Dear NJ Teachers and Their Families: You MUST Not Vote For Jack Ciattarelli

To all NJ public school staff and their families:

You must not vote for Jack Ciattarelli. He will do serious, lasting damage to you personally, and the students you serve.

No, I'm not being overly dramatic. You may or may not like Mikie Sherrill for any number of reasons. You may like Jack because... well, I don't know why you would, but it doesn't matter. If you vote for him, Ciattarelli is going to harm you, your family, your colleagues, and your students. 

Hear me out:

Jack Ciattarelli will do whatever he can to freeze, and maybe even cut, your salary. 

Ciattarelli has made it his top priority to give a huge tax cut to the wealthiest people in the state. He can only do this by either:

1) Raising more revenues through sales taxes, which will hit you harder than the very wealthy (sales taxes always fall harder on working people than the rich because they take away a bigger chunk of your income than they do for the very wealthy). 

2) Cutting state spending. 

Ciattarelli has made clear he's going to do both, and guess what? The biggest item in the state's budget is aid to schools -- the place where you work. Four out of every five dollars spent on schools are spent on personnel, so when those cuts come, they will inevitably be aimed at you. 

Your job is on line... but even if you manage to keep it, your board of education is going to be under enormous pressure to cut costs, which means keeping your salary as low as possible. You are going to make less money than you otherwise would under Governor Ciattarelli.

Jack Ciattarelli will do whatever he can to defund, and maybe even eliminate, your pension.

After years of neglect and abuse, New Jersey is finally on the path to fiscal responsibility by making substantial payments to its underfunded pension systems. But Jack doesn't care; he wants your money for his wealthy friends. There is no doubt he will slash pension payments, and try to get away with it by degrading, and maybe even eliminating, your pension benefits.

Ever since I started this blog, I have kept Chris Christie's biggest lie at the top: "I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor." He said that just before he was elected, and we all know what happened next. Do you really believe Ciattarelli is any different?

Jack Ciattarelli will do whatever he can to slash your health care benefits.

Health care costs are out of control. What is Jack's plan to rein them in? He won't say, because his plan is to pass the cost on to you. 

Those benefits are the reason many of you chose to work in a public school: you knew your salary would be bigger if you worked somewhere else, but you were willing to take less so long as you got decent health insurance. But, once again, Jack needs money for his rich patrons, and he wants to get it by Jack-ing up your health care costs.

I'm also talking to school staff families here, because what happens to your relative who works in a school also affects you. When your parent brings home less pay, you will feel it. When your spouse gets their pension slashed, that will degrade your retirement. You can't afford to have your family's vote split when the stakes for you are so high.

Folks, I understand you may have some hot-button issue that motivates you. You may have strong feeling about guns, or abortion, or transgender women in sports (that's your big thing?), or whatever. I won't debate you on these, but ask yourself this: "What's more important than my family's finances? What's more important than making sure my spouse and I have a retirement with dignity? What's more important than making sure my loved ones can go to the doctor without breaking the bank?"

NJ school staff, your family is more important than any other issue in this election. Which is why you must not vote for Jack Ciattarelli.

My fellow teachers, and paraprofessionals, support staff, and administrators: we had eight long, terrible years in New Jersey of being punched in the face. Let's not do that again, OK? 

Vote Mikie Sherrill on Tuesday.

Jack Ciattarelli is my kinda guy!