Painting Yourself Into a Corner

The NJEA is, as usual, playing defense:

In her latest release New Jersey Education Association Barbara Keshishian accuses Gov. Chris Christie of playing politics with the announcement that New Jersey is a finalist in the federal Race to the Top education grant program.

“Gov. Chris Christie has used what should be good news – New Jersey’s selection as a finalist for $400 million in federal ‘Race to the Top’ funding – to once again attack NJEA and its members,” she said. “It’s a tired act, and it needs to end. This governor – who has cut $1.4 billion from public education, resulting in the layoff of thousands of teachers and deep program cuts that will hurt students badly – now wants to make people believe he’s the champion of public education.” [emphasis mine]

Nice to hear that my union has decided that getting into the finals of RTTT - a program that the president himself has said will uncap charter school creation and encourage using student data to evaluate teachers - is "good news."

Maybe Keshishian could spend a moment mentioning the questionable premises that RTTT is based on, instead of praising the program.

But if she does that now, she'll looks like she's backtracking. She's lost the game against the "reformers" before it even began.

Christie says the NJEA are "bullies"? They look more like the Washington Generals to me: