By Bradford Richardson
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says real education reform is impossible as long as teachers unions remain a powerful force for the status quo.
“The single most destructive force for public education in this country is the teachers union,” Christie said at a Jack Kemp Foundation panel discussion in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday. “It is the single most destructive force.”
The Republican presidential candidate called the labor groups an “absolute subsidiary of the Democratic Party.”
“In New Jersey alone, the teachers union has 200,000 members, and they collect mandatory dues of $730 per person per year,” he said. “That’s $140 million that the teachers union just in New Jersey collects a year, and they pay nothing toward teacher salary, teacher pension or teachers healthcare.
“It’s a $140 million political slush fund to be able to reward their friends and punish their enemies,” he added. “Now imagine that kind of force and it’s replicated in state after state after state in this country.”
Christie said Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is “bought and paid for” by the unions. Clinton has been endorsed by the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the nation.
The governor also called the current mode of education “obsolete” and said schools need to incorporate innovative technologies into the classroom.
Agreed. Just look at the greed and spitefulness of the REA… all they care about is not paying for their own pensions and health benefits, and making the rest of us subsidize them…. this, in a school district that has collapsed in the rankings despite Ridgewood property taxes in the top five in the state (and rising)
Why just the teachers union? What about state workers, police and fire? They all have excellent work conditions.
What about two articles in The Record about our absentee govervor? Out of state 181 days last year. Credit downgrades, crumbling roads/bridges and a pension system ready to implode all ignored by him.
He is a part time governor getting a full time salary and benefits. Who is he to criticize teachers who work for a living?
and when governors where in state it was better????
Near total Democratic control for decades, but it’s Christie’s fault.
What next, in the most taxed state in the nation blame it on the rich not paying their fair share.
Maybe you could throw the greed of wall street in there.
Yep 8:17, you nailed the union playbook. Beware our favorite retired Fire Captain/bipolar blogger foaming at the mouth about Christie, Wall Street, and the rich in NJ not paying their fair share… Never any mention of how excessive the pension and health benefits have become in NJ; those massive payouts were apparently negotiated in “good faith” with tax payers, yeah right. What a racket
Crazy the teachers in Ridgewood refuse to sign a new contract all because taxpayers refuse to keep subsidizing their free health benefits
Apparently even Sweeney has woken up to the fact that the state sends out $9-10 billion a year in pension checks against pension assets of only $70bn… Equivalent to over 25% of the annual state budget…. For the past. Not for roads and bridges. Not for new investment to attract private sector employees to NJ. But for excessive past benefit promises that threaten to swallow us up
Our property taxes are not in the top five in the state, last time i looked we ranked #14. As for the teachers it is time to start paying your own way or get in to another line of work.
Definitely an issue. But where is the outrage over the fact that annually NJ sends appx $30-35 billion more to the feds than we get back? If our reps can recover a tenth of that amount in conjunction with fine tuning the system this issue would fade.
Feel the Bern!
Agreed
The REA is the single most destructive force in Ridgewood education