Those of us who care about public education and who respect teachers have known for a long time that New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie was a bully. We have seen him bullying teachers since he took office. Now he has this mess on his hands because his closest staff–with or without his knowledge–bullied a Democratic mayor who failed to endorse Christie in his re-election campaign. So the governor’s aides closed off all but one lane leading to the nation’s busiest toll bridge, causing a massive disruption of Fort Le.
Here is the fascinating story, as reported in the New York Times. The story contains the string of emails that show this was political bullying.
I wonder whose name was redacted from the emails. Surely the NSA knows.
But what does this have to do with education?
Jersey Jazzman tells us. In his State of the State address, Christie tries to change the subject by attacking schools and teachers again, saying that what is needed (in one of the nation’s highest performing states) is longer school days.
JJ asks in another post whether politicians should be let off the hook if the foul deeds were committed by their closest aides but there is no proof that they did it under orders. If Christie didn’t know, what kind of people does he choose as his closest associates? What do their actions say about him? If he did know, he should be impeached.
In this post, JJ points out that Christie has committed far worse sins than Bridgegate because they cause even greater damage to the state.
I listened to part of Christie’s speech because I’m interested in how ed reform governors (Kasich, Scott, Snyder, Christie, Corbett) are executing a political pivot and re-discovering the public schools they’ve abandoned- as opposed to charters and vouchers, I mean.
They’re softening their rhetoric and highlighting public school funding. Kasich, Snyder Corbett and Scott are doing it because they’re worried about getting re-elected, and Christie of course is in some political trouble of his own.
I think it’s a good sign for public school advocates because obviously there’s some recognition that abandoning public schools is not a popular or majority position, even if it’s all campaign-type rhetoric based on their own self-interest.
They wouldn’t be doing this pivot if they believed gutting public school funding and trashing public education and teachers in speeches and such was a majority position. Ed reform Governor Scott is almost comical. He can’t run back to public schools fast enough. It’s like he woke up, looked at his poll numbers and remembered “there are public schools in this state!” Amusing to watch.
Kasich cut $3.1 billion from education in Ohio. By some estimates, it will top $5 billion before the Republicans are done. Now they restore a small part of this devastating assault and claim the largest increase in education funding in decades. Kasich vowed to “break the backs” of teachers in his first election. He has used the fulll power of state government to make good on that promise. A bill that passed 100% in the GOP state Senate to revamp the horribly flawed and vindictive teacher evaluation system was dropped by the Tea Party infiltrated House. Yet the legislatures are currently obsessing over how to allow high alcohol craft beers as “job creation” and letting Sunday school classes count as high school credit. Trouble is, Ohio is flyover country and most people in the state either don’t care, are unaware, or enjoy the teacher bashing.
“Kasich cut $3.1 billion from education in Ohio. By some estimates, it will top $5 billion before the Republicans are done. Now they restore a small part of this devastating assault and claim the largest increase in education funding in decades.”
I love the ed reformer math, too 🙂
They cut hundreds of millions from public schools, restore a small portion of funding, and claim to be “education governors” now that we’re in a campaign cycle.
I disagree about people bashing teachers, though. I’m sure this is somewhat regional, but this is a working class rural area and teachers are respected here.
The only public school teacher-bashing I hear is from politicians, lobbyists, pundits and media people.
Both of our common pleas judges have spouses who are public school teachers, teachers serve on all our community boards, etc. They’re simply not considered stupid and lazy here, although I know that’s the national narrative. I’m fascinated with the disconnect there. What I hear on tv and from people like Arne Duncan, Rhee, etc. does not gibe with my reality. We really don’t loathe teachers here, crazy as that sounds! 🙂
The teacher bashing boils down to “I like my teacher but hate teachers”. It is a systematic undermining of the profession as a whole. It is kinda bizarre. People will applaud a retiring teacher one day then we read negative letters to the editor about overpaid educators and failing schools. Ohio says it wants great schools but votes into power anti-teacher politicians.
I had no idea about this bully….and I was thinking he would be a great presidential candidate.
Thank you so much for the info as I have being doing some research…but not this Governor…..
He will have no chance of ever becoming president as the teachers will never vote for such a person. I hope the repubs do let him run….Sure loss..
Christie wants to lengthen the school day and year without saying how it will be funded and without respecting teacher rights. The length of the school day is negotiated and in the contract between the teachers and the school board. You can bet Christie wants to impose this on the teachers without their input and without any compensation for the extra hours they would be working. But wait there’s more. Christie also wants to enact more pension “reform.” He claims that the public pensions are unsustainable, that they are bankrupting the state. Christie says that the public employees, including teachers, must make “sacrifices,” AGAIN. He has already made cuts to the pensions and he has eliminated the COLA for current and future retirees; now he wants to make even more cuts to teacher pensions. He would just love to kill off the pensions and renege on the promise the state has made to the teachers. He would love to replace the pensions with phony baloney 401(K) scams. There was no mention in his speech about smaller class sizes, nothing, nada, not on his radar at all. Gee, why am I not surprised. Christie’s son goes to the elite private school called Delbarton. It has a student to teacher ratio of 8 to 1, a 6 hour school day and 163 day school year. Bada bing!
I should add that Christie has never actually come out and said that he would like to renege on the pension promises nor that he would like to replace them with 401(K)s, that’s just my opinion about his innermost fantasies and desires. He has definitely stated that the teachers will have to make more sacrifices regarding their pensions, in addition to the ones already made. The teachers will have to make “sacrifices” because NJ governors over the decades have not kept up their promise to adequately fund the pensions while the teachers have made their payments to the pension trust to the tune of billions over the past 2 decades. Christie refuses to raise taxes on the rich and he is hyper busy giving tax breaks, tax abatements and sweetheart deals to the big corporations located in NJ. The one per centers must not be inconvenienced but middle class workers must be crushed like so many ants.
Given how quickly this NJ scandal is evolving (or, perhaps, more appropriately, devolving), I think it unwise to promote a linkage between it and what are the central issues of this blog. Christy could have the most enlightened views on education (by our standards) and our revulsion for what we appear to be seeing, in terms of the abuse of power, would be just as great. Keep them separate, but watch them both intently.
David Skolnick,
If you read the latest post about the bullying tactics of the Christie-appointed superintendent in Newark, I don’t think you will want to separate one bullying incident from another. A governor whose staff would pull a dirty trick on the people of Fort Lee is now pulling a dirty trick on the people of Newark.
First, I wrote that comment over two hours ago. In that respect, it would seem to substantiate my observation as to how quickly events appear to unfold. Beyond that, I’d say you’re absolutely right. It seems one must either carefully apportion one’s outrage or dramatically expand one’s capacity.
But most importantly, it’s Skolnik, without the’c’.
Many thanks.