This is a must-see I found at Hot Air.
He’s not my favorite Republican, but that is pretty funny.
And he supports school choice
Although New Jersey is dominated by teacher unions, the Republicans passed a school choice bill.
Excerpt:
A Senate committee approved legislation today creating scholarships for students to attend private schools during a raucous hearing held in front of the Statehouse Annex building.
Hundreds of demonstrators, mostly students from private and charter schools, gathered to rally for the bill. Supporters said it provides students a chance to leave failing public schools, while opponents said it undermines the public school system.
The bill (S1872) could fund $24 million in scholarships for up to 4,000 children the first year. After five years, up to 20,000 children would receive $120 million in scholarships, they said. More money would be set aside for grants to public schools. The funding would come from donations by corporations who would receive tax credits equal to their contributions.
[…]A similar bill has previously failed to gain traction in recent years. Now it has bipartisan backing in the Senate — it’s spearheaded by Lesniak and Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) — and Gov. Chris Christie’s support.
[…]African-American churches, led by Black Ministers Council Executive Director Rev. Reginald Jackson, held a press conference earlier this morning to support the legislation. He said people need to decide whether to support school institutions or the children.
“Why do we insist on supporting a failing system?” he said. “When are we going to decide our children are more important.”
The only people who don’t like school choice are unionized teachers who don’t want their customers (parents and children) to have a choice to fire them if they don’t perform. Would you like it if you could only buy one kind of shoe? Or one kind of gaming console? Then why do you put up with government-run monopolies when it comes to your children’s education? Let teachers who are good be paid more, and let teachers who are bad be paid less. That’s just common sense.
Must-see videos on education policy
- MUST-SEE: John Stossel’s documentary about public schools and school choice
- MUST-SEE: Cato Institute lady explains why competition is better than monopoly
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WINTERY KNIGHT 
I would say “smacks down” rather than “mocks”. Smack-down good; mocking, bad. Or, “NJ Governor Demonstrates How to Swat a Fly”
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Wintery, I don’t have a problem with school choice, but I do have a problem with the mess my state (NJ) is in. Christie campaigned saying there would be property tax relief. Well guess what? Nope, didn’t happen, as my parents, home owners can attest to. Not only that, but their property taxes have gone up again! Despite the fact that there town is laying off 120 teachers to try to balance the budget.
Also, I pay EXTREMELY high income taxes. I’m not going to go into details, but let’s just put it this way. Over the past five years, I have been promoted a couple of times, and my income rose by $26,000 a year (to God be the glory!). However, after taxes, I only bring home a little over 300 dollars more a month! I am not complaining, because I feel extremely blessed. I’m just saying that as a life-long NJ resident, I feel cheated. Crime rates have gone up in many areas, and trying to buy a house in a decent neighborhood is ridiculous because of the cost of property taxes. In a working-class neighborhood in Northern NJ, you can expect to pay upwards of $9,000- $10,000 a year for an average 3 bedroom/2 bath house.
I have 6 friends, all educated, hard working people, who have moved south or west to escape this place. God willing, my husband and I will too, in a few years.
(Sorry for the rant.)
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I understand completely, and thank you for sharing. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the USA. Give Christie some time to work. I think he is the right man for the job. I don’t think he is to blame for this mess – he just got elected! So basically I agree with you completely… I just think that Christie will make things better with more time. Isn’t he doing some good things already?
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I love how those who are opposed to school choice always point out that it will undermine the public school system. That is the point. The public school system has been failing for years. School choice gives us the opportunity to bail out and let it truly fail the way it should.
Love the video clip. How honest and refreshing! :)
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I’m not sure yet, Wintery. He wants to cut waste. Great. Problem? My husband and I might lose our jobs while cutting the “waste”. We’re both state employees, the supposed dredge of the state. We work in higher education. What I fear is that we’ll both get pink slips while overpaid, double dipping bureaucrats keep their six figure jobs. If this happens, you can bet your bottom dollar, we will NOT remain here. Which means a further brain drain from this place.
Think about it. Private sector jobs are barely hiring (I know since my sister got laid off a year and a half ago and still has been unable to find steady employment, and her construction worker husband was one of the first to get laid off when businesses decided to not come to the state and new homes stopped being built). I actually like my job because I get to work with young college students, and I feel I make a difference. My husband loves his job because it involves computers and he gets to oversee and mentor young students. If we get axed, you just have more people on unemployment, which in NJ has already been depleted. How will that help? If things don’t change soon, there’ll be more and more young people and families leaving here which will hurt the state further.
I don’t make these statements lightly. I lived here my whole life. My husband hasn’t, and isn’t attached to this state like I am. My grandparents moved here from Brooklyn nearly fifty years ago. That is generations here. But one of my cousins (serving in the Navy but choosing to NOT be stationed anywhere near NJ) and my uncle and his family have already left. My uncle is a theologian and his wife is a pediatrician! It’ll be a brain drain, mark my word!
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I’m of mixed opinions on this, though admittedly I’m not as educated of the fine details as I should be to post, but…my worry is that parents will just try to push their unmotivated kids to private schools (were I plan on sending my daughter) and start to degrade the quality of those). I don’t disagree that many public schools have many short-comings and failings, but I think a lot of that starts at home – if parents don’t convey and reinforce the importance of education, it doesn’t matter how many choices they have, it won’t improve the situation.
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I agree with you. Parents matter most.
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