NJ Education Report

The Governor went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Joe Scarborough and suggested that NJEA should take a bye on teachers’ dues this year so that members suffer no loss from the 1.5% of base pay health benefits contribution. According to The Record, Christie said,

This is a union problem. This is a union boss problem. If they’re so concerned about the $750 a year the teachers would have to pay, you know, their dues that they make every teacher pay are $730 a year — just about the same amount. It raises $130 million a year for the teachers’ union. How about they just try and get by on the $130 million they got last year, waive the dues for this year, and then their teachers would be held harmless?

In other humor, Pat Lobley at New Jersey Newsroom educates the leaders of the Bergen County NJEA office who sent out the “prayer” for the Governor’s swift demise. Says Lobley,

But just because something is offensive, doesn’t make it funny. A joke can be in bad taste, but bad taste doesn’t mean there’s a joke in there somewhere. This is a cop out that typically unfunny people make when they want to make a joke, but do not have the skill and dedication required to do so. If you are thinking you would like to try be funny, here are some tips:

First, think of rhythm and pace. You can’t just have some rambling statement … “Dear Lord, blah blah blah this year you have taken, yada yada” … and on and on. You’ve got to be crisp. Set up, payoff.

Second, invoking the premature, agonizing deaths of people like Patrick Swayze and Farrah Fawcett is not that funny. Not really a good way to get the audience on your side. There is humor to be found in tragedy, but that kind of sophisticated comedy is best left to professionals.

Third, test your material before you put it in prime time. Even the most tried and true comedians go to small, quiet venues to try out their new jokes. Sending out an untried joke to 17,000 people is just too risky.

It’s a tough time to be a teacher right now. The last thing they need is leaders that are a bunch of jokers.

See what I did there?