NJ Education Report

I’m not sure which is more embarrassing for the NJEA, the fact that their local is circulating memos praying for the governor’s death, or the fact that their local is headed by a person whose favorite actor is Patrick Swayze, favorite acress is Farrah Fawcett, and favorite singer is Michael Jackson.

Jay P. Greene, Professor of Education Reform and blogger.

The good news is that a few state officials are starting to push back. In addition to New York’s Governor Paterson, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is trying to reduce state aid to local school districts. In the past decade, student enrollment in the Garden State has grown by 3%, while total school hiring is up 14%. Instead of addressing this reality, a local chapter of the New Jersey Education Association responded to Mr. Christie’s proposals by circulating a memo joking that it wishes the Governor were dead. Mr. Christie must be doing something right.

Today’s Wall Street Journal.

Reagan had the air traffic controllers union. . . Bill Clinton had Newt Gingrich, and now Chris Christie has the NJEA. They are the foil to him that is allowing him to stake out positions in a clear and forceful way. When you are trying to define yourself, it is helpful to have the light and dark, the white and black.

Pete McDonough in Central Jersey.

THE MORE I watch the New Jersey Education Association and its local representatives attack Governor Christie, the more I believe their media adviser is former U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va. In case you may have forgotten, Allen used the racial slur macaca and then claimed he didn’t mean it in a bad way.

Voters who rejected Allen at the polls in 2006 didn’t mean that in a bad way either.

Alfred P. Doblin of The Record.