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Even President Clinton is Disgusted with New Jersey’s Hatemongering Teachers Union

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You know the world is getting crazy when a former Democratic President from the South comes to the defense of a Republican Governor from the Northeast. To President Bill Clinton’s great credit, he recently commented about how alarming some of the hate speech is that is coming out of the teachers’ union in New Jersey. On this past Sunday’s “This Week” show on ABC, President Clinton said the following:

And the only point I tried to make was that we ought to have a lot of political dissent — a lot of political argument. Nobody is right all the time. But we also have to take responsibility for the possible consequences of what we say. And we shouldn’t demonize the government or its public employees or its elected officials. We can disagree with them. We can harshly criticize them.

But when we turn them into an object of demonization, you know, you — you increase the number of threats.

But I worry about these threats against the president and the Congress. And I worry about more careless language even against — some of which we’ve seen against the Republican governor in New Jersey, Governor Christie.

Now you can add President Clinton to the long list of people who are growing tired of the end-of-the-world rhetoric and hate mongering that is coming out of the New Jersey Education Association and some of its affiliated local unions. It’s such a damn shame that political discussions in New Jersey come down to end-of-the-world scenarios. New Jersey is the epitome of how partisan politics can fracture a state. However, if anyone can fix this mess, it’s Chris Christie. Governor Christie is one of few politicians out there who bucks the trend of playing to the public opinion polls. And watch – once Governor Christie wins this battle against the NJEA and their hate speech, his numbers will go right back up.

Anyway, here is the actual video of President Clinton’s comment:

The Teachers’ Union in New Jersey is Packed with Scumbags

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First, I apologize for continuing to bring up the education funding battle as it relates to New Jersey’s budget. It’s just such a great opportunity to expose the scumbags that work for the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). For example, did you read this piece that was released yesterday by the Associated Press? Pay particular attention to the portions in bold…

Scumbags at NJEA Pray for Chris Christie's Death

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Amid a state budget crisis, schools across New Jersey are facing layoffs and homeowners are bracing for hefty increases to their highest-in-the-nation property tax bills.

Gov. Chris Christie is blaming teachers unions. Teachers unions are blaming Christie.

The enmity, which goes back to last year’s gubernatorial campaign, intensified with a memo from the Bergen County Education Association to local union leaders that hints about the governor’s death.

The memo, first reported by The Record of Bergen County, reads, in part: “Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

Association president Joe Coppola said the “prayer” was a joke and was never meant to be made public.

The New Jersey Education Association was more contrite. It issued an apology on Friday, saying the attack wasn’t funny and that it takes away from the more serious discussion the group would like to have with the governor. NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said she would try to apologize personally to Christie.

At an appearance in New Brunswick on Friday, Christie didn’t see any humor in the memo — and used it as another chance to blast the teachers unions.

“They said they didn’t intend it to be public,” Christie said. “So, private prayer for my death would have been OK?”

The message so offended Republican Assemblyman Alex DeCroce that he’s asking the state’s attorney general to investigate it.

The memo — even if it was a joke — escalates an ongoing war of words.

During the Republican Christie’s run for governor last year, he didn’t mind offending the teachers union.

He refused to meet with the NJEA as it interviewed candidates to consider whom to endorse. And he attacked the union on the campaign trail. In July, he said: “Frequently, the leadership of the NJEA has been a strong advocate for the status quo, whether the status quo is succeeding or failing.”

The union endorsed incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in the election — and paid for fliers, staffed phone banks and knocked on doors on his behalf.

This year, the state education association has aired television commercials critical of the governor.

It intensified last month when Christie proposed a state budget that called for state and federal aid to school districts to be cut about 11 percent.

Most districts will lose more state aid than that for their main programs — including some that won’t any. The majority of school districts are planning layoffs as part of their budgets. On top of that, many are planning to hike their property taxes by close to the legal limit of 4 percent.

Christie, though, says that he’ll give extra aid to any district where educators agree to freeze their salaries for the year and start paying a portion of their health insurance costs. Any layoffs, he says, will be the fault of the unions — not him.

