.@GovChristie He-Man Woman Haters Club

Greetings from Orlando! Home of the NEA RA 2015! 

While many of us were down here preparing for the Representative Assembly, on Tuesday, the Essex Co. Education Association organized a protest rally outside Gov. Christie's POTUS campaign kickoff at Livingston High School. Since then, the 'other' #TellingItLikeItIs campaign has been flooding Twitter and Facebook with memes and stories of life under Emperor Gov. Christie. This one caught my attention:






















While his record on the economy, jobs and the environment is atrocious, Gov. Christie has forged his reputation on verbally abusing voters—especially women. 

"Something may be going down tonight, but it ain't jobs, sweetheart."

Here's the video: 



Straight out of central casting: 

Rude, crude, sexist, dumb oaf, in a bar, beer in hand, surrounded by back-slapping good 'ole boys. Half-time's over, now back to the game. So he grabs a frazzled waitress and pulls her onto his lap. 

"More wings, sweetie. Make 'em hot, like you."

Laughs, guffaws and cat calls from his buddies as the waitress pries herself out of his grip and scurries away, clearly embarrassed.

In some way, shape or form, this happens every day in every city in America. It's one thing when some random jerk does it; it's quite another when the sitting governor of your state does it. But what's more disturbing is when this behavior gets a favorable reaction from the crowd. Writing for The Washington Post, Matt Katz reported:

The comment shocked some pundits who thought it was sexist. But I was in the crowd, and that line got more applause than any other. 

Welcome to the age of pro wrestling politics.

I'm sure it had something to do with Mormon Mitt Romney taking a pass on him for his VPOTUS candidate. But I don't understand why any woman in NJ could vote for Christie for a second term and endorse this behavior.  

But Gov. Christie is an equal opportunity offender. Just look at what he's said about some NJ female elected officials (additional reporting at Blue Jersey):

• Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg deserves to be beaten with a baseball bat.
• (Then) Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver lies.
• Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (then Assemblywoman) is responsible for someone's murder.
• Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle is a jerk.

Something tells me that more than a few therapists around the Garden State would love to get him on their couch for a few sessions. 

If you're a Baby Boomer like me, you no doubt know this classic Little Rascals episode:




Like Spanky, Gov. Christie has issues with women and leads with an iron fist. Like Alfalfa, the GOP does his bidding even though they don't always agree with him, lest the sergeant at arms (Christie's wrath) rain down on them. While Spanky fills Darla's sandwiches with soap, Christie fills women's lives with more struggles. Whether it's vetoing Planned Parenthood funding or equal pay for women or slashing school funding or launching a full-out assault on teachers—the majority of whom are women—Christie has made it clear that if you're a woman without deep pockets and a big checkbook, he really has no use for you.  

As I sit in a convention center with approximately 9,000 other education professionals from all across the country, the majority of whom are women, as we listen to a moving tribute to the victims of the terrorist shooting at the AME Church, as we debate and discuss issues of institutional racism, marriage equality, voting rights and others concerning social justice, as our leaders—all minorities, all women: President Lily Eskelsen (Latina), Vice President Becky Pringle and Secretary Treasurer Princess Moss (African Americans)—give impassioned speeches about personal empowerment, standing up for our students and our profession, I wonder what the 2017 RA would look like should Christie be elected president. And I shudder.

Elections have consequences. Women should never have to suffer the consequences of Gov. Christie's policies again. 

Register to vote and do it!

NJ FY16 budget: education death by a thousand cuts

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

On June 30th, Gov. Christie will no doubt sign the FY16 budget which includes this: 

Having already violated the state's School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) by underfunding NJ schools to the tune of $6 billion over the past 5 years, the governor, with the approval of the Democratic-majority state legislature, will once again pull precious resources from public schools to give to charters. 

The Education Law Center reports:

This budget leaves districts without any of the $1 billion increase they should have received had the SFRA been properly funded in 2015-16. 

