In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
HADDONFIELD, N.J. — They're the kind of obscenity-laced schoolyard taunts that could get a student suspended.
But the target of this tirade is New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie — and the perpetrators are the state's teachers, irate over his calls for salary freezes and funding cuts for schools.
In Facebook messages visible to the world — not to mention their students — the teachers have called Christie fat, compared him to a genocidal dictator and wished he was dead. The postings are often riddled with bad grammar and misspellings.
"Never trust a fat f...," read one profane post on the Facebook page, "New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze," which has some 69,000 fans, many of them teachers.
"How do you spell A-- hole? C-H-R-I-S C-H-R-I-S-T-I-E," read another.
The rhetoric has become ever more heated as residents of most of the state's school districts get ready to vote Tuesday on property tax levies that support district budgets. And while many of the postings are emotional, most aren't personal attacks.
Christie, a first-year Republican governor who inherited a state in dire financial straits, wants voters to reject the proposals in districts where educators won't agree to salary freezes for the coming school year.
The acrimony intensified last month when Christie proposed cutting state and federal aid to districts by 11 percent, calling it a way to share sacrifice as the state tries to rein in spending.
That's when the Facebook attacks really took off.
One educator, a librarian with a Master's degree, described the cuts as "rediculous."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD9F6GDB00
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Forgot to add Gov. Christie relating students sharing their thoughts with their parents to what drug dealers often do with each other.
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
What should he do? Raise property taxes? Sales tax? Tolls? Leave the guy alone and let him clean up the Dem's mess so NJ doesn't turn into another CA
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Why would there not be a pay freeze? The Govt is broke; on acct of the public, the "Financial Community" & everyone's favorite democrat & republican politicians.
Time to start teaching about hyperinflation and the devaluation of fiat currency.
t
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by NIKV69
What should he do? Raise property taxes? Sales tax? Tolls? Leave the guy alone and let him clean up the Dem's mess so NJ doesn't turn into another CA
Those ideas sound good to me! Better doing that than cutting funding for education!
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Teachers union have a lot of opposition against them. Several police districts in NJ have openly come out without being asked and agreed to either freeze their salaries or take a cut for the next few years...
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Also, I don't see that there is necessarily an exact correlation between cutting, boosting or freezing teacher/admin salary and "eduction". There certainly could be, and definitely might be, but its not the same exact thing.
t
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom_Turner
Also, I don't see that there is necessarily an exact correlation between cutting, boosting or freezing teacher/admin salary and "eduction". There certainly could be, and definitely might be, but its not the same exact thing.
t
classes and programs are being cut as well as sports
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Well, it seems like there might be less classes, programs and sports then in some sense.
Or, possibly even not; just "cuts" .....in.... the costs of administering some of these things.
Still not necessarily "education" as we might think about it though, right?
t
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Quote:
Those ideas sound good to me! Better doing that than cutting funding for education!
I wouldn't be so sure, people are already stretched as far as they can go. You start raising the price of gas, goods, tolls, property tax your going to have a worse situation. These teachers are acting like idiots. NJ should have voted for four more years of Corzine. You would be on the beach like California is now and trust me I am here and it's not pretty.
Re: In NJ school cut debate, insults overshadow issues
Thank goodness for Gov Christie.... Hopefully the teachers can set a good example for the children by not playing the victim.
http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/a ... one-for-us
Teachers unions are incensed, fighting Christie’s proposal that — in order to avoid cuts to education — teachers accept a one-year wage freeze and contribute 1.5 percent to the generous-by-every-standard healthcare plans they now enjoy for free. New Jersey, which has the highest unemployment in the region and highest taxes in the country, lost 121,000 jobs in the private sector in 2009 while adding 11,300 new education jobs. During the last eight years, K-12 enrollment rose just 3 percent while education jobs increased more than 16 percent. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, during the recession that has cost many residents their homes and jobs and scaled back hours and pay for the employed, teachers’ salaries rose by nearly 5 percent, double the rate of inflation.
