Governor Chris Christie has made clear that he doesn’t like the public schools in his state. He calls them “failure factories,” as he campaigns for vouchers. (He is a graduate of Livingston High School.) He seems to despise public school teachers. He enjoys berating teachers, especially if they are female. He is one big, tough, strong guy who knows how to put down women.
Melissa Tomlinson is a public school teacher in New Jersey. She went to a Rally for Governor Chris Christie and she held up a sign.
Read this wonderful description on Jersey Jazzman’s blog of Melissa’s courage in confronting a bully.
Her sign said:
“I am a public school teacher.
“We are NOT failing our students.
“N.J. is ranked 3rd in the US.
“Christie’s refusal to finance public education is failing our students.”
She asked him: “Why do you portray our schools as failure factories?” His reply: “Because they are!” He said: “I am tired of you people. What do you want?”
So, the most powerful executive in the state of New Jersey treated this dedicated public school teacher with arrogance, rudeness, and disrespect. She didn’t back down. She had him cornered. She is right. He is wrong. Probably, he knows he is wrong, so he felt compelled to shout her down instead of engaging in civil dialogue.
Melissa Tomlinson was right that Governor Christie has underfunded the schools. He froze the spending that was supposed to be used to repair schools with leaky pipes and mold and crumbling facilities.
But Tomlinson was wrong about one thing: on the 2011 NAEP, New Jersey was second in the nation in reading, behind Massachusetts and tied with Connecticut. In math, New Jersey was second in the nation. Not third, but second.
The districts in New Jersey that are failing are the ones that are controlled by the state, some for decades. The state has no idea what to do other than to hand students and public funds over to private corporations.
As Julia Sass Rubin pointed out in an earlier blog today, the Christie administration has systematically underfunded districts that enroll children of color. It has stripped them of democratic governance. It has overloaded them with charters that skim the best students and increase segregation. Governor Christie praises charter schools that exclude children who have serious disabilities and children who don’t speak English. The state has embarked on a policy of separate and unequal for the districts that are powerless.
Governor Chris Christie should be ashamed of himself for his systematic neglect of the education of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children as well as his rude and disgraceful behavior towards public school teachers. He should stop his war against public education. It will not help him become president. It will be a huge liability.
Here is a blog in California. Governor Christie, your reputation as a bully is going national.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please read this teacher’s articulate and spot-on response to Gov. Christie.
Letter to Governor Christie from the New Jersey Teacher He Screamed At
Dear Governor Christie, Yesterday I took the opportunity to come hear you speak on your campaign trail. I have never really heard you speak before except for sound bytes that I get on my computer. I don’t have cable, I don’t read newspapers. I don’t have enough time. I am a public school teacher that works an average of 60 hours a week in my building. Yes, you can check with my principal. I run the after-school program along with my my classroom position. I do even more work when I am at home. For verification of this, just ask my children. I asked you one simple question yesterday. I wanted to know why you portray NJ Public Schools as failure factories. Apparently that question struck a nerve. When you swung around at me and raised your voice, asking me what I wanted, my first response “I want more money for my students.” Notice, I did not ask for more money for me. I did not ask for my health benefits, my pension, a raise, my tenure, or even my contract that I have not had for nearly three years. We got into a small debate about how much money has been spent on education. Too me, there is never enough money that is spent on education. To invest in education is to invest in our future. We cannot keep short-changing our children and taking away opportunities for them to explore and learn. As more money is required for state-mandated curriculum changes and high-stakes standardized testing, it is our children that are losing. Programs are being cut all over the state as budget changes are forcing districts to cut music, art, after-school transportation, and youth-centered clubs. But let’s put money aside for a moment. What do I want? What do ‘we people’ want? We want to be allowed to teach. Do you know that the past two months has been spent of our time preparing and completing paperwork for the Student Growth Objectives? Assessments were created and administered to our students on material that we have not even taught yet. Can you imagine how that made us feel? The students felt like they were worthless for not having any clue how to complete the assessments. The teachers felt like horrible monsters for having to make the students endure this. How is that helping the development of a child? How will that help them see the value in their own self-worth. This futile exercise took time away from planning and preparing meaningful lessons as well as the time spent in class actually completing the assessments. The evaluations have no statistical worth and has even been recognized as such by the NJ Department of Education. I am all for evaluation of a teacher. I recognize that I should be held accountable for my job. This does not worry me, as long as I am evaluated on my methods of teaching. I can not be held wholly accountable for the learning growth of a student when I am not accountable for all of the factors that influence this growth. Are you aware that poverty is the biggest determination of a child’s educational success. If not, I