The bottom line from this budget is another round of painful cuts to essential programs, staff and services for many underfunded districts across the state.
... 

[T]he legislators also adopted Governor Christie's proposal to strip $37.5 million from district budgets and give extra funding to NJ charter schools. According to an analysis by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, eight districts, including Paterson, Irvington, Trenton, Jersey City and Plainfield, must transfer from $500,000 to $2.3 million in extra funds to charter schools. Newark stands out as charters in the city will reap a $24.5 million windfall, a major reason why the district is facing a massive $50 million budget deficit. By giving Newark charters extra funding, the State-operated district must make even deeper cuts to teachers, courses, support staff and remedial programs for students in the district's public schools. (emphasis mine)

As a result, the district is looking to cut $20 million from the central office budget (not a bad thing), and $10 million from the teacher salary line item (not a good thing).

I don't need to spell this out. This is what Gov. Christie wants: death by a thousand cuts. If a district is this much in the hole, many parents are going to look at charters as a viable alternative. With their low class sizes and (arguable) success rates, many parents simply won't take the chance. So, where does that leave the public schools? As Julia Sass-Rubin of Save Our Schools reports:

This dramatic growth in the number of charter schools seats is coming at a significant price to local school districts, particularly as the charter schools are educating a much less challenging population of students, leaving the local public schools with a concentration of high-poverty, non-English speaking, and special needs students but without the resources they need to provide those students with a high-quality education. 

Local public schools are being gutted of resources and forcibly closed because of inadequate funding, yet the Christie Administration diverted $100 million more to charter schools this year and next year, than what is called for under the charter law. 

This truly is a social justice issue, as a small group of edupreneurs work with the Christie Administration to grow their revenue stream at the expense of local public schools. (emphasis mine)

While I've come to expect this from Christie, Cami, Cerf, Hespe and all the rest, I find it reprehensible that some of our Democratic leaders in Trenton have abandoned the party's core values by turning their backs on their constituents. Unfortunately, many are simply following marching orders from the party bosses who are close allies of the governor. But I wonder how they sleep at night knowing how much they've sold out the very people who voted them in to office. The public trust is broken. The number of Trenton legislators who can truly be counted on to look out for the welfare of the majority of our state's citizens is dwindling.

So, suburban taxpayers, why should you care? Let me put it to you this way: How would any of you feel if our taxpayer-funded public libraries, or any other publicly-funded agencies, suddenly started denying access to people based on their disabilities, socioeconomic status or the language they speak? How would you feel if a wealthy billionaire donated money to open a shiny, new library with all the latest bells and whistles, but you have to win a lottery to step inside? And your taxpayer dollars were diverted to that shiny, new library thus reducing the quality of services provided by your local library? And how would you feel if you managed to win one of those golden tickets only to be eventually told that you aren't the 'right fit' so you can't go there anymore?

This is what's happening in urban districts all across this state. Your tax dollars are being used to aid and abet the segregation of our state's highest-need school districts. And the FY2016 budget is only making things worse.

We cannot stay silent.

At a time when the Newark school district is bleeding money and students to support the rise of segregationist charter schools, this is not how I want my tax dollars spent. Taxpayers in the suburbs need to care because public education is about educating all students; not just yours, not just mine—all of them. As a society, as a nation, we are ultimately judged on how we treat the least of our brothers and sisters. In this budget, the state is turning its back on the least. 

If you don't want your tax dollars spent like this, if you believe that all students deserve access to a thorough and efficient education, call Senate President Steve Sweeney at (856) 339-0808, then call your state representative. The link to contacts is on the right. The budget has to be signed, sealed and delivered by Tuesday, June 30th, so don't delay.

Adding: The longer this continues in our urban school districts, the more I'm reminded of this movie:

Fixing NJ's pension crisis: Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Last week dozens of NJEA members rallied outside the state house to protest the State Supreme Court's ruling and Gov. Christie's refusal to fully fund the pension system. The rally/lobby day (there are two more next week) was part of NJEA's efforts to push the legislature to do something—anything—to stave off impending disaster when the fund runs dry in 12 years.

