Well, let's check the calendar at the Delbarton School, where he sends his own kids. Last day of school is June 5; the next year starts on September 4. That's three full months of a summer vacation for the Christie kids! Your kids? Eh, not so much...
Gov. Chris Christie blames “special interest” groups on the failure to enact certain school reforms he says are necessary to improving education in New Jersey.The governor told a friendly Bergenfield crowd Tuesday that Garden State students are in need of more hours in the classroom and longer school years in order to stay competitive. Christie blamed special interests with blocking those changes for purely their own personal interests.“They don’t want a longer school year, they like having the summer off,” said Christie, referring to the adults – not the students – who he accuses of blocking the reforms.Christie argued longer school days and years are needed to ensure students are educated. [emphasis mine]
Oh course, if Chris Christie is suggesting that we should offer an extensive summer program like the one at Delbarton, full of sports and SAT prep, then I'm all for that. And I'm very anxious to read his proposal for how he's going to pay to offer that sort of high-quality enrichment to all of New Jersey's children, including upgrading all the schools so they have air conditioning...
Oh, wait - he's not saying he wants the teachers to work all summer long in stifling schools but not get paid any more for it, is he? I mean, even for a guy who hates teachers so much, he couldn't believe for a second that it would be right to pull teachers out of their summer jobs for no extra money?
Or could he? Maybe someone in the press corps should ask...
Pay teachers more to work all summer? Are you crazy?!
So awesome. That's the exact point he misses. Most teachers work a summer job! If we were to work summers, so be it, but we would need to be paid,as we'd have to quit our usual PAID summer job! He's not a dumb man. He is being deliberately obtuse.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be paid for twelve months. It's amazing how many people don't know we are only paid for ten.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, NJ schools are not failing, are not horrible. NJ public schools are high performing and always rank in the top tier in the nation and they are even number one in some aspects of learning and education. Teachers don't make up the yearly schedule, that's the purview of the school boards. Obviously, Christie wants the teachers to work an extra month or two with no compensation and with no air conditioning. Most schools, public or private, and even universities end the school year in June. Christie is playing class warfare and is catering to the lowest common denominator NJ 101.5 listener..in other words, the knuckle dragging Neanderthal who worships Jim Gearhart.
ReplyDeleteI hate to sound like a broken record, but this is another prime example of how significantly WORDS MATTER. The Repubs know this all too well, and pay Frank Luntz mucho denaro to tell them what words to use.
ReplyDeleteThe summers are not vacations for teachers; they are FORCED UNPAID FURLOUGHS, which are very difficult and stressful for many of us. Also, thanks to Christie's huge cuts, they are even more difficult in my neck of the woods where our PART-TIME summer school program was cut from six 20-hour weeks to four 15-hour weeks--a 50% cut in both teacher income and student learning.
There are also those who, if they are aware that we don't get paid during our furlough, are under the false assumption that we collect unemployment, which, if we signed a contract for the following year, we cannot, despite the fact that we are unemployed and unpaid for 10 weeks.
I'm all for a longer school year--for both my students and my benefit. However, if Christie is suggesting that we work unpaid, he needs to tell us how many jobs he--or anyone--had in which they worked for four to ten weeks a year without getting paid. Just sayin'...
--Lisa
Giuseppe - Good on you for starting your comment with"NJ schools are not failing". That should preface every conversation we have about education until co-opting OUR good work to further political agendas is no longer an option. As for paying teachers to work extended days and summers, I think the plan is to fire/rif significant numbers of the workforce, mainstream all the students into general ed classrooms (ready or not) and give the $$$ saved from cutting resources to teachers who stay in the classrooms from 8:30 till 4:30.
ReplyDeleteI would be for this if the RAC/DOE types plan to train all of the teachers to manage the behaviors and learning disabilities previously managed by special ed. experts. And also accompanied by a dramatic increase in pay. Otherwise, the smart money is on educators transferring their skills to related professions such as grant writing, non-profits, and textbook sales etc...
That "smart money" needs an IEP if it thinks there would be any cost savings or economic benefit, if that's their plan (re MKMS). First, they'll have to rewrite all the classified students' IEPs, and that would require every parent to sign off on the change, which is highly unlikely. Otherwise, it is illegal to discontinue or even change a classified student's services as specified in the IEP. The court costs from the lawsuits would eliminate any savings.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the dismal Jersey economy would take a severe hit from the unemployment payments and reduced consumer spending of the (tens of) thousands of unemployed teachers. The skills are completely transferable. I would be happy to return to the private sector to add to the 16 years I spent as a corporate trainer and technical writer where I made twice as much money at a much easier job than special ed teacher. However, the jobs aren't there, particularly in Jersey (our unemployment rate remains almost 2 percent higher than the national average). Our job market cannot absorb all those unemployed teachers, and our anemic economy can't afford the hit--which would be felt by over 5 million registered voters.
So, that "smart money" has a real learning disability.
--Lisa
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ReplyDeleteI was being facetious when I said I'm willing to pick up the special ed teachers' share of the load as well as my own, provided the re-training and bigger paycheck. Obviously, if the state succeeds in mainstreaming all of our students into general ed classrooms and placing the teachers (whose students have been absorbed) somewhere else, there will be no extra training or big paychecks for the teachers left behind to clean up the mess.
ReplyDeleteAt the same - it's true that our skills are transferrable. It's just a matter of time till Atlas shrugs.