suggest you read Diane Ravitch’s new book Reign of Error. Take a moment and become enlightened. Getting back to the issue of money. I am fully aware of our educational budget. Where is all of this money? To me it seems like it is being siphoned right off into the hands of private companies as they reap the benefits of the charter schools and voucher programs that you have put into place. It certainly hasn’t gone to improve school conditions in urban areas such as Jersey City. The conditions that these students and teachers are forced to be in are horrifying. Yet you are not allowing the funds needed to improve these conditions. Are you hoping that these schools get closed down and more students are forced to go to private charter schools while the districts are being forced to pay their tuition? I know for a fact that this is what has happened in Camden and Newark. Yet these charter schools are not held to the same accountability as our public schools. Why is that? Because deep down you know that you are not really dealing with the issues that influence a child’s education. You are simply putting a temporary band-aid into place. Unfortunately that temporary fix is already starting to be exposed as Charter Schools are showing that they actually are not able to do better than public schools. You are setting up teachers to take the blame for all of this. You have portrayed us as greedy, lazy money-draining public servants that do nothing. I invite you to come do my job for one week Governor Christie. I invite you to come see my students, see how little they really have during the school day as they are being forced to keep learning for a single snapshot of their educational worth. For that one end-all, be-all test, the NJASK. The one that the future of my job and my life is now based upon. Why do you portray schools as failure factories? What benefit do you reap from this? Have you acquired financial promises for your future campaigns as you eye the presidential nomination? Has there been back-room meetings as you agree to divert public funds to private companies that are seeking to take over our public educational system? This is my theory. To accomplish all of this, you are setting up the teachers to take the blame. Unfortunately, you are not the only governor in our country that has this agenda. What do “we people’ want, Governor Christie? We want our schools back. We want to teach. We want to be allowed to help these children to grow, educationally, socially, and emotionally. We want to be respected as we do this, not bullied.
BadAss Teacher, Melissa Tomlinson
http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2013/11/letter-to-governor-christie-from-new.html
LikeLike
I am not a resident of New Jersey, but would never vote for Christie. He, for some reason, has many people in his state believing he is for the regular folks. His actions and voting record don’t substantiate this.
LikeLike
Do you remember when he took money from Broad but didn’t report it?
He is obnoxious
LikeLike
Dude needs another diet.
LikeLike
Thanks for linking to my blog. Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco’s book Days of Destruction Days of Revolt is unrelentingly bleak but a necessary read for all Americans. Every day I witness events that confirm all that they write and draw in their testament to the decline of America. The chapter on Camden is tragic because the decline didn’t have to happen, just like the decline in education in New Jersey doesn’t have to happen but it is being undertaken to loot the public treasury and transfer it to private hands If we don’t stop this now, we can never recover/
On November 13th, my union, UTLA in Los Angeles is having a rally for a raise which I think is a mistake. They have done none of the organizing or coalition building with parents needed to have a successful outcome. In addition, we have so many laid off and displaced teachers that a single -minded focus on raises instead of dealing with the decline of education through the strip -mining of schools will be sure to fail. The unions must include parental concerns and the real issues plaguing schools in their demands.
LikeLike
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2013/10/chris-christie-and-failure-factories.html?m=1
About a month ago I posted the blog piece above about Christie and his bullying and demagoguery.
LikeLike
Governor Christie’s weight is the very least of his faults. Public education done right is expensive. This is why public education has enemies in both major political parties. These enemies are bought and paid for by people who believe that rich people should not pay their fair share of taxes. They have already taken the bulk of their production facilities from the USA and shipped them overseas where there are minimal (at best) labor protections so they can maximize short-term profits. Meanwhile, in the USA, this has caused widespread poverty, which is the true reason for the vast majority of cases of poor performance by students of public schools. Governor Christie, as well as his allies in the struggle to privatize public education, get to serve their well-monied masters by not only skirting the issue of who caused all the poverty, but they also get to blame organized public school teachers for their own misdeeds.
LikeLike
Here’s may take on Christie and his ilk:
People who claim they want to improve schools can’t promote the idea that teachers are a separate and distinct class that should be held in contempt, a message that an audience receives when a group is referred to as “you people”. In New Jersey, as seems to be true in all states where governors run against “the greedy unions”, teachers are officially “you people”, the Other, a group that can be despised and demonized without fear of being called a bully. If we want to have peace in the world we live in, we need to avoid creating “others”. If we want to live in a world of fear, we need to create more of them.
LikeLike
Well said. Much, much evil starts with the phrase “you people.”
LikeLike
To the people of NJ, please keep pissing off Christie. Let the whole world see his true colors…bright red, angry red…keep baiting the bully. It doesn’t take much. Thanks to all public school teachers everywhere. I am proud to be among all of us.
LikeLike
Is that Mrs. Christie smiling next to him? Does she support his bullying?
She should be embarrassed and horrified.
LikeLike
She’s either stoned or supportive of his bullying. I’d be walking away if my husband yelled at a total stranger like that. His behavior is uncivil and inexcusable.
LikeLike
Linda: acording to a commenter on a posting on atthechalkface, the beaming woman standing next to Governor Christie as he bullies Ms. Tomlinson is First Lady Mary Pat Christie.
Link: http://atthechalkface.com/2013/11/02/nj-governor-screams-at-teacher-do-your-job/
I just googled Mary Pat Christie and have looked at half a dozen photos of the First Lady of New Jersey. The identification seems solid. For photos that cannot be disputed, go to her own website:
Link: http://nj.gov/governor/firstlady/
That she would take obvious pleasure in his public browbeating [to put it mildly] of a hardworking teacher speaks volumes about her character and that of her husband.
Sadly, there is no good answer to the question of whether it’s the edubully or the enabler of the edubully that does the most harm.
😦
LikeLike
And if one of their children should decide to become a teacher, I’m sure they wouldn’t want him or her spoken to like that. The Christie’s show their collective disdain for public school teachers and the children of other people when they endorse this behavior.
He obviously has multiple issues and anger management is only one of them…combined they are not good for his health, but it’s hard to muster up any sympathy for this vile human being.
LikeLike
Yet, he’s poised to win handily. The NJ Democrats have abandoned their candidate, Barbara Buono, almost as if they have conceded defeat against his “rising star” before the election has even taken place. This abandonment is deplorable.
Buono might have had a chance with the amount of funding and support necessary to counter Christie’s donations from the Koch brothers and their ilk. She is woefully out-funded. It is sad, but the hope lies in the fact that we do have a fight in the legislature. If the legislature goes Christie’s way, the face of education will change here forever. If pro-public education candidates are elected, we could hold back some of his agenda to dismantle public education.
I hope that the people of NJ surprise us on Tuesday, but somehow I doubt that.
LikeLike
Thank you! You are amazing Diane!
LikeLike
The road of segregation caused by charter schools is also being traveled here in Delaware. Scary and frustrating times!
LikeLike
I saw Governor Christie on Sunday Morning on CBS and he acknowledged that he called people stupid and doesn’t apologize for calling people names. He is a bully and the nation does not need a politician like that in office. If a teacher called one of his sons stupid, would he be okay with that?
LikeLike
When will Arne Duncan lecture Governor Christie on cooperation between the privatized schools Christie favors and the entire system he oversees? Why do these cooperation lectures from reformers only run one way, towards public school advocates?
Chris Christie is not building bridges between the charter sector and public sector Mr. Duncan. I was told that was a no-no and meant he doesn’t “care about kids”.
Also, I certainly hope no no children saw the governor berating and demeaning a teacher, and then model his behavior at school. That surely won’t lead to excellence.
LikeLike
the berating will continue until Jersey ( and all states teachers) teachers decide to play hard ball with sob’s like Christie, and walk the hell out of the schools en masse.
How much more abuse are teachers going to take before we say ENOUGH!
LikeLike
Interesting to hear this sentiment. I was talking w/ a public school teacher today from a solidly middle class high school… she was pretty ignorant of what is going on and seemed to be spewing reform kool-aid. I listened, but didn’t have time to say much either way (this was after church) as she had to take her kids to home. I’m amazed that there are still so many teachers out there who are oblivious… but I can see why… until it affects you directly, it’s easy to stick one’s head in the sand. “They” (the edubullies) haven’t completely gotten their clutches into this middle class high school… they’re still in the “changing the language” phase of reform. When enough teachers there have drunk the kool-aid and start to really feel the effects, then things will heat up. In the meantime, I spoke w/ another parishioner whose adult children are both teachers and are “under fire” in high-poverty schools. She’s quite aware of the destruction happening in public ed. I told her about BATs, and she’s going to put me in touch w/ her kids. Teachers will continue to take the “abuse” as long as they don’t realize that they ARE being abused. They will self-denigrate UNTIL they wake up to realize that it’s not them. Until each teacher “wakes up,” we just have to keep informing others the best we can and make connections with those who are already waking up.
LikeLike
Yes, NJ teachers often ignore what’s going on until it directly affects them. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to try to explain what is happening politically with colleagues who have disdain for any talk of how the political atmosphere affects us. The time of apathy and ignorance is over. If we don’t educate ourselves on what is happening to our schools, we will face the same fate of so many states with governors and legislators bent on taking down public institutions and working class unions.
