You have to love our Governor – Chris Christie. Not only does this guy never beat around the bush, but when he visits other states he puts their idiots in their place, too! The fact that Governor Christie has enraged the teachers’ unions in New Jersey because, essentially, he called a spade a spade in New Jersey is awesome. But the fact that he recently went to California and put a heckler in his place is even greater. Enjoy!
Governor Christie is the man!
Clearly, you can count me among the many folks in New Jersey who like our Governor Chris Christie. It’s not that he’s a Republican or that he has traditional values. No. It’s that he takes a no bullshit attitude toward governing and – most importantly – does what he says he’s going to do. That is one of the most crucial characteristics that people are looking for in their politicians!
Anyway, the other day I received a link to the video below. It’s short and sweet, but I liked it and I wanted to share it with my readers. Enjoy!
Pretty cool, huh? Sure, it’s part propaganda, but the facts and statements littered throughout the short video are absolutely true. Thank God we have Chris Christie righting the ship in New Jersey!
As my time in Chicago quickly draws to an end, I want to continue the education reform entries for this week on JerseySmarts.com. Again, as I trolled through the archives of information that I wanted to share with you fine folks I came across this entry which had quotations from a variety of sources talking about the great education debate in New Jersey. Let’s hear it from their own mouths.
Christie told the The Associated Press in an interview that he will offer more state aid to all school districts whose teachers agree to a wage freeze for the 2011 fiscal year.
There you go. Anyone who says that Governor Chris Christie isn’t trying to work with those teachers and local unions that are sharing in the sacrifice is lying. Now you know that so when you hear someone saying how Governor Christie is attacking the wrong people (teachers instead of bureaucrats in Trenton), you know that the person saying that is a liar.
The offer won’t cost the state any more money. The Republican is offering to give districts all the money the state would save on Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes as a result of the wage freezes.
Sometimes the best solutions really are the easiest ones to accomplish, huh?
Already teachers in several districts, including in West Essex, Boonton, Montclair and Metuchen, have voluntarily offered to freeze wages.
And no one, by any means, who is in favor of education reform in New Jersey thinks that the teachers or the local unions are the problem. A great big “congratulations!” goes out to the teachers in these districts. They are changing education in this state for the better. Thank you!
But if teachers agree to wage freezes, districts could see more than a 7 percent increase in aid. For example, a district that saves $1 million in salaries as a result of wage freezes would receive an extra $75,000 in state aid.
“Maybe that helps to fund another teacher position or two, or a sports program that they might otherwise had to cut,” the governor said.
Are these programs not worth saving? As a former student athlete, I think that they are worth saving and I would hope that local teachers’ unions put their money where their mouths have been (literally) and take a one year pay freeze to support the programs that support their students.
“Gov. Christie is a very shrewd politician, and he’s using crafty political tactics to impose his agenda on the state,” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said recently in a statement. “But when he turned his attack machine on teachers and school employees, he really stooped to a desperate new low, because our members are not the problem.”
Ms. Keshishian, your teachers are not the problem… the leviathan that your organization has become is the problem. Disassemble the NJEA now and allow countywide and local teachers’ unions to represent the true interests of their members. The time has come for the NJEA to stop getting in the way of the education reform that New Jersey so desperately needs.
While I’m in Chicago searching for new ways to enhance New Jersey’s charter school industry, I hope that you’re doing well in New Jersey or from wherever you’re reading this blog! I was scanning through my archive of information that I’d eventually like to post on this blog and I came across the video below. What strikes me in the video is the discussion about money. What the hell does the NJEA do with all of the money that it collects from its members? In a state where charter schools aren’t even funded equally on a dollar-for-dollar basis, but the vast majority achieve higher academic results than their district neighbors, I think the taxpayer has a right to know where the $130 million that the NJEA collects in dues goes each year.
Listen up, particularly, around the 1 minute mark when Governor Christie starts talking about the truth about the “it’s about the kids” argument. In the Governor’s own words, “It’s easy to say it’s about the kids when…” Watch the video below to find out how the Governor finishes that line!
Enough is enough of the same old crap in New Jersey’s broken education system. The time has come to fully fund charter schools and to break the unnecessary (and, frankly useless) statewide teachers’ union. There’s no need for a statewide association when countywide and local teachers’ unions are the source of the state group’s power. Break the NJEA now and save the future of education in New Jersey!
For a state that is often the butt of jokes by those who know nothing about us, New Jersey is certainly getting a ton of good press coverage due to the unwavering fiscal responsibility being shown by Governor Chris Christie. The latest bit of praise for New Jersey comes from Investor’s Business Daily which wrote the following about our Governor:
Chris 'The Boss' Christie
The next time some of the more cowardly Republicans in Washington forget what they were elected to do, let them look to New Jersey and listen to the boss.
And ain’t that the truth, huh? I’m so sick of hearing about how the people in Washington, DC are deficit spending (i.e. spending our future tax dollars that haven’t even been collected yet). I’m so sick of hearing about how all of these government support programs are going to go broke before I’ll ever have a chance to access them as an older person or a person in need. Enough is enough. There are millions of people across this country, like me, who voted for change in the last Presidential election. What did we get? We traded a big spending Republican President for an even bigger spending Democratic President. It’s crap.
Real change has to start somewhere and it is starting right here in New Jersey. Governor Christie is doing to this state’s budget what we hope the 112th Congress does to our national budget – make the income match the expenses or (even better) make the income exceed the expenses. It’s not that hard, folks. It’s Budgeting 101. If I can make these types of budget decisions on a daily basis in my household, then why can’t the people in Washington, DC or the people who used to run Trenton make these decisions, too?
It’s a very simple procedure: if you have ten dollars and you want to buy something that costs fifteen dollars, you can’t afford to buy it so you look for an alternative or you wait until you have enough money to buy the item. Our Governor, Chris “The Boss” Christie, knows this and I’m glad that he’s bringing this fiscal responsibility to Trenton. Lord knows that this state needs it!