When the NJEA members drowned out the voice of Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon, who was addressing a small group of Americans for Prosperity counter protesters, he responded with this:

"Do you want to yell at me or do you want to have a discussion? Because quite frankly, if we're just going to yell, we're not going to get anywhere."
...
“This is the type of ignorance and screaming that gets us nowhere. … You have to make a real plan that’s sustainable so, long term, we can take care of our dedicated workers, make sure that the pensions are there, make sure that in two or three or five years from now, it doesn’t fall apart. Screaming, ‘just make the payment,’ doesn’t get me $2 billion.” (emphasis mine)

Look, I get it, no one wants an angry mob screaming and yelling at them, and when people are pushed, they kinda tend to push back. I'm not attacking Asm. O'Scanlon. I have never met him, nor do I have extensive knowledge of his voting record and/or history with public employee unions. From his Twitter posts (more below), he seems like a reasonable guy who is willing to communicate with constituents in an open forum. His altercation with NJEA members is but a snapshot in the larger pension crisis picture. 

That said, we are not ignorant. Frustrated? Yes. Angry? You betcha! But we are not ignorant. We know full well what's going on right now and we're not taking it sitting down. There was a "real", "sustainable", "long-term plan" signed into law with bipartisan support that was supposed to fix all this. As the Star Ledger reported last week,

Christie called [it] 'a model for America' that would save taxpayers $120 billion over 30 years. 

Except when it didn't. Ooops. One minor detail was overlooked: where was that money going to come from? Not from corporations. They've gotten huge tax breaks. Not from the super wealthy. Ditto on those breaks. Not from investments in infrastructure and job creation. Christie put the kibosh on those post haste. Did anybody in Gov. Christie's world ever have a real, legitimate plan to generate that kind of additional revenue? Me thinks not.

It's really hard for the 800,000 people in the pension system to stay calm right now when, for the past 20 years the legislature did nothing as one governor after another raided the fund. Then Candidate Christie came along and said this:

... then, Gov. Christie did this:

The symbolic 'f-you' is to all state workers, but NJEA members occupy a special place in his heart

Then, he did this (you can jump to the numbers below the video):

• $5.4 billion in corporate subsidies 
• $24 million wasted on Sen. Cory Booker's special election
• $6.5 million for Gov. Christie's legal fees for Bridgegate
• $279 million wasted on the cancellation of the Arc Tunnel project
• $150 million in no-bid, over-priced contracts for Ash Britt Sandy cleanup
• $25 million wasted on post-Sandy Jersey Shore tourism ads featuring Gov. Christie and his family during his re-election year
• $8.9 billion settlement with Exxon thrown away in favor of a more corporate-friendly settlement of $225 million
• $1 million for Gov. Christie's security as he travels the country testing the presidential waters
• $2.6 billion wasted in state lottery privatization
• $18 million tab the state had to pick up after the Super Bowl left town
• $441K wasted fighting OPRA requests that Christie eventually lost
• $82 million subsidy for Philadelphia 76ers practice facility in Camden that yielded virtually no new jobs
• $1.5 billion in pension management fees paid since 2010; $600 million in 2014 alone
• $3.8 billion loss in pension gains due to the transfer of funds to 'alternative funds' run by politically connected Wall St. companies

That adds up to almost $21 billion wasted by one governor. 

Legislators love to say there's no money. Well, of course there's no money when your governor squanders it like this! Throw in 9 credit downgrades, 49th in job growth, and first in forclosures—all since Christie took office—and this state is a hot mess. But who cares about those details when you're up in New Hampshire touting your signature, bipartisan legislation?

With an unfunded liability of $40 billion, that $21 billion would have gone a long way toward getting the fund off life support. Combine Christie's complete lack of concern for almost 10% of the state's population with the fact that—a) too many Democratic legislators sold out public employees by cutting the pension deal, and b) GOP electeds don't have the guts to vote for veto overrides, even when a bill passes unanimously—and public employees have every right to be angry.