The worst part is that the ignorance and apathy of colleagues will assist in bringing the demise of those who do know and do care. I’m prepared to fight for the next two years if Christie is not only re-elected but his allies take over the legislature. We can try to hold them back until the next legislative election, but the damage they can enact has the potential to change the lives of all working families in NJ forever.
LikeLike
This exchange happened on the same day that Time.com posted an excerpt from Double Down: Game Changer 2012 (Halperin and Heilemann–to be published on Tuesday) listing lots of reasons–many very damaging–why Mitt Romney’s vetting committee steered him away from choosing Christie as a running mate.
http://teacherbiz.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/when-a-pufferfish-explodes-chris-christies-very-bad-day/
LikeLike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuTm-ON904.
Listen to this before you judge this Governor for the real truth. Listen to the facts. I’m not a Republican. This is just a political last second desperate rally cry for trying to upset this Governor. Fat chance with a 30 pt. lead. They always throw in “it’s for the children” when really it’s for the teachers.
LikeLike
You’re as ignorant and clueless as he is…you wouldn’t know I suppose since you’re just another teacher hater. Why slum here?
LikeLike
NJ teachers, now is the time to strike a blow to Christie…..VOTE FOR BUONO. Show your support for all your fellow teachers and teachers everywhere by not casting a vote for the BULLY.
LikeLike
I can’t believe he said “you people.”
Who says that? Really? He said that?
LikeLike
This propaganda is being brought to you by NJEA. Yeah the monster union that has raped the poor working class people of NJ for decades. I don’t believe a word of this hogwash.
LikeLike
What? NJEA persuaded Governor Christie to shout at this teacher? I didn’t realize NJEA was that powerful. Why don’t they tell the Governor to stop referring to the state’s great public schools as “failure factories”?
LikeLike
Everyone needs to back off and stop calling names. It sounds so childish. Christie needs the schools to change as needed and not be stuck to old restrictions. The union needs to bend some and realize that change could mean some jobs. Everyone needs to come to their senses. How to change the school day, structure, curriculum, year. to benefit the children is the main point.
LikeLike
Bill,
Governor Christie is doing nothing to improve the schools of New Jersey. Berating teachers doesn’t make them better. Insulting schools and calling them “failure factories” doesn’t make them better.
These are the words of a bully, not someone who cares about children.
Schools often have an anti-bullying curriculum. Probably created after he graduated.
LikeLike
Bill you have to provide viable evidence that we need “schools to change”, which if necessary, the vast majority of teachers would support such an approach. But to simply proclaim public school are broken – just because, and that we need schools to change – just because, no sane person should buy into such an approach. When controlling for poverty, our public schools are high performing, and if the politicians and billionaires would get their heads out of their butts and work to provide middle class jobs, we would see less poor kids in our classroom and naturally see better student outcomes.
LikeLike
“Yeah the monster union that has raped the poor working class people of NJ for decades.”
What in the world are you talking about? A union “raped the poor working class people of NJ” just how, exactly?
Oh, this should be good…can’t wait for your “enlightening” response.
LikeLike
So many teachers are out their “doing their job”…teaching all day, attending meetings, planning lessons, contacting parents, grading papers, coaching, tutoring. For some reason, Gov. Christie doesn’t know or chooses not to see the truth. He obviously doesn’t have his facts either. I live in Illinois…I wish our schools were #2 or #3, but we have legislators who are bent on demoralizing teachers and attacking their pensions/benefits, closing public schools and opening charters with TFAers, and destroying education along with the minds of our children. Public education costs money, but firing veteran teachers, implementing and using as evaluation tools non-teacher created assessments that have not yet been proven to work, abusing our students as data minefields, and giving test-developing companies and other businesses big profits will only cost far more – financially, emotionally and ethically – in the long run.
LikeLike
The bottom line: our society and our politicians do NOT respect or value teachers.
And when you treat us like $h___, you don’t value children either.
LikeLike
Fighting bullies who hurt their students (like Christie) is a teacher’s job. Further, fighting tyrants is what a good, patriotic person does.
Keep fighting the good fight, teachers!
LikeLike
Here is a video of the teacher reading the letter she wrote to Christie. It is very powerful.
LikeLike
Poetic Justice: thank you very much for posting this.
