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Now you're getting it, NJEA:

Governor Christie could have applied for this funding on August 13 – the day applications were available – but for some inexplicable reason, he hasn’t done so,” said NJEA President Barbara Keshishian.  “So, instead of being able to rehire laid-off staff for the start of the school year, districts will now have to bring them back a week or two into the year.  Classes will have to be rearranged, teachers reassigned, and schedules will be disrupted and redrawn.

“This will create chaos in our classrooms, and it was totally avoidable,” Keshishian said.  “When it comes to obtaining federal funding for education, this administration has failed miserably,” she said, referring to the state’s recent failure to obtain $400 million in federal Race to the Top money, thanks to a clerical error on the application submitted by the Department of Education.

“But Race to the Top was a competitive grant,” said Keshishian. “This jobs funding is New Jersey’s for the asking.  Why hasn’t the governor asked for it?  He owes our students, their parents, and 3,900 unemployed educators an explanation for his inaction.”

The union has to make the connection between Christie and the cuts, but they also have to keep hammering that he is doing this on purpose. There is no reason - other than politics - for his delay.

Here's the radio ad.

UPDATE: Well, they applied for the money, so I guess the commercial needs to be recut. I hope someone in the NJEA figured that might happen and they've got another one in the can ready to go.

The link between the school cuts kids and parents are feeling right now and Christie still has to be made. And it has to be made NOW, at the beginning of the school year, before people become inured to the cutbacks.

Highlighting this wouldn't hurt, either:

U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya said the federal government made this application “extremely easy for states to fill out” in hopes of expediting the approval process and distributing funding to states quickly. Some states that applied soon after the month-long application period began in early August have already received their funding, she said.