One of the best bloggers in New Jersey, if not the whole northeast, is Jersey Jazzman.
He has gathered statements that Governor Christie has made about teachers that are quite negative. His teachers remember him fondly.
By all accounts, he had an idyllic childhood and experienced great public schooling.
Now he is pushing privatization as hard as he can, promoting privately managed charter schools and cyber charters (despite their dismal results).
What went wrong?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Jersey Jazzman maybe one of the best bloggers in the country! We are so Lucky we get to have home write about NJ! He is music to our ears!!!!!!!!
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Power, money, ego grows…..more power, more money, ego grows bigger….repeat until he self -combusts and/or he over-reaches and then he alienates too many. Doesn’t get elected, goes to the private sector, moves on…spends more time with his family and then he finds God again.
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Jersey Jazzman is indeed remarkable. We’re lucky ducks that Blue Jersey is his 2nd home, with his own great site his home base. What he writes is research-based, fact-oriented, and specific. It must drive his detractors nuts. Their arguments are all advertising slogans and promises they have no standing or experience to deliver. And they know he sees through them. As do you, Ms. Ravitch. You’re a couple of very scary-smart people. And I’m glad I live in your world.
Rosi Efthim
BlueJersey.com
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That has always been my question too….why does he hate teachers so much??
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Diane, have you watched him at the Harvard GSE? I recommend watching this in its entirety and would welcome your observations.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news-impact/2011/05/nj-governor-chris-christie-speaks-at-hgse/
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Isn’t it good politicking to slam teachers? Read the comment section of almost any newspaper, people resent teachers. They resent their summers off, especially. I think, in this bad economy, Christie is slamming teachers because teachers are the new scapegoats for hard economic times. Education costs are the biggest slice of every state budget. No one considers that every child in the state much be educated, no, it’s the greedy teachers and their unions–especially their unions.
It’s not cool to scapegoat cops and firemean, the people like and respect them, they could be killed on their job–enough said. Teachers are women, they have husband to support them, the job is pin money, and they still steal most of the money from the state budget, money they really don’t need–this is what people think. It’s sad, but true, and Christie plays right into it.
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Thank you, Dr. R – and Deb and Rosi! Very much appreciated all around.
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Unfortunately, it is true that teachers are the new scapegoat. Of course, in Louisiana, we get the mythical “bad teacher.” They will praise the “good” teachers- and these ideas are supposed to “empower” good teachers. But, the narrative has been that these bad teachers get all these protections. I do think in this economy, people resent educators. They think we do nothing all summer and they resent that we have secure retirement packages in this age when many people’s 401k and retirements are in the toilet. Of course all these people who are attacking teachers would never choose to do the work, even though they insist anyone can teach.
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I remember reading an article entitled “Teaching: The Hardest Job Everyone Thinks They Can Do.” The title sums it all up.
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Do his children attend public school? I find that is the ultimate litmus test for a politician who says he or she believes in public education. Our Premier’s daughter attends an elite private school. Actions do speak louder than words. What is the motivation?
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No, according to Jersey Jazzman (see other Christie post) they attend an elite private school.
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They share more in common. Thank you for the clarification.
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I have been told several times that CC’s rancor stems from the NJEA’s lack of support for CC in the last election cycle. Any truth to that?
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Did he really expect to receive their report? When has the teachers union ever supported a Republican politician?
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When you solve this mystery please come and help us in Ohio to uncover why Gov. Kascich has made teachers public enemy number one. We may have defeated his infamous House Bill 5, but he and his cronies are managing to slip in most of the laws and regulations in the back door .
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Same here in CT. Our non-educator commissioner (started a charter
and a charter management company, Yale lawyer, never taught a day in his life) is also trying to infiltrate every process to sneakily get what he couldn’t get from the orginal reform bill. It has been working because they can get away with it and this is most likely not politically correct, but it is happening mostly in the cities. The wealthy suburbs would never let it happen and they will never go there. Until more vocal parents are affected in a negative way, not much will change. If teachers speak out, you only care about your job and you are defending the status quo. Although I have yet to hear someone actually define the status quo.
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