The governor said this week that school employees in 115 of the states’ 590 districts have agreed to wage freezes. But in most of those districts, the concessions came from administrators rather than teachers. The NJEA has not encouraged its locals to make the deals.

Steve Baker, an NJEA spokesman, said the group hopes the memo dustup will create an opportunity for the group to meet with Christie to talk about the future of the state’s schools.

“Frankly, we have been talking at each other and we haven’t been talking with each other,” he said.

The NJEA is just a bunch of scumbags. You see stuff like this in the news and you do a little bit of research and find out that everything is confirmed and you just hate these people. The NJEA sucks.

Some Teachers and Education Support Staff Work on Finding Real Solutions

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Whether any of the fear-mongers at the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) like it or not, Governor Chris Christie is not backing down from his campaign promises. He promised to take the fight directly to the teachers’ union and force them to share in the same financial sacrifice that every other citizen of New Jersey is experiencing…and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He promised not to raise taxes because it is a “quick fix” for the state’s budget problem and not a long term solution…the only “solution” that the NJEA has been able to come up with for filling the gap in the budget is to raise taxes (typical).

But as I said yesterday, most people are getting sick of this fight because of the phony horror-stories-to-be coming out of the NJEA and the consistent pressure being put on them by the Governor. Well, it seems like some teachers and educators out there in overpaid public employee land have gotten the point and are ready to share in the same financial sacrifice and join the same real world as the rest of us in New Jersey.

According to a late afternoon release issued by the governor’s office, the type of freeze varies district by district, according to data from the state Department of Education.

“Teachers in 11 school districts have accepted wage freezes for a year or part of the year (nine for a full year; two for partial year). In five school districts, teachers have accepted a reduction in pay,” according to the governor’s office. “Administrative and support staffs have been more willing to step up and take action to protect jobs and education resources: Of the 115 districts reporting wage freezes or reductions, administrators in 101 of them have taken a full-year or part-year salary freeze (most by far were full-year freezes). Support staff in 40 did the same. In more than 16 districts, administrators and/or staff took a reduction in pay.”

“Unfortunately, these figures illustrate the obvious: that the teachers unions overwhelmingly believe everyone else should share in the sacrifice, but they alone should be held harmless in the middle of this fiscal crisis,” said the governor. “The sense of entitlement is incredible and reveals the belief that they should continue, even now, to get 4 and 5 percent salary increases year after year and pay nothing for health insurance. Meanwhile, younger, less senior teachers are losing jobs. Frankly, I just don’t understand this; nor do I believe that the public does either.”

This information was taken from a post on PolitickerNJ.com and I think it shows that there is some degree of hope in the battle between the NJEA and the Governor. What it comes down to – as always – is that public employee unions are too strong (and arrogant) in New Jersey and their unchecked strength has led to an unsustainable public benefits system. Where else in the world (besides dictatorships) does it make better financial sense to work for the government instead of private enterprise?! That’s crazy.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pay good people for good work. We absolutely should. However, I am saying that when the rest of the people in this state are struggling to make ends meet and when the private sector is shedding jobs left and right – who are the public employee unions to say that they are above the Great Recession? Who are these unions to say that they are untouchable by the whims of the free market?

Get real. Public employees should be taking pay freezes and public employees should be taking wage reductions and public employees should be getting laid off in these economic times. This is what happens when times are tough – everyone suffers…public employees, too!

Brief Comments and Quotes from Governor Christie’s Budget Address

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Earlier this week, Governor Chris Christie delivered what was one of the best, most honest budget addresses that I’ve ever heard a New Jersey Governor deliver to the state legislature and the citizenry. To honor the courage that it takes for a man to stand up in front of the most vicious state in the nation and tell people the truth, I thought I would put some selected quotes from his address on this blog along with some of my comments.

In recent years, we have allowed the problem to become bigger through a series of one-time gimmicks that have worsened our situation. This year, for example, some state employees will be given an 11% salary increase, at a cost of $300 million to the taxpayers, while many New Jerseyans are lucky to even have a job. Incredible.