🙂
LikeLike
Underfunded the schools? In what universe? The teacher in question makes $$55K; not outrageous, but her job description is “supplemental”, whatever that means. And the school district in which she works spends $18K per year, per kid. In whose reality is that “underfunded”? indeed, NJ Abbott districts are the most profligate schools in the world, and only a fool would label them as anything but “failure factories”. In Paterson, fewer than 5% of graduating seniors possess the skills required for college; is there anyone so blind as to refuse to admit that if that were a private enterprise, it would long ago have been shuttered?
This woman is NOT out to support children; she’s a union hack, a member of a group called Badassteachers or some such.
And giving parents/kids — primarily minorities — a chance to escape this persistent failure is castigated as “increasing segregation”?
Meanwhile, the “full time” super of the Jersey City schools, making a quarter million per, still managed to find the time to serve in the New Jersey Legislature, for another $50K.
People who think that NJ schools are underfunded either don’t live here or are NJEA members out to feather their own nests. The property taxpayers and children would be infinitely better served by vouchers.
LikeLike
A supplemental teacher is often a special education teacher. It doesn’t mean supplemental, as in extra. I’m hearing “supplemental teacher” more frequently as a euphemism for “special education teacher” in order to reduce student stigmatism.
BTW, a school district superintendent is typically not part of the union. So if you want to blame someone for the Jersey City super’s salary, you can take it to the elected school board there, not NJEA.
LikeLike
55,000 is nothing in a state like NJ or CA where I am. The cost of living is astronomical. …this teacher should be making 100,000
LikeLike
Money is being spent on testing companies… tests after tests after tests… and then being spent textbooks designed by the testing companies to come in and save the day when the kids fail the tests that are inappropriate to their level of development. The money is NOT being spent on the kids to further their development as human beings… it’s being used to line the pockets of testing companies.
LikeLike
How much of that “$18k per student” actually makes it down into the classrooms, I wonder?
LikeLike
How dare you call a teacher who is fighting for her students a “hack.” Who are you to judge?
When you fight teachers, children are the biggest losers.
LikeLike
What fascinates me about this now-iconic photo is not Christie — one expects him to be a pompous, overweight bully, especially where women are involved — but the woman to his left, apparently part of his retinue (wearing red t-shirt just like Christie), who’s smiling condescendingly at Tomlinson as if to say, “Who (or what) is this odd fauna who would presume to question the brilliance of Dear Leader?” She doesn’t seem to regard her as a critic who may have a valid point, but just a poor benighted soul who can’t get with the program.
LikeLike
That’s Christie’s wife.
LikeLike
Mr. Christie, a true heavyweight in the mouth department, is a narcissist whose ego and lack of empathy are more bloated than his waistline.
Of course, this is NOT about his weight, as I do not wish to insult people who struggle with weight issues.
Yet, he is an overall ugly, angry, socially unattractive meanie whose loud raucous style and simply inability to engage in dialogue render him as yet a another tasty villain to gobble up in the sphere of public gourmet opprobrium.
Bloomberg was a smooth, refined, detached, cold, stone faced autocrat; Christie is a beer bellied Humpty Dumpty OD-ing on testosterone, rage, and bad policies. Someone get him some chamomille tea or a lifetime membership to Jenny Craig.
His rage and penchant for patisserie are not good for his health, and does he not want to stick around long enough to help New Jersey?
Good grief! Are NPE’s endorsed candidates the only seemingly decent people out there?
LikeLike
This was the most obnoxious thing Christie has done since that time he froze Han Solo in carbonite.
LikeLike
lol
LikeLike
Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, haters gotta hate.
And trolls with email accounts gotta troll-hate.
For those that can’t seem to understand what Ms. Melissa Tomlinson is saying, you are suffering from Chris Christie Silliness Syndrome [in edujargon=CCSS, although unconfirmed rumors have it that it will soon be added to the manual of official psychiatric disorders].
There is a one-link cure for those suffering from CCSS:
Link: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com
As always, KrazyTA is here to help comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
🙂
LikeLike
The last line was great!
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
We can’t lower ourselves to his level. I hate the back and forth name calling. It weakens our position. We are better then that.
LikeLike
The sad thing is that this type of attack on schools and teachers is occurring in more places than New Jersey. Christie is just more vocal than most.
LikeLike
Diane, this teacher may have cited this study that places NJ 3rd in composite NAEP. http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/01/21/america-s-smartest-kids.html#slide3
LikeLike
Oh, I see, Daniel. I was looking at the actual NAEP proficiency levels, not a reporter’s version of them.
LikeLike
Our schools are a mess. It’s from too many years of throwing money at them with no accountability. Too much money going to unions. Too many untouchables due to tenure. My kids have gone to failing schools. It was completely due to administrations. Instead of challenging kids, they took away honors classes and taught to the lowest common denominator. It was explained to me that the higher level kids would rub off on the lower level. The opposite happened.
