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, May 4, 2011

Masters Bump For Me, Not For Thee!

Just to follow up on Chris Christie's proposal to do away with using graduate degrees as a criterion for determining teacher pay:

The idea that corporate reformers such as Christie push is that these degrees do not make for better teachers. His own kids, however, go to Delbarton, a tony private school, where they have a slightly different take:
The course of study offers preparation in all major academic subjects and a number of electives.
The studies are intended to help a boy shape a thought and sentence, to speak clearly about ideas and effectively about feelings, and to seek relevant facts in making judgments.
The faculty, many of whom hold higher degrees in field, consists of 80 men and women. And because the average class size is 15 and student-teacher ratio 7:1, the learning environment at Delbarton is designed to be intimate and challenging.
So teachers with advanced degrees are good for the governor's kids, but not for yours or mine. I guess it's an "extra" that his children get to have by virtue of the fact that his family is extremely wealthy, what with Mrs. Christie's part-time job where she pulls down half-a-million a year. That makes Delbarton's $26, 450 tuition a little easier to swallow.

Oh, and notice the student-teacher ratio; another thing the corporate reformers keep telling us doesn't matter.

Still think America isn't an aristocracy?

2 comments:

NYC ATR said...

Jazzman, as usual, you deserve a BRAVO for this post.

Anonymous said...

Plus, Christie seems OK with per pupil spending of $26,450.