Last week New Jersey teachers organized a strike, or protest, of sorts… You see, this time not only the teachers protested but they brought out the students to protest also – on school time and on school grounds.
The media of course went along with this charade blasting headlines, such as this one from NorthJersey.com “[students] demonstrated against Gov. Christie’s cuts to education and the administration’s decision on where to implement those cuts.”
Or this one “Desperate” students were alarmed at the draconian cuts and demanded that the Governor be fair ” They even went out and quoted the students “This issue is bigger than Lakeland,” said senior Kelley O’Connell. “The governor is really being unfair and basically cutting off all opportunities for kids.””
Here is the real issue. Very few or probably no cuts would have to be made if the teachers agree to one very reasonable concession offered by the governor. All they have to do is agree to pay just about 1% of their salary towards their own health care costs. That’s it!
Focus on this. According to the Obamacare plan, so enthusiastically endorsed by the teacher’s union, the students that they pulled out of classrooms to protest will be paying anywhere between 4.5% – if they make under $33,000 per year to over 12% if they make roughly the same amount of money as the households of the administrators and teachers that refuse to pay just 1.1% of their income. How the hell is this not the epitome of betrayal!
New Jersey’s current budget deficit is over 1.2 Billion dollars! Of course the liberals will tell you that the state is running out of money, and they’ll do that with a serious face even as the state’s budget threatens to top $30billion dollars! 30BILLION DOLLARS!! Only liberals can go out and spend $30 billion dollars and then say, with a straight face, that we have no money!
The other issue, one that is a subject for another post, is the quality , or utter lack thereof , of the education produced by these very same teachers. The dismal performance of US students in worldwide rankings is well know nad well publicized. After fifty years of liberal domination of our school system we went form topping the charts to falling behind third world countries that are rated as below the poverty line.
New Jersey has only one High School rated in the top 100 in the nation , Bergen county Academic High School, part of the Bergen County Vocational District. The rest of New Jersey public schools? Well see video below.
This problem has been festering way before Christie spanked Corzine out of office, here is NJ.com reporting on the issue: “Corzine said last week that new cuts would likely be proposed to ensure the state ends the current fiscal year on June 30 with a balanced budget, something the state constitution requires, but he wouldn’t disclose where those cuts could come.”
Did you see any teacher/student protests when Corzine announced that? Of course not because Corzine was an ardent supporter of Obama while Christie of course is the opposite.
New Jersey spends more than any other state in the Union, except for New York, on student education, about $13,800 and the results are dismal. Utah, spends the lest amount of any state, about half as much as New Jersey, and the results are spectacular as Utah continues to lead the Nation in SAT scores.
Check out the video to see the results of the New Jersey unionized teacher’s work.