Money in the budget went to salaries and administration additions rather than the schools and kids themselves.
There is no reason for tenure. Elementary and high school teachers do not do research and have no need for the protection provided by tenure. If they did, I would completely understand. They get this protection that no other occupation gets for no good reason.
I don’t believe in teaching to a test either. A teacher can keep records of what’s being taught and what measures have been taken to teach the students. If measures are taken to teach adequately such as extra help for lower performing students, calls home to report lack of efforts, etc. and the child still fails, that’s not a failure on the teacher. As it is now, there is no accountability for public teachers in districts that have no pride in the education being provided. There is also no incentive for them to improve.
Do not misunderstand me. There are many great teachers out there that love what they do and take pride. We moved and are now in a district such as this. They do it right. They expect results and take measures to achieve them. Both greatness and just enough to get by are contagious in school districts.
There is nothing wrong with wanting results from public employees and it’s more so for those public employees that we pay a majority of our tax dollars to. These are our kids and their educations. They are our future. It’s an important job that requires high expectations. Not a job that you just go in to get a paycheck for. If that’s your ultimate goal from it, please choose another occupation. We don’t want to do anything but have people earn their salaries. If you’re not producing results, you shouldn’t get a raise.
I agree with the governor on his stance on education.
LikeLike
Do you agree with the governor that NJ should turn public schools over to private corporations, some of them operating for profit? Do you like his support for privately run schools that don’t accept kids with severe disabilities and kids who don’t know English? Do you like his idea of public schools that make a profit and pay off investors? Just asking.
LikeLike
“Our schools are a mess.”
Really?
Please provide specific examples to support this claim.
Sources for your examples also appreciated.
LikeLike
Don’t hold your breath. I’m guessing there won’t be a response. Just like I predict there won’t be a response from “Marcey Jordan.” This poster is just another member of the public who thinks she’s an expert in education just because she has children. That’s like saying I’m a medical expert because I have a body.
I’m tired of the rhetoric that permeates the ignorant discourse. To over-simplify an issue with little knowledge of the topic is dangerous, especially in the voting booth. This poster, like so many other uneducated voters, has very little understanding if what tenure actually is and what schools and communities would be like without it to succumb to the false diatribe about tenure that has become the fashion.
Tara, our schools aren’t failing–look at the results that have been posted here time and again. Unions do not take school funds. These organizations are run by dues that are paid for by the members–the public is not paying these dues, the members are. If one takes your argument (that school budgets pay for union dues) further, then you should say that school budgets pay for the clothing teachers wear, the cars they drive, the houses they mortgage, the food they eat, the electricity they use, etc. Ridiculous argument.
Salaries are the largest part of a school budget because they are the largest operating expense of schools. What exactly do you propose schools spend the most of their funds on, test prep materials and iPads? Who is going to teach the students, Bill Gates? And if you think teachers do not deserve to be compensated for the work they do, you are setting up all communities to lose out on dedicated, professional teachers who have made an investment in districts that have in turn invested in these same teaching professionals.
I don’t know why any of us waste our time on those who make comments such as these–there’s no educating those who are unwilling to learn.
LikeLike
I see poor graduation rates in inner cities around the country very poor. How are the schools addressing this? Year after year goes by and I don’t see any differences. Conditions in the schools are going down instead of up. Art, music, extra programs being cut. There needs to be more flexibility in structuring programs. Unions need to be partners instead of barriers. There is too much nepotism and cronyism in schools. The best are not being hired. Tenure can be a blessing to protect good teachers or a blockage to remove bad teachers. In my district alone the former super hired at least 10 family members that we could count. That’s not counting the friends he forced on principals. Yes, they could teach, but were they the best person for the job?
We need highly qualified teachers and professional leaders to move districts forward and the resources to make changes as needed district by district. Allow some restrictions to be lifted like is being done with charters. Some jobs may be lost but otthers will be created as needed to keep the districts current.
LikeLike
dianerav & Ang: with all due respect, this is the same broken record we hear over and over and over again.
Boiled down: because the employers and managers of school systems and schools are wasteful, greedy, and inept, the people on the front lines actually doing the work—who have very little and often no authority, and all the responsibility—should be punished. And whatever inefficiencies and unfairness existed in traditional public schools should be intensified using misleading metrics that reward the least deserving and punish the most deserving.
