the social safety net — is shortsighted and can only deepen the pain already felt by families during the worst national economic crisis in more than a generation.
Christie obviously doesn’t care, so it will have to be up to the state Legislature to safeguard the state’s poorest and most vulnerable, while asking those who can afford it to pay more.
There is a better blueprint out there — the Better Choices for NJ campaign has a list of revenue sources that it says will generate $1.66 billion, money that can be used to restore cuts in school aid and children’s health care, among other things. And the Legislature needs to go back over the governor’s cuts to see if they match the state’s needs and whether there are better alternatives available.
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By localizing the matter, Christie's tactic may have the effect of reducing generalized anti-teacher sentiment.
Christie is a GOPer, so he is anti-union and would love to destroy the unions. He has singled out the NJEA for sliming, swiftboating and demonizing, he's looking to place a wedge between the teachers and the union. He claims that he's not bashing the teachers, just their unions. That's disingenuous and cynical, the teachers are the union and the union are the teachers. The local associations do the actual negotiating with the school boards not the NJEA. Some districts have agreed to a wage freeze but teachers will still be fired and taxes will still go up. Why should teachers (in some districts) accede to a wage freeze when they have been at an impasse with the school board and have not had a new contract for two or three years (in effect, a wage freeze)? Or consider teachers who have just finalized a hard fought contract after several years of a virtual wage freeze.CC is using misdirection, straw men and red herrings to deflect from his own lousy decisions. He's a lying demagogue not a responsible leader. Stirring up the hatreds of a lynch mob is not good leadership.A surtax on the rich is off the table and no fund cuts for charter schools. After CC is done, NJ schools will sink from their current great rating to the level of Nevada or Mississippi schools.
The bottom line is that \”We The People\” can no longer afford \”public education\”. It's just too expensive. So we have to quick migrate to some other system. One system might be to just dump the problem on the parents. (Not likely given the racial polarization and the Teachers' Union clout)Another idea might be some type of voucher system where the cost is defrayed by some type of public funding. Another idea might be a full blown voucher system that decreases over a decade or two. To a truly private education system funded by the parents. (Where imho the burden should have been all along.)One thing is for sure, the current system is broken and will break the proverbial bank.