Posted by Matt Rooney On August 03, 2015 11 Comments
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Governor Chris Christie’s CNN interview continues to elicit strong reactions, Save Jerseyans, and the problem with this controversy, as with similar incidents, is that most folks are focusing on the style points. It’s among the regrettable byproducts of our presidential politics, cultural decline, and hyper-politicization of the education industry. But those are topics for another post…
What about the substance?
Let’s revisit, briefly, what these teachers’ unions are all about and objectively decide whether they deserve to exist (I’m not pulling any punches):
10) The union establishment’s demands are as unrealistic as they’ve been fiscally ruinous. NJEA members will donate $126,000 to pension and health benefits over 30 years but stand to collect $2.4 million in return. Who thought this was a good idea??? Are all of the calculators broken in Trenton? Of course not. It’s all part of an elaborate, decades-old double-whammy of vote buying and problem avoidance. Instead of hating Chris Christie, teachers should direct their ire to the politicians on their own union’s campaign season payroll. They did it.
9) Their chosen tactics are disgusting. Wisconsin’s recent experienceswere horrific, and the physical/verbal violence perpetrated by Big Labor’s storm troopers was 100% one-sided.
8) The system these unions ferociously protect is failing our country’s most vulnerable children, especially those students living in poorer, minority-concentrated school districts. Click here to check out my lengthy run-down of Camden High School’s plight (catalyzed by a give-and-take with my liberal friend of Inky fame Kevin Riordan) for the uncomfortable truth.
7) American Teachers’ unions = Democrat Party affiliates. After self-preservation, the teacher union establishment is primarily concerned with protecting the Democrats whose policies protect their power. A good faith union would avoid colluding with one political party or the other, pursuing and prioritizing the best interests of its membership and their children. Not the teacher’s unions; in this state and most others, and certainly nationally as Chris Christie pointed out, they function as a Democrat Super PAC. The American Federation of Teachers has already endorsed Hillary Clinton before either party held its first debate!
6) Dues tied up in waste and hypocrisy… so teachers lose, too: The NJEA collects a 9-figure annual sum in teachers’ taxpayer paycheck-derived dues; its regular and political arms spend many millions more in lobbying and both direct and indirect campaigning activity to influence public police. What do its members have to show for it???
5) Therefore, these unions have a financial incentive to protect bad dues-paying teachers at the expense of the education system. Much has been written on this topic but John Stossel did a particularly good job of illustrating how difficult it is to purge the suck; it’s a crisis that’s turned even hardened union veterans against the tenure-centric system.
https://savejersey.com/2015/08/chris-christie-teacher-union-punch-video-facts/
The Governator is back… the national teachers union is the single most destructive force in public education and cares only about higher wages and benefits, and not about children. Hear hear ! He also said. “It’s not the American people who are failing the entitlement system, it’s the leaders of our country who are failing the American people by not telling them the truth.”
The issue of spending on Camden Schools is valid – how much is enough to produce good outcomes? The problem is not the teachers.
We are asking the schools to provide more than education. They are social service agencies providing meals and a haven from the city. Kids do not have the family support and encouragement to be successful. Given the choice I would rather teach in Ridgewood than Ca,den – even if Camden paid more. In Ridgewood you have the opportunity to educate students who come to learn.
The teachers union is not the problem in Camden. The social environment in Camden is the problem. Building a state of the art high school will not magically improve learning outcomes. You can lead a horse to water…..
The hell with the teachers union, it is time for all unionized workers in this state to pay more for there benefits as in private industry, they are no longer under paid.
How much more should public workers pay? I am a public worker and I pay a much higher percentage than the average in the private sector. Keep up. Public workers now pay up to 35% of the cost of health insurance,while the average in the private sector is closer to 25-26%.
sorry you dont pay a higher percentage than those in the private sector, not even close, enough with that already
I’m in the private sector. Ipay 100%
7:56, how much of the year over year increase in the cost of your platinum health insurance coverage did you pay for? Just asking.