Take just one obvious point. A number of the teachers I worked with voluntarily took on some of the most difficult students. This would be job suicide in today’s work environment. Why? Because taking on those students would be tantamount to filling one’s classroom with standardized test suppressors that would quickly cost many of the very best teachers their jobs. **For other metrics, think of absenteeism rates, number of times breaking school rules concerning greater and lesser violations of personal conduct rules, graduation rates, etc.**
Lastly, will we ever hear the end of confusion re confusing due process with a lifetime guarantee of a job? After five years on education blogs I am finally beginning to realize that this is one of those Zombie mistruths that refuses to die no matter how many times facts, logic and experience are brought in to refute it.
Thank you for your comments. You both have more patience than I do.
🙂
LikeLike
I just finishing a study of Gödel’s Proofs in mathematics. Last summer, I studied Fourier Transformations and Group, Field, Ring Theory. This while learning new technologies and browsing pedogogical articles as well as constant info from NCTM. I also read biographies of famous mathematicians, musicians, and physicists. My daily tablet blogs include tracking ongoing theories in science and math. I also monitor popular culture to know about Snapchat and ask.fm, cyberbullying, and yoga pants. I’m required to know first aid, CPR, hazardous waste handling, and how to react to active shooters. What reasearch did you have in mind?
My goal is to bring all this together to breath life into a classroom. Yet our state has so poorly mismanaged education, I’ve spent most of my year gathering statistics, filling out endless forms, giving useless tests, and being trained on mandates that are demotivating, ineffective, and wasteful. All of this under the banners of “accountability”, “reform”, and “raising the bar”.
Our governor (Ohio) vowed to “break the backs” of teachers. The far right running our state cut education drastically. Under our new “accountability” system, I will likely be rated a failure, blacklisted, and publically humiliated with a scarlet letter on the DOE website. Yet my students enter my high school classroom with 4-6 grade skills. Attendance is a problem. Some are on probation. Some single moms. Some homeless. Nearly all are poor. Few have had success or opportunities. I work to reach them under constant scrutiny and pressure. My “overpaid” teacher salary alone qualifies my own family for food stamps. It is difficult, but like most of us “lazy”, “communist”, “thug” teachers we keep at it because, unlike the rest of America, we think education is important to our Country’s future.
So to quote Christie – “what do YOU people want?”
LikeLike
Beautifully said MathVale!
LikeLike
My image on this NJ governor has completely been shattered as I began to learn his history. I am wondering if this is a part of the reason why Chris Christie decided NOT to run for the presidential election last year. I still remember he said he needed to take care of his state politics first to get ready for the national election. Well, put in another way, he was facing a huge challenge because of his privatization and re-segregation politics since his first win?
LikeLike
There is a video where Christie also berates a student for questioning his education policies complete with Christie-esque outburst and name calling. The student stood his ground until the security removed him for daring to challenge Christie. But not a surprise as the student was also a former Navy SEAL. Christie’s bullying might work in New Jersey, but as one Democratic operative posted – “we’re saving that one”.
LikeLike
This governor is one lost soul.
Has he ever been in a classroom??
LikeLike
That doesn’t matter. Our country was founded on the principal that the privileged should not be the only people who have access to a quality life, and later, those who shaped this country felt that education was the way to suppress ignorance giving all people a stake in society.
For all the smart people in NJ, far too much of the state is filled with the entitled and the ignorant. Both types are dangerous to the middle class and both support Christie. Our founders have been failed by the very people the state has elected. Christie doesn’t give a crap about teaching, believe me. He has the power and the influence to continue berating others while his constituents look the other way. Tomorrow will be a sad day, indeed.
LikeLike
Make that “socially ignorant.” I don’t know what is worse, the educated socially ignorant or the uneducated socially ignorant. I’m thinking the former since they tend to get into positions of power quite readily.
LikeLike
I hope you did your fact checking and then did it again, Ms. Ravitch. This story doesn’t smell right. I’m a fan of yours, but something isn’t adding up with this picture.
LikeLike
What specifically “doesn’t smell right”? Can you tell us one specific thing or do you just want to cast doubt on Diane’s excellent blog post?
So, tell us—what “isn’t adding up with this picture?”
LikeLike
I’ve read many articles that suggest that this was staged by a union group who sent someone in search of a fight, not a teacher in search of real answers. I’m not saying that Ravitch is wrong, just hoping that all the facts are clear. Also, the many posts portraying his wife as horrific because she is laughing at the whole thing, don’t add up for me. The blog post below by Julie clarifies why she is smiling throughout the exchange.
Although Christie isn’t acting worthy of his office in this exchange, he is correct. More money will not fix the problems in education…evidenced by the failing schools in Camden that have three times the average per pupil spending in NJ.
PSP, you seem poised for an argument with me. As an educator myself, I understand the frustration that teachers feel with Govenor Christie, but I also understand the frustration on Governor Christie’s part with the union hammering away about more money, when that is not the solution to the problem.
