Jersey Jazzman notes that Chris Christie will soon leave office as the most unpopular governor in the nation. He loved to ridicule those who disagreed with him, and one of his favorite targets was the state’s public schools and teachers, most especially their union. He never acknowled that the state is one of the three top-performing states on national tests (NAEP), the other two being Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Christie has cemented his rotten reputation as a greedy, crude bully with his latest escapade. The state was in a budget impasse, and many state beaches were closed on this past weekend. But Christie and his family went to the governor’s beach house and enjoyed the sun and an empty beach, while the public was excluded.
What really bothers JJ about Christie is his callow hypocrisy. He sends his own kids to private schools that are well funded while underfunding the state’s public schools.
His idea of “reform” does not translate into reduced class sizes or other necessities. A true “reformer,” he offers charters and vouchers instead of funding.
JJ writes:
“To be clear: I really don’t have a problem with Christie, or anyone else, sending their children to elite private schools, or to wealthy suburban public schools. What I find so disturbing is when some of those same people then turn around and declare how important education is for purposes of social equity, but refuse to support policies that adequately and equitably fund schools.
“Even worse is when these people substitute funding reform for “reforminess.” They claim that things like charter schools, gutting teacher workplace rights, expanded testing, test-based teacher evaluation, curricular changes, “personalized learning,” and school vouchers can serve as substitutes for adequately and equitably funding schools.
“But they then turn around and put their own children in elite private schools that spend far more per pupil than public schools — especially urban public schools. And again: these schools enroll very few children with special needs, keeping their costs relatively low.
“You will often hear these reformsters acknowledge that factors such as economic inequality and segregation negatively impact educational outcomes; however, in the same breath, they will gravely intone, “We can’t wait to fix poverty!”
“And so, their thinking goes, we have to expand charter schools no matter the negative consequences, or expand testing and its unvalidated uses no matter the negative consequences, or put more unproven digital stuff into schools no matter the possible negative consequences, and so on. And we have to do all this right now.
“It seems to me, however, that we now have more than enough evidence that school funding matters. It matters a lot. I mean, funding really matters. It does.
“Maybe we can’t solve poverty and segregation quickly; we could, however start getting more resources into schools that need it today. But getting adequate funding to schools — a necessary pre-condition for educational success — isn’t so much a problem of a lack of resources as it is a matter of political will.
“We’ve got plenty of money in this country (even if it is distributed extraordinarily unequally). There’s very little evidence we’re overspending on schooling relative to the rest of the world. We could drive more resources into the schools that enroll our least advantaged students much more quickly than we could expand private schools using vouchers or expand properly regulated charter schools.
“But we don’t. Instead, our leaders keep pushing reformy schemes based on outlier “successes” rather than funding reform, a policy that would quickly provide improvements across the K-12 education system. Worse, many of these same leaders then refuse to subject their own children to their designs, opting instead to enroll them in highly resourced schools.
“Chris Christie will be gone in a few months, and New Jersey might then begin to have a serious conversation about education funding. Sadly, many of our nation’s leaders, Republican and Democrat alike, are following Christie’s example. They refuse to address the issue of inadequate and inequitable school funding head on.
“Fortunately, even conservatives are starting to realize that effective schools and other government services come at a price. Let’s hope the era of Chris Christie and his ilk — and era where unproven reformy nonsense has replaced a commitment to getting schools the resources they need — will soon come to an end.
“If I had to pick one…
“ADDING: In the very earliest days of this blog — April, 2010 — I said that where Chris Christie sent his own kids to school was no one’s business.
“I was wrong.
“Of course, this was before Christie repeatedly underfunded the public schools, even after the Great Recession. This was before the lies of Chapter 78. This was before Christie tried to slash funding to the urban districts with his cruel “Fairness Formula.” This was before Christie showed repeatedly he never took education policy seriously. This was even before Christie unloaded some of his worst invective at the NJEA and teachers around the state.
“But I still should have known better. Anyone who is against the adequate and equitable funding of public schools yet sends their own children to a well-resourced private or public school is a massive hypocrite.
“They should be called so in no uncertain terms.”
‘ they will gravely intone, “We can’t wait to fix poverty!” ‘
Then maybe they can just avoid making it worse?
The wording of that sentence is ambiguous but I was not free to fix it as they weren’t my words.
“We can’t wait to fix poverty” can be read in opposite ways.
We are in such a hurry that we can’t wait until the far-off day when poverty is “fixed.” Maybe it will never be fixed. Besides, we already know how to transform schools and the trajectory of children’s lives. Why wait to fix poverty? We should close all Failing schools, bring in TFA, open charters, and save the strivers.
Gary referred to the second version, not the first. If you read Wendy Kopp’s latest book, she makes that claim. We know how to do it, just look at D.C., New Orleans, and NYC where TFA has already succeeded.
I debated Wendy at the Aspen Ideas Festival a few years ago and confused her with facts. She stuck with her bland generalities and platitudes. The audience of thought leaders loved the pablum.
I read it as, “We (the reformsters) can’t wait until we (as a society) figure out how to fix the problems of poverty, but we can fix the schools now (and we know how with our bogus reformy ideas).” I don’t think even they can figure out how to make money off of fixing poverty although I really shouldn’t put it past them.
J Jazzman is Mark Weber. I didn’t understand “Gary referred …”
When I read Mark’s post at his site, I thought it was so good that I hoped you’d cite it. Thank you.
Christie, belligerent and defensive as always, will not be missed in New Jersey. He wears his elitism and privilege like a red badge of courage while he shortchanges public education and the teachers that manage to get good results despite Christie’s lies and persistent attacks.
With an emphasis on the word “Massive”.
Christie nixed the railway tunnel that would have taken millions of residents into NYC so they did not have to drive. He took the money and used it for a ferry hardly anyone rides.
Heis, like Trump an opportunist, and a malignant personality.
Two mirrors beside each other. In front of one stands Trump. In front of the others stands Christie. The image that Trump sees in his mirror is Christe. The image that Christie sees in his mirror is Trump. They are clones.
As are Bill and Melinda Gates.
I’ve always thought that Bill and Melinda Gates are aliens from the underworld, another universe/another dimension, and they were sent here to help destroy human civilization.
The Gates are worse because they weren’t elected.
they will gravely intone, “We can’t wait to fix poverty!”
What do these Republicans mean by “fix poverty”? I think the answer is to build more private, for-profit prisons. Today’s GOP tends to think like the Nazis (And I don’t care if you don’t like that comparison). The Nazi’s thought, “If we get rid of all the Jews, then we will fix all of our problems.”
Don’t listen to their words. Pay attention to what they’ve done.
Nixon declared war on Drugs in 1971 when the federal and state prison population was 198,061.
When Reagan became president, the prison population was up to 353,167. In 1989, when Reagan left, the prison population was up to 710,054.
Today, the American criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 901 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 76 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories. And we go deeper to provide further detail on why people are locked up in all of those different types of facilities.
If they lock up everyone that lives in poverty, then the GOP and Trump will claim they fixed poverty.
The most common solution to every problem to most Republicans is to throw them in prison and punish them for whatever we disapprove of and don’t like.
Here is a prime example:
This Law Is Supposed to Protect Babies, But It’s (Alabama) Putting Their Moms Behind Bars
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/alabama-chemical-endangerment-drug-war/
These people are evil; that article made me sick to my stomach.