Mother Crusader writes that the confrontation between Governor Chris Christie and teacher Melissa Tomlinson called attention to the governor’s Achilles’ heel.
His education policies are “wildly unpopular.” He wants vouchers and charters, not public schools. And he has demonstrated contempt for teachers, especially women teachers, on several occasions.
One unscientific poll reported that 79% think his goal is to destroy public education.
Other polls, scientifically done, show that most of Barbara Buono’s voters choose her because of Christie’s arrogant treatment of the public schools and their teachers.
Will it matter in the election? Will women vote for Buono because Christie once again berated a woman in public? Will public school parents, who are the vast majority of voters, express their opposition to Christie’s contempt for their local public schools?
It’s a long shot, but an intriguing one.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It depends where you live in NJ. Some people see Christie going after those “lazy, unqualified” teachers of the inner cities, who teach the “non-caring students”. They get their news from media that is skewed toward Christie. Christie will win, elected by those who want to see only what they are presented.
Christie is a bully —- that will not change in a national election where that part of his character will be come out of the closet. The electorate wants leadership, but they do not like bullies. I know the Republicans think they have a savior, but he will turn out to be a false prophet.
I give New Jerseyans more credit than that. Christie is the face of a certain New Jersey, and there are more of the than you might think, & they’re not necessarily dumb followers of media. To the contrary: they are cynical. There’s a long tradition of corrupt Democrats here, & the unions get lumped into that (not without historically good reason). The old-school Democrats still have a stranglehold in many areas, especially at the county level.
Sure, Christie’s a throwback, but old prejudices & fears run deep. The state is & has been [to me, when I arrived in the metro area over 30yrs ago] shockingly segregated. Many remember with rancor the urban riots of the late ’60’s– the blockbusting/ white flight that ‘ruined our neighborhoods’, & they’ve passed it along to another generation, so we still reap the harvest.
There’s a newer round of recriminations stemming from the Mt Laurel affordable housing decision of the ’70’s & the Abbott decision of the mid-80’s, both of which were laudable attempts to ease segregation and redistribute wealth to poorer schools. The gov’t’l machines resulting from these acts have had time enough to become rank with corruption; meanwhile middle class people are routinely priced out of their towns by outrageous taxes, & the upper-middle ponies up ever more 1000’s per annum to cover the amount taken away to give to what are seen as bottomless pits (poor urban schools): despite wonderful achievements I have personally witnessed at Newark schools, the recession came down to crush it; no one cares that Booker is selling Newark schools to RE & ed privatization; these people would take their property taxes back in a heartbeat if they could (& believe me, Christie will find a way…)
The cause is not completely hopeless: there is a large swath here of upper-middle class people who pay too many property taxes to think of sending their kids to private school. Once they understand what Christie & Cerf are up to & how it’s already affecting their schools, they will protect their excellent districts like lions & lionesses. But even among these people, there are many, like my very own highly-pd engr husband [raised in the blockbusting/white-flight scene of metro-NY], whose reaction to teachers’ unions is: ‘wait a minute, do they have a pension? I lost my pension 15 yrs ago’.
NJ is a place where business has been on the skids for decades, where union members are unsure of what their dues are buying them anymore, where public workers who get the same wages PLUS benefits the average guy can only dream of are uniformly suspect. Barbara Buono has made it clear she’s behind the teachers’ unions, & that alone may be enough to make the average Joe in NJ vote the other way.
“NJ is a place where business has been on the skids for decades, where union members are unsure of what their dues are buying them anymore, where public workers who get the same wages PLUS benefits the average guy can only dream of are uniformly suspect. Barbara Buono has made it clear she’s behind the teachers’ unions, & that alone may be enough to make the average Joe in NJ vote the other way.”
Speak for yourself. As an NJEA member, I have educated myself on what my state union “buys” me–the work done by those on our payroll is invaluable to me and my colleagues. You spoke above of “lumping” dirty Democrats with unions, yet you would lump all unions together? The NJEA is a professional public union with professionals as members and employees. Simply perusing the website alone would provide a member with an amazing wealth of information about what his union “buys” for him. The member who does not seek to educate himself still reaps the benefits of membership.
The “average guy” does not have the credentials of most teachers so to make a comparison of salary and other forms if compensation is invalid. The “average guy” does not work countless hours of unpaid overtime putting his health at risk from the environment of germs that children bring and spread around the classrooms. The “average guy” is not beholden to several days worth of professional development hours that must be obtained on his own unpaid time in order to keep his job. The “average guy” doesn’t have to deal with legislation written by non-experts in his field that dictates how he does what he does and how he gets paid for it while giving him little say in these matters despite the fact that HE is the expert. And finally, what you call “salary AND benefits” (as if they are two separate things) are together what is called “compensation” for the job. School districts cannot afford to pay teachers what they are worth so in exchange for the lower-end salaries for professional credentials and expertise, districts supplement salary with benefits packages (that are far cheaper than paying for each individual employee something different) as compensation for doing their jobs.
And one more thing about “the average guy,” in no other profession would a full-time employee need to have a part-time job for decades just to make ends meet. Teachers are tired of hearing how their classmates from college are moving up the payscale at alarming rates while they themselves can barely get by with what they make. I don’t know in what Cadillac luxury you think I live, but at 42 with two decades of experience in the field, I have the tiniest condo and a bottom-of-the-line car. As well, I work several extra hours at my job every single day. I get no shared sacrifice breaks from my utility companies. I get no “perks” at the grocery store. I pay heavily into my community just like everyone else, yet I’m expected to be super-human at my job while putting in so many extra hours and effort outside of my contract just to do the job to the level the public expects. I’m proud if the work that I do, but a teacher with two degrees living in many parts of NJ can barely make ends meet. I do work part-time jobs in the summers, too. So tell me…am I the “average guy?”
I am sick to death of the ignorant rhetoric to which people with so little information succumb, and what also sickens me is how they have the confidence to vote with so little understanding.
If the people want Christie, it is their future at stake, and unfortunately for me, mine.
Yes, yes, of course everything you say is exactly right! I’m just trying to explain why I think Christie manages to do so well here, and why many will vote down Buono. It is a sad state of affairs, but one which I am saying is not just about poor media coverage; it has been long decades in the making. ‘Average Joe’ is really not the bad guy here; he is the pawn in an age-old & corrupt political game.
I do not ‘settle’ for the status quo, though I really have to watch my mouth, even here in my chi-chi expensive town. Half are 1% Republicans; the other 1/2 think themselves progressive but are startlingly uninformed about what is happening to teachers and students right in their own town! They seem to think ‘education reform’ is over in Newark & Camden. I try to convince one person at a time. Fortunately, every single public-school teacher I knew (you included, I gather) is on my side.
Glad to hear we are on the same side. As I watch Buono’s concession speech for a fight that made her hardly known to the general public, I am saddened by what we have become. People have voted selfishly for their own private interests instead of for the greater good of their communities. God help us…
I really do not know.
On the web it was reported that he is way ahead.
AND
that he is touting that to his Republican colleagues, WHY he is ahead.
We will have to wait and see.’
As stated before and someone commented on it here. the news media does a lousy job of reporting AND people believe what they read there.