LikeLike
Here’s a first hand account by Slate’s Dave Weigel – who was there and took the picture circulating all over. Diane’s content is correct.
LikeLike
Helps to post the link… http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/11/04/behind_that_photo_of_chris_christie_wagging_his_finger_at_a_teacher.html
LikeLike
Children learn by example. For a Governor to show such blatant public disrespect to a teacher is just disgraceful, I worry so much for our future. How do kids stand a chance?
LikeLike
I went to Rutgers. I’m embarrassed that he and his wife are wearing RU gear. What a fool. Can’t wait for the voters in 2016 to tear him a new one.
LikeLike
Chris Christie just can’t help himself. He’s like a serial offender—the type that have problems behaving appropriately around women. Some men can’t stop groping women. Some men can’t stop pushing or hitting women. Some men can’t stop harassing women.
And some governors can’t stop berating, lecturing, threatening and humiliating women in public, particularly if they are a parent or a teacher of a public school student. You can see the hatred, the viciousness and, at its core, the fear this large, obnoxious, bully has of women who question his actions, his words and his ideas.
Even in the age of YouTube and cameras everywhere, this man can’t stop doing this to women in public. One shudders to think how he treats females in private.
I’ve always considered Chris Christie to be a corrupt, deceitful and vicious man. But now it appears he has a compulsion having to do with gender, power, control and who knows what else.
I consider his actions and words—coming from such a well-known national figure—to be at least borderline sociopathic. It’s scary to think about a man who can be set off that easily ever having his finger on the doomsday device.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
LikeLike
BAT made her voice about Christie in the Salon article. I already gave him ARC (Arrogant, Robotic, Clueless) card to him and his supporters who cheered him for shouting down at her. Couldn’t it be more expensive to issue the ARC cards to the millions of his supporters, I guess.
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/05/i_left_shaking_teacher_chris_christie_yelled_at_unloads_to_salon/#comments
LikeLike
I agree with the fact bad teachers and superintendents are out there they caused damage to children with disabilities like autism . And change lives for ever out of ignorance . When my barely educated but well protected teacher was forced to teach the handicapped disabled class that my son and multiple classmates were forced into after being in an autism program until 6 th grade . What I saw was criminal , she and the school treated them all like they were just bad . They knew better than all of us parents and trained teachers !!! The kids were denied any form of sensory therapy instead they liked to restrain them and yell at them per the reports I got . The Speach teacher yelling at the deaf girl upset my son . I just know if he got upset it was bad. He is kind and gentle and protects others . Better than his teachers and superintendent . He didn’t purposely harm innocent kids . Anyway the kids are all damaged forever but the the teachers and superintendent are still getting there big checks . Wow what a great system . If not for those two years our kids would still be fine.
Ignorance is bliss but not for us . Njea failed to save us from an obviously inadequate school . And made us get lawyers and suffer retaliation on ourselves and our kids when we did.
I must say before and after that school our teachers were kind and trained !!! And none of them needed restraining !!!
Thank you to the superintendent njea let kill our kids minds and cause physical harm !! She was just hated everyone of us parents trying to protect our kids . She alone denied us .
Now she’s in Shamong nj , I’m sure denying more developmentally disabled kids appropriate educations more kids lives damaged forever two years with her what 70 80 years they will suffer from her unreasonable denial . Cheaper to hire one lawyer to fight multiple families than send them out . I will never forget the brother of one of my sons classmates told me about his moms lawsuit to get his brother out at the same time as me I had no idea she was during too . God bless her , he said his brother was damaged exactly like my son . Forever we could not stop them I was threatened with fines . I should have ran !!! I miss those beautiful eyes looking at me they are gone now . I cried everyday as I watched him being taken from me I cannot describe the pain . But his pain is what haunts me he was so tortured by them .
Then when I told them we were going to court they falsely accused me of endangering my child called dyfus on me the very next day . It was my first time police dyfus wow obvious lie and attack . I sent dyfus back to them cause it was all just in retaliation that and the irs I found that in my sons records . Pays to be honest I guess I never did anything wrong I never ever endangered my child ! How dare they attack parents why does this not bring some federal agency to investigate multiple lawsuits same place for the same thing . I don’t know what they did to the other mom when she told them . Attacked her I’m sure With taxpayers money . And that njea union to make it cost too much to fire them ,
Bad teachers and bad njea administrators are invincible and corrupt !!! They destroy innocent lives !!
Go Get Em Gov. Christie !!!! Save our kids !!!!!! And our lives
LikeLike