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TagsBY CAROL ABAYA
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Governor Chris Christie, talking more than he listened, bashed the teachers’ union and tenure at a Town Hall meeting in Freehold, Monmouth County, on Tuesday. He talked for an hour and allowed only one-half hour for Q&A from the 500 attendees.
The decidedly pro-Christie audience loudly clapped when he said the current tenure system has to be changed to a merit one and called for vouchers so parents have a choice.
Christie called the teachers’ union officials “a privileged class” that earned hundreds of thousands in salaries and sit in Trenton doing whatever they can to protect the status quo and their own jobs. “These officials don’t care aboput options. They don’t care about the low achievement and graduation rates of most of the state’s urban schools.” He described the low achievement rate “in too many schools” as “obscene.”
The Governor said he supports public schools but that they need to be stronger. He said there is too much waste and the tenure system contributes to much of this waste and poor performance. “In private business, everyone competes against everyone else to keep his job and get ahead,” Christie said.
“With tenure, poor teachers are paid to do nothing. If they are ineffective, they should be out.” The audience clapped loudly.
Christie related the low graduation rates for key urban schools even though many of these schools spend much more per student than the state average of $17,800.. He pointed to one example of tremendous waste where one district spent $400,000 in legal fees to get rid of one ineffective teacher.
“So it’s cheaper to just keep paying bad teachers.” He said he is against this system.
Christie also spent a considerable amount of time talking about the financial mess he found when he took office and the steps he has taken. He pointed out that he closed he budget gap in the past two years and was able to do this without raising taxes. He said “I had to make some tough decisions.”
Opening the program, Christie said he was having the town meetings because it gave him the opportunity to meet with average citizens. “Otherwise I feel isolated with my staff.”
However, he only listened to about eight people who had very personal problems that did not address programs or policy issues.