So, when Asm. O'Scanlon asks:

"Do you want to yell at me or do you want to have a discussion?"

I say, where were all the "discussions" about reviving this state's economy to generate the revenue to fund the pension? At this point, "discussion" sounds like another word for kicking the can down the road. We can discuss til the cows come home, but sooner or later action must be taken because hundreds of thousands of NJ citizens, many of whom have dedicated 25, 30, 40 years or more to the people of this state are staring down the business end of a rifle that's set to fire in 12 years and is aimed right at their survival. As for the rest of us who haven't retired yet, we don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of having any kind of meaningful retirement. Talk about a liability. What will the state do with hundreds of thousands of new people filing for public assistance?

So, what happens when, during discussion, someone isn't heard? They tend to get louder. And often times they keep getting louder...
until someone... 
finally...
HEARS THEM!

That's where we are right now. The rank and file public employees who've dutifully followed the law and put over $10 billion into the pension fund over the past 20 years, and who just got screwed by the State Supreme Court are really, really mad. And when a bunch of them get together in one place and they're carrying signs and a bull horn, they are going to get very, very loud.

As I said earlier, to Asm. O'Scanlon's credit, he's not afraid to discuss the issue out in the open:

But, 'trying' will not fix this mess. Action and tough choices will. And by 'tough choices', I don't mean any more sacrifices by public employees. We've done more than our fair share, thank you very much. No, part of that action must come from ensuring that everyone in NJ pays their fair share. And that means corporations because, after all, they're people, too. 

As I always say to my students when they tell me they 'tried' to do something and couldn't:

Every Assembly seat is up for re-election this year. Every member of the Assembly says they want to fix the pension. The budget has to be passed by June 30th. Let's see which members of the State Legislature will walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. 

This Week in Weird (Ed Reform) NJ—Part 2

This is a real publication

Holy moly! Just when I thought ed 'reform' in the Garden State couldn't get any weirder, all this happened in the past seven days. So, here's your one-stop shop for all the ed 'reform' news that's fit to print, whether it makes sense or not: 

• *5/23 Thousands of Newark students defied Superintendent Cami Anderson's threats of consequences and walk out of classes to protest her regime and demand return of local control and fair funding of their public schools. Sounds like that 'reform' plan of hers is going swimmingly well!
• 5/24 The Star Ledger posts yet another pro-PARCC shill piece (more on this below).
• *5/25 Newark's Central High School Principal, Sharnee Brown, risks her job by starting a petition on MoveOn.org calling for an end to the practices of Anderson's signature 'One Newark' plan that discriminate against the district's special education students.
• *5/28 Newark Mayor, and former Central High School principal, Ras Baraka calls on the citizens of his city to take back the school district from Cami, Christie and Co.
• 5/28 Gov. Christie says the Common Core State Standards aren't working, and vows to have parents and teachers involved in writing new ones. Wait, what? 
• 5/29 Before the ink is dry on Christie's CCSS speech, the Star Ledger posts a pro Common Core piece by the Center for American Progress's Daniella Gibbs Leger that, once again, touts the magical ability of education 'reform' to fix the devastating effects of income inequality, unemployment, underemployment, generational poverty and racial segregation.

* Special thanks to Bob Braun, whose superior coverage of all the 'reformy' goings-on in Newark is a must-read.

Whew! That's a whole lotta crazy packed into six days! And the education community wasted no time in responding:

• 5/28 Jersey Jazzman eviscerates Christie for his "screaming hypocrisy"
• 5/28 Peter Greene's response to Christie: "Big frickin' deal"
• 5/28 NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer: “If the governor is genuinely interested in new standards, the state must abandon the PARCC fiasco, which is taking a terrible toll on the quality of instruction and student learning in New Jersey,”
• 5/29 Peter Greene's response to Daniella Gibbs Leger: "I think cigarette companies do a better job of making a case for their [product]"
• 5/29 Sarah Blaine Tepper: "Chris Christie has a bridge to sell us"
• 5/29 Julie Borst: "We all deserve to understand, in the most transparent way, what [the CCSS] has cost us."

