Governor Christie slams public teacher unions

By Greg Halvorson

He's done it again. Governor Christie of blue-turning-red-because-of-him New Jersey, made every American who loves leadership misty-eyed. Speaking to the Federation For Children in Washington D.C., the good governor tore into public teachers unions with customary resolve. For your pleasure:

"Parents and children who are being failed by a public schoolsystem whose costs are exorbitant and whose results are insulting deserve a choice. We don't have to look far around the country to know that vouchers and experiments in school choice are working, that they're producing results.

In D.C., those in that program are now reading 19 months ahead of their peers outside of the program. This isn't a coincidence, we know it's not a coincidence. We know that there's over five-million children trapped in over ten-thousand failing public schools around America.

And I use the word ‘trapped' and I use it directly. They are trapped by an educational bureaucracy, they are trapped by a selfish, self-interested, greedy school union that cares more about putting money in their own pocket, and the pockets of members, than they care about educating our most vulnerable and needy children."

He went on to say that in America's largest cities half of all students don't graduate high school. Citing an example, he pointed out that New Jersey tax-payers spend $24,000 per/student, per/year in Newark on what he said is an "absolutely disgraceful public education system."

"Our children deserve the best education they can get, no matter who is giving it to them," he said, "and it should not be restricted to public school teachers from a public school union that cares more about what they're paying for their health insurance than they care about whether the kids in our cities are graduating. That's disgraceful."

What isn't disgraceful is this marvelous leader. Governor Christie knows the way out.

Greg Halvorson is the founder of Soldiers Without Boots, and hosts Freedom Warrior Radio on Blog Talk Radio.