Just wondering what you all think....

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

Any folks here from NJ who can comment on this? If the information he's giving is factual, it sounds like the teacher's union is screwing over their own members.

Comments

[udoswald.livejournal.com]

Chris Christie is a jerk just in general so I wouldn't give too much weight to his claims on anything. His brash, uncompromising attitude, seemed to work when he was US Attorney but it's not doing him any favors now that he's the Governor. He's decided to continue being an attention whore, and try his hardest to get his ugly mug on TV every single day, instead of actually trying to save the state.

Christie came into office and immediately started lobbing bombs at the state's schools and especially at the teachers. He's decided he's going to balance the budget on the backs of the schools in this state (which, as the teacher stated, were some of the best in the country at least under past administrations).

There are strong teachers' unions in this state, which is necessary since administrations of both parties have tried to score political points and save money by screwing the teachers. The fact that they didn't bow down and take a huge pay cut/fee increase, in a year when I'm sure every teacher's rent went up and other costs increased, is hardly a mark of shame.

The unions aren't "screwing over their own members", they're trying to keep the state from balancing its budget solely by hurting the teachers. If Christie is so worried about decreasing state revenue, he could easily stop his plan to give the rich in this state a huge tax cut. That would certainly help increase state revenues.

Oh, and if Christie is so concerned about increased costs/decreased revenue for the schools maybe he shouldn't have screwed up the whole Race to the Top thing. Those hundreds of millions of dollars would have been helpful in closing that billion dollar gap.

[sammygoliath.livejournal.com]

Could someone explain to me what "pay freeze" refers to in this context?

[merig00.livejournal.com]

Teacher's union had two choices

a) agree for a single year pay freeze and 1.5% salary contribution to the health insurance plan (currently state pays 100%)

b) teacher layoffs

The union decided to go with option b... and it's somehow Christie's fault.

To put things into the perspective - 65% of my property taxes goes toward school budget. We already fired several police officers, our general garbage collection is once per week now (the smell was just horrible this hot summer) and recicables collection is cut so if they don't have time to collect your paper/plastic you can drive it yourself to DPW office. Our library hours were cut to minimum required by state, etc.
I don't see why Teachers Union thinks that they are untouchable.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I've watched every video of these posted in various places, and I think every state needs a Christie. Honesty is friggin' refreshing.