As for me? Well, there's not much more I can say about Christie and the Common Core that hasn't already been said. But, I take great umbrage with the propaganda the Star Ledger continually passes off as professional journalism. 

"But Marie", you say, "why bother? They aren't going to change their tune. Don't waste your time." But when the state's largest newspaper continues to spew illogical garbage like this...

But here's what this issue boils down to. If you're interested in racial equality, you have to go for the PARCC, imperfect as it may be. Why? Because it's the only game in town — and if we're going to have any hope of closing the achievement gap between poor, minority kids and their wealthier peers, we need this data to do it. (emphasis mine)

("The only game in town", oh right, because adequate school funding, housing, food, medical care, personal financial stability, job opportunities and safe neighborhoods would never, ever solve that problem. Only the bogus data from a deeply flawed test will.)

... When they insult the general public with ignorant statements like this...

The opt-out movement is sabotaging the data. Liberal-minded people who would normally be very concerned with helping underachieving kids are taking an anti-testing position that actually hurts those kids. In that respect — and in the degree of paranoia involved — it's similar to the anti-vaccination movement. And it may be just as damaging.

(Hmmm... "anti-vaccination movement"... where have I read that before? Oh yes, here. But at least they admit, albeit in a backhanded way, that Conservative-minded people really have no concern with helping underachieving kids.)

... I fall back on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who must be rolling in his grave over what is happening to public education in Newark and other mostly minority cities around the country:

"In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

Now, I don't consider anyone an enemy, but I will not sit back quietly when people and institutions that hold great sway and influence over large swaths of the general populace refuse to do their homework and, for whatever reason, disseminate information that is factually incorrect. I've taken a lot of shots at the Star Ledger and Tom Moran, and some may have been too snarky, but sometimes I feel like I'm living in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I can't imagine how the people of Newark feel.

When parents and students who want an excellent education resoundingly reject the carpetbaggers who swoop in to 'save' them in part by silencing their voices and excluding them from the process, I can't sit idly by. None of us should. When the state's largest newspaper refuses to listen to the citizens of the state's largest city, others have an obligation to do so. We all must continue to call out those who, for whatever reason, simply will not see what's happening before their very eyes. If not, we are part of the problem.

As for the rest of this week's events, time will tell how much—if any—of a seismic shift this all will bring. Mountains aren't moved in a day, but sometimes, when too much pressure builds up, this happens:

Mt. St. Helens, 35 years ago this month

Dear President Obama

Welcome to the Garden State. I hope your visit to Camden is successful. 

This letter is a long time coming. I have drafted it in my head many times as I lie awake at night wondering how much longer I can afford to remain in my profession and still keep my integrity, passion, drive, and yes, my home. And now you're here, so here goes:

I openly wept on election night 2008 as you gave your historic victory speech to a nation of adoring supporters of all races who waited generations for that moment. I have been awed by your unyielding composure over the past seven years as Congress has behaved like—well—spoiled, rich, white men who couldn't handle the fact that someone not like them was now Commander in Chief. I have willed you on to make the right decisions, to move this country forward in the face of tremendous odds, and dig us up out of the Great Recession because I knew that you knew in every fiber of your being, because of your history, because of your place in history, that if the poor and the middle class couldn't make it in America, no one could.

Your presidency has epitomized the promise of Emma Lazarus' words:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But it pains me greatly to say that these huddled masses who look to you because you are just like them, have, in one significant way, no more relief than if Mitt Romney had won in 2012.   

