Post by richardkelsey on Apr 30, 2010 12:34:47 GMT -5
Here's a special to the Freehold Voice.
Lot's of Hot Air on Freeze
Pay freezes are like across-the-board department cuts, both are politically expedient forms of lazy governance. I don't like them as a rule, and I have written about them, pounded the podium over them, and ridiculed them both over the years.
In tracking the Governor's public fight with the NJEA, I have seen and heard it all about this proposed pay freeze. Most recently, watching facebook groups pop up to protest firings of teachers, Christie's staffs' salaries, or to find common cause against the pay freeze. The overwhelming majority of these groups comprise fully invested, bias, teachers and their often gullible students. Reading the wall posts on such sites ought to give pause as to the quality of people recruited into the profession. Putting aside that dig, and recognizing that people get nutty over money and entitlements, I understand the passion, even if it often ridicules Christie first for his weight.
Over the past few days, I have seen a few people join these anti-freeze groups that have surprised me. Why am I surprised? I am surprised because it appears that these groups are now seeing cross pollination and common cause with people not necessarily aligned with the NJEA. This shouldn't surprise me, I guess, because if these people are not political allies of the NJEA, they must be making a principled stand on the issue of lazy governance and pay freezes. That's my thought, though I am sure some are taking these positions under political pressure or for personal reasons related to economic familial benefit.
This got me to thinking -- Rich -- shouldn't you be joining these groups too? Aren't you against blanket pay freezes as a rule?
Well -- every rule has an exception. That's what I think.
Trust me, pay freezes are still lazy governance. Pay freezes don't even scratch the surface of the structural educational disaster that is the State of New Jersey -- where, no teacher shall be left behind.
And, therein is the reason I cannot oppose the pay freeze initiative. New Jersey is an educational disaster. It is a state so honey-combed with political patronage, inefficient government, union corruption, and regulatory malfeasance, that to oppose any reform to the system, flawed as it may be, would be irresponsible. New Jersey is what it is because reform dies on the table of political patronage year after year. Rarely can the tax payers of NJ muster enough support and outrage to make any substantive change to the beast that controls their destiny.
New Jersey needs change. It needs reform. It needs to break the union. It needs to eliminate the department of education. It needs to consolidate local governments and school districts. It needs to de-couple property taxes from the funding of schools, and it needs to re-structure the delivery of and payment for educational services. It needs to start yesterday. It needs to start somewhere.
Would I like it better if Mr. Christie announced that he was going to shave budgets by paying good teachers more, firing lousy teachers, eliminating schools, consolidating districts, and firing administrators, and revamping the entire system. Yes, yes I would like that very much.
He can't do that.
So, he is stuck with asking teachers to do what virtually every New Jersey resident who hasn't been fired, downsized, or had his or her pay cut. He is asking them to stand pat and freeze their pay during an economic crisis that threatens to break the back of the state -- and the country.
In doing so, he is not in a position to choose which teachers should go, which should have salaries right-sized, and which, in an ideal world, should be paid more. Yes, I really believe good teachers are paid too little. But the teachers have union protection and labor law protections that simply don't allow a Governor to make those distinctions. All he or she can do is try to reduce overall educational outlay of cash. In doing so, the pay freeze becomes the best available tool in his tool-kit, given the rules by which he must play.
That is why, in this case, I have no problem supporting the pay freeze. Frankly, I don't think he has gone far enough. However, Mr