I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

A Reply To A Reply from @tomamoran

Tom,

Contrary to your beliefs, no one called you a racist. You know this: you put our other criticisms of you in quotes, but not the one where you allege we call you racist.

What we said was that you support One Newark, a racist school reorganization policy. Which it is.

You say:
Maybe you folks should take a pill, and engage people who disagree with you in a civil manner. You might find that I'm not as evil as you think. Who knows.
"Civil," huh? From Tom Moran's latest column, 8/29/14 (all emphases mine):
First, she [Newark State Superintendent Cami Anderson] is facing determined opposition from local activists and politicians who don’t seem to give a damn about the children. 
[...]  
It’s enough to make you wonder if the kids fit into the mayor’s political calculus at all.  
[...]  
The heat comes mostly from unions, and from conspiracy theorists who see charter schools as a dark plot by Wall Street to somehow suck money out of the public system. 
So it's "civil" to say the opponents of One Newark "don’t seem to give a damn about the children"? It's "civil" to say that Mayor Ras Baraka, a lifelong educator, doesn't have a place for kids in his "political calculus"? It's "civil" to say that those who report the undeniable truth that there are charter school profiteers are "conspiracy theorists"?

Talk about selective outrage. Of course, this is part of a pattern:

Tom Moran, 10/27/12 :
As Newark teachers prepare to vote Monday on their proposed contract, we offer this warning: The group opposed to the contract is spreading outright lies about its content.
 Tom Moran, 2/19/12:
Their aim was to embarrass Vince Giordano, the union’s executive director, with a YouTube moment, presumably as he wedged his considerable girth out of a luxury car.
Star-Ledger Editorial Board, 10/23/11:
The charge that Tepper and Fournier are trying to make money is beyond ridiculous. They know how to make money. They have not suggested turning schools over to private investors. By fanning such a silly conspiracy theory, the NJEA is only confirming that it has no shame.
It's worth noting that Moran does not quote any official of the NJEA directly who makes this charge. Here's his attribution:
And several Democrats whisper the line pushed by the operatives of the New Jersey Education Association, who say this is a plot by Tepper and Fournier to enrich themselves by turning public schools over to private investors such as themselves.
This is, of course, completely unsourced.

Tom Moran, 4/29/12:
Some of that is based on old-school greed. Teachers unions, for example, generally want sturdy raises every year and no accountability. 
Tom Moran, 12/18/11:
Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex) isn’t so well-known, but his ego is equally breathtaking.
So -- this is "civil"?

Spare us all the crocodile tears, Tom. Because you don't have a substantive response to our letter, you hide behind complaints about things we didn't even say, even as you engage in attacks far more personal than anything we wrote about you.

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board, doing what they do best.

3 comments:

tapdw said...

Ah taking a page from Student's First and Campbell Brown's books: play the "I care about children; they don't!" and the race cards when they don't have any rebuttal of substance. Don't they realize we notice these things?

Giuseppe said...

Thanks for giving Tom Moran some much needed blowback. These knee-jerk charter cheerleaders need to be taken account for their education reform propaganda. Sadly, I don't think that Moran is capable of realizing that charter schools are not the answer to a problem that is over hyped by the so called education reformers. He's too thin skinned and too invested (ideologically) in all the charter school blarney.

Anonymous said...

He's terribly fond of acknowledging a criticism exists and then blowing a bilabial fricative at it by saying "please" instead of actually addressing the argument. He's spoken with Diane Ravitch and Bruce Baker? Fantastic -- where's his substantive response to what they have say?

Oh right -- he'd rather say "puh-lease".