Again, these words do not roll off my tongue easily, Mr. President, but you have failed our future—our children. Failed us in a way that is so profound, that it touches the very DNA of our nation. Your education policies are, in a word, disastrous. They are moving this country back to the pre-civil rights era. They are undoing all the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the brave men and women who gave their blood, sweat, tears, and yes, their lives, to ensure that every child had a thorough and efficient education, and who made it possible for you to be where you are right now. Your education policies are destroying one of the bedrocks of a democracy. They are further segregating our highly segregated inner cities like Camden. They are silencing the voices of millions of people who looked to you to be their "lamp beside the golden door". They are further marginalizing those already living in the margins, the "huddled masses", "the wretched refuse".

These are not just my sentiments, Mr. President. Since Arne Duncan, who never taught a day in his life, first rolled out Race to the Top, another civil rights movement has sprung up all across this country pushing back against your devastating 'reforms' that have turned education into a sick competition with winners profiting handsomely, and losers—namely public schools, teachers and students (particularly those of color and low economic status)—being left in the deep end of the pool without a life preserver. Educators, parents, and concerned citizens from coast to coast are outraged that our public schools have become under-funded test factories, our teachers reduced to scripted robots, and our students to CPU's—data in; data out—while those who are pushing, financing and profiting from this wretched agenda can afford to send their children to elite, private schools that wouldn't stand for this child abuse for one second.

I enthusiastically voted for you once. I half-heartedly voted for you the second time because the alternative would have been exponentially worse. But Mr. President, I am not alone. I'm willing to bet there are tens of millions of Americans out there who agree with me. Under your watch, our public education system is being sold off piece meal to the highest bidder while child poverty rages seemingly unchecked and teachers are simultaneously blamed and praised in a national theatre of the absurd that would leave even Eugene Ionesco scratching his head.

Mr. President, the new norm in teaching is that every year decades of experience are being lost as more and more veteran teachers are retiring early or leaving the profession altogether because they cannot and will not subject their students to this abuse. This is having a devastating effect on the long-term health of public education and the teaching profession. What does it say about an education policy that is so heavily invested in 'reforming' public education while simultaneously driving out those with the most to offer young educators? In a nation whose students not living in poverty are competing with Finland and other top-performing nations on the PISA, this will be your legacy. Are you prepared to live with that?

I expect this from Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Mitt Romney and all the rest in that crowd who want nothing better than to see public education turned into a voucher/corporate system so they can pad their coffers and maybe build yet another garage with an elevator, but not you. Never you. 

While you are in Camden today, I hope you take the time to speak with people whose voices have been silenced, who are no longer allowed to be part of the democratic process that runs wealthier, suburban New Jersey school districts. I hope you make the time to speak to parents whose children have been denied 'choice' in their public education because their neighborhood school was closed and they had no say. I hope you listen to the educators who are being robbed of their souls, forced to teach in a way that is antithetical to all that they have been taught and all that they believe about excellent teaching. I hope the voices of the citizens in the poorest and most dangerous city in America echo in your mind along with the voices of all those brave men and women who fought so long and so hard and sacrificed so much all those years ago, but who never lived to see the ultimate fruit of their labor: you in the oval office.

There is still time. You can still change this, if you dare.

Is the NJ pension crisis Christie's Waterloo?

It's the 15th of the month, and once again, along with thousands of other public employees across the state, I made my legally-required pension payment. How about you, Gov. Christie? No? I didn't think so.

If you live in NJ, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know about the pension battle raging in Trenton. And if you're reading this, you also know that this debacle is decades old with Democratic and Republican governors being equal opportunity offenders as one after another raided the once-flush fund to plug budget holes and prop up their pet projects. (Bonus points for alliteration!)