Are you serious? How can any public employee justify an 11% salary increase when people are losing jobs in the private sector left and right? This is ridiculous. This is the type of public excesses that drove Jon “Money Bags” Corzine out of office and brought in a no-nonsense reformer like Chris Christie. An 11% salary increase in the midst of an economic mess? Talk about certain public employees being out of step with the economy…

$700 million in one-time revenues came in from granting amnesty to tax cheats in another gimmick that was used to paper over problems. As usual, our government spent it all in one year, and built that much more spending into the budget for this coming year, with no way to pay for it now or in the future. So too were federal stimulus funds for education irresponsibly spent all in one year — and then simply added into the budget, with no way to pay for it this year.

Some people are getting mad at Chris Christie for his strong budget address (not this voter, but others out there). Where is the outrage at the previous administrations (both Republican and Democrat) that have had these gigantic influxes of cash and doled the funds out without any long term planning? How many intelligent people get a raise at work or a bonus check and have their first thought immediately be, “How can I spend all of this money right away?!” One billion stimulus dollars spent for educational purposes by Jon Corzine as he tried to buy the election last year. Absolutely disgraceful. I wish he could be sued for his misuse of public (i.e. OUR) funds.

Over the course of two decades, time and again the State has borrowed to pay its every day bills. You wouldn’t do that in your own home, and we shouldn’t do that with your tax dollars. The result is overwhelming. Outstanding direct debt has ballooned from $3.9 billion in 1989 to $33.9 billion last year. And total debt, including all obligations, has tripled from $17 billion to over $51 billion, just since 2002. Our debt is equal to an obligation of $4,100 for each and every man, woman, and child in this state 130% higher than in 2002.

Damn right we wouldn’t do it in our own homes, but if you DID do that in your own home, you might find yourself on your ass with no roof over your head. When you spend money like an idiot, bad things happen. At least Chris Christie has the political fortitude to say that in public and to add that he intends to make the system right. And I don’t know about you folks, but adding $30 billion in direct state debt over a 21 year period is absolutely unacceptable, damn it.

That is bad enough, but as you know, more than half of what the State spends every year is sent to local governments, in the form of aid for municipal government and school districts. And local government has exercised even less control. Spending at the local government level has risen 69% since 2001.

How many times have I railed away on this blog about the need to remove the corruption at the local level? Enough is enough of people pocketing a few thousand here and a few thousand there. Enough is enough with people getting hired who are unqualified or are politically associated or blood related to local politicians. Enough is enough with property taxes increasing to maintain a bloated local school system that doles out an unbelievable amount of cash to unnecessary school administrators (take a look at what goes on in Camden). Enough is enough already, damn it.

Even now, in the depths of a great economic crisis, local governments and school boards can’t hold back on the pressure that comes from the public sector unions. What is the proof? While New Jersey’s private sector lost 121,000 jobs just in 2009, New Jersey’s local governments added 11,300 new municipal and school employees. 11,300 new government employees paid for by your taxes just this last year. 11,300 new employees added while you are struggling to keep your job and pay the bills. We must give the voters the tools to stop the madness and stop it this year.

If reading that last paragraph doesn’t piss you off, then you must not really give a shit about what’s going on in our state. And I made that last line bold to make a point that most citizens don’t understand. The Governor is NOT the one who can destroy the corruption at the local level – the corruption that might exist in your hometown or in a local school board. YOU ARE THE ONES WHO NEED TO BUST THAT CORRUPTION! That’s it! That’s the key! The Governor is going to give you the tools to get it done, but the action has to come from you! In other words, the most the Governor can do to actually make the policy changes that are necessary at the local level is advocate on our behalf and he’s doing that day in and day out. It is up to US, at citizens of our local municipalities, to make sure that our elected officials do what is right. And if you don’t have the guts to stand up and make your local elected officials do what is right, then you deserve whatever you get.

