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Saturday, April 24, 2010

NJEA chief's time is up; Gov. Chris Christie's attacks on education | NJ.com

NJEA chief's time is up; Gov. Chris Christie's attacks on education | NJ.com

JEA chief's time is up; Gov. Chris Christie's attacks on education

By Letters to the Editor/The Star-Ledger

April 24, 2010, 5:26AM
chris-christie.jpgGov. Chris Christie

An attack on education
Earlier this week, Gov. Chris Christie stooped to a new low by comparing teachers to drug dealers (“Christie fires final shot on eve of school vote,” April 20). Although it is hard to contain my outrage, I refuse to resort to Christie’s incendiary tactics designed to exploit hard-working people’s legitimate distress and fear in this time of economic trouble.
As a hard-working, dedicated teacher motivated to educate as many children as possible, I appeal to people of decency and integrity to question Christie’s charges that teachers are out to “take money out of children’s pockets and put it in their own.” Do people really think we enter the profession to get rich? Shouldn’t educators make enough to support a family and own a home? Shouldn’t we be able to achieve the dreams we try to inspire in our students?
Or should we, as Christie demands, be forced to take an oath of poverty?