So, what can public employees do to fix this mess? Nothing. We didn't cause it and we can't cure it. The only thing we can and should do is demand nothing less than full funding of the pension system as required by the law Gov. Christie touts as his signature, bipartisan 'reform'. Because while he was busy cutting deals with certain Democrats to 'fix' this fiasco (translation: public employees work more, pay more and get less in return while the super wealthy and corporations get tax breaks) he was also doing this—with the blessings of the NJ Democratic Party Machine and GOP legislators who have been too afraid to stand up to him: 



The state can afford to fix this crisis; it all comes down to priorities. If Christie can afford to give tax breaks to the super wealthy and corporations—which, by the way, has done little to spur the state's economy—he can afford to make his legally-obligated pension payments. If he doesn't, this will happen in 12 years:

It's really that simple, folks. 

But that would mean helping public employees, and if there's one thing Gov. Christie hates, it's public employees. So he keeps beating the same dead horse, continuing to excoriate us, oddly fighting his signature legislation in court, while his poll numbers point to a populace that has grown weary of the blustering, the bullying and the flat-out lies. He's acting less like a confident presidential candidate and more like one who has to play defense. And that is way outside Gov. Christie's comfort zone. At yesterday's town hall meeting taxpayer funded campaign stop there was this bit of irony:

“There is still the deadly sins of the past that we have to fix and they’re the things that we do, promises that politicians make to folks, have made to folks, with no understanding of how they’re going to be paid for and those big things right now are pensions and health care, health insurance for public workers.” (emphasis mine)

Gov. Christie 2009 campaign promise

And this response to a retired educator who asked for shared sacrifice from the state's wealthiest: 

“You want shared sacrifice, then have health benefits like everybody else has,” Christie replied to huge applause.

The problem is, gov, thanks to you, we do have health benefits like everybody else. Have you forgotten? As I wrote in a previous post, last year NJ Spotlight reported on how your signature legislation has affected our 'lavish perks':

"[T]he average New Jersey government employee is paying more for individual health insurance coverage than government workers in any other state and the 10th-highest average premium for family coverage in the country.

"Further, state and local government workers are paying a much higher percentage of the cost of their individual health insurance policies than private-sector employees in New Jersey have been paying, and not much less than the percentage paid by the state’s private-sector workers for family coverage." (emphasis mine)

This was your doing, part of your crowing legislative achievement that put us in this position. Don't you remember? What will happen to all of us if the pension system goes belly-up? Our retirement savings will be wiped out, our health insurance premiums will only continue to head in one direction (up), and we can't even move out of state because, thanks to another genius piece of legislation you signed into law, we're basically indentured servants. 

Perhaps you could use a few extra gardeners to care for your estate?

Gov. Christie made his tough guy reputation by trampling on the backs of the middle class and the working poor and the state has plenty to show for it. As he inches ever closer to announcing his presidential candidacy, our governor is looking more like this guy:  

Will Fox News be Christie's St. Helena?

Gov. Christie's pension battle: "Weird NJ"

Governor/Presidential Candidate Christie tours the country touting bipartisan pension and health benefits reform as the signature accomplishment of his administration. Part of that reform was his legal obligation to make regularly scheduled contributions in order to get the system off life support. (See here for cliff notes on the long history of the state's underfunding of the system.) 

Today, the Supreme Court of New Jersey will hear arguments in the ongoing pension battle between the state's public employee unions and the Christie administration because the governor has decided he can't come up with the full, legally obligated payments that he signed into law. 

Rather than raise taxes on the top 1% or invest in education, infrastructure and job training, he gave away hundreds of millions in corporate tax breaks that yielded few jobs, and slashed funding to programs and services (including almost $6 billion to education) that would have helped the majority of New Jerseyans increase their quality of life and support the economy—a scenario that's playing out in Republican run states all across the country. Democrats, who control the legislature, have never gotten enough votes to override his draconian cuts because GOP legislators have never gone against the will of the enforcer governor. Now, with several of those D leaders jockeying for their party's gubernatorial nomination, and Christie's poll numbers tanking, they are not so willing to play in the gov's sandbox anymore. 

Christie promised to reform the system, to save it from default—except when he couldn't do it by hurting the very people it belongs to: middle class workers. So, now he's in court presenting arguments that his signature law is illegal.

Only in New Jersey...