A team of Democratic heavy-hitters soundly rejected an advertisement released today by the New Jersey Education Association, calling it “shallow name calling” and holding it up as an example of what has gone wrong with the state’s public school system.The ad campaign attacked Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), a lead proponent of proposed reform that would shift more pension and benefit costs to public workers, saying he cared more about appeasing party bosses like South Jersey Democratic powerbroker George Norcross than serving the public.Norcross told reporters gathered here this evening that the union was making personal attacks because it was afraid of real reform to give parents and children options such as charter schools to circumvent a failing public school system. He said NJEA is “defending the indefensible.[...]
The only problem with the NJEA ad is that it is ACCURATE. Sweeney is a tool of Norcross. Norcross has made oodles of money from the disgusting explosion of health care costs. And now Norcross wants to get his greasy little fingers into the education money pie.Booker said the debate about school reform is “unfortunately degenerating into shallow name calling, mistruths and really undermining what should be a robust and dialogue.”“It’s unfortunate we’ve seen really a shallow attempt to vilify individual actors who have a record established on serving the educational interest of not just all of New Jersey’s kids, but particularly New Jersey’s most vulnerable children.”He added that the NJEA ad was “a departure from the sensible, was painful and poisonous, and not in any way adding to what is going to be necessary to move us forward.”
And Booker was bought off long ago. Sweeney and Norcross have no record of serving children. For that matter, neither does Booker:
I don't know what made you three tools think you could lie down with Chris Christie and we teachers wouldn't say boo about it.
But you've taken our support for granted far too long. It's on.
Telling it like it is!
ReplyDeletePay attention to just which Democrats are howling about this NJEA ad and who are happily remaining silent. My spies say there's a looming knife fight (in the Assembly, NOT the Senate) over leadership.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if the Dems completely split their own party, Christie will make out like a bandit. And I doubt the Sweeney contingent will receive any of the blame, although there is where fault lies.
It's going to be increasingly difficult to recruit talented people into education. But perhaps that's the point. Just privatize it all....