We have worked to ensure that no school district in New Jersey will face a reduction in aid that is greater than 5% of their school budget– so school districts will face a budget cut that is 4% less than the cut in state spending as a whole. During a crisis worsened by the election year foolishness of our predecessors, we keep school aid cuts at less than state spending cuts.

Make no bones about it, folks – Governor Christie is doing the right thing here. If anyone can’t live within a budget that, in this economy, has revenue reduced by 4% – 5%, then they are living too far outside of their means. No one is going after teachers – teachers are awesome and they do a job that is truly a service to the public good. No one denies that at all. However, do you really need all of the excess administrators making six figure salaries at the district level? Of course not. I go on Facebook and I see all of my young friends who are teachers that are bashing Christie because they are probably going to lose their jobs and I have three immediate thoughts:

First, much of the grammar and spelling in these Facebook updates are horrendous (let alone crude) and I don’t want New Jersey’s kids learning from these morons (who I really all love, but if you can’t spell “Governor” or if you attack Christie for being fat, then you shouldn’t be a teacher, period).

Second, most of the stuff I’m reading in their Facebook updates are nothing more than rehashed propaganda and lies from the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA aka the “Teacher’s Union”). This tells me that my younger friends are brainwashed.

Third and finally, these folks are misdirecting their anger. Getting angry at Chris Christie is the dumb man’s argument. Think of a moron saying, “He going to cut funding and, uhhh, he then cut my salary and, ummm, I no job.” Idiots. You want to get mad at someone? You want to get angry at someone? Go get your school district’s budget and find out where money is being wasted. Teachers are certainly NOT wasting money. But how many school districts have three and four Assistant Principals and Vice Principals? How many Board Secretary subordinates are there making $5,000 here or $10,000 there? If you serve on a school board, are you not inherently accepting a job that is a volunteer position? Why do some school board members get stipends?

You want to get mad at someone and you want to direct your anger somewhere? Direct that anger towards the fat cats that might exist in your own districts. Direct that anger toward the few school districts in this state that exist, but have no actual schools in their super small towns (for the rest of the nation reading this entry, yes – we have that in New Jersey).

I LOVE when citizens get fired up over their government, but don’t be ignorant about your anger. Direct your anger to the right place – to the local and county-level excesses that the Governor cannot single-handedly change because he’s not a king (or at least think he is a king like President Obama does).

The leaders of the union who represent these teachers, however, have used their political muscle to set up two classes of citizens in New Jersey: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them. That has created a system that cannot be sustained a system fueled by mandatory dues of more than $700 a year taken out of every one of the nearly 200,000 teachers’ paychecks.

Political muscle fueled by intimidation tactics, political bullying and smears of public officials who dare to disagree. This conduct has set up an unfair system. Is it fair to have any public employees getting 4-5% salary increases every year, even when inflation is zero %, paid for by citizens struggling to survive? It is fair to have New Jersey taxpayers foot the bill for 100% of the health insurance costs of teachers and their families from the day they are hired until the day they die? Is it fair that teachers have a better, richer health plan than even state workers and pay absolutely nothing for it?

I believe rank and file teachers know this is not fair and that we can no longer afford to burden our taxpayers with these costs and runaway taxes. The union bosses will tell you, as they always have each time their empire is threatened, that they are protecting our children. This tired song has grown old and inaccurate. Is the way our children learn affected by whether the union gets free family health insurance for life for its members? Does a child learn more if the union gets 5% taxpayer funded raises every year for its members? This is nonsensical and self-serving and we all know it.

You tell ’em, Governor Christie! Enough is enough with this absolute abomination of a system! Get ’em, Christie! This is why we voted you into office!

So I ask those of you in the legislature, and all of the citizens of our state, to join me — in pitching in, in working together — not only to share in the sacrifices we must make today, but in forging the path to a better tomorrow. The journey starts today, and I know it will be worth the effort.

I’m with this Governor. We need these reforms NOW (we actually needed them a decade ago, but we have to make the changes now to get the ball rolling). Battling against the entrenched education interests is the first step. Let’s get this state going in the right direction again so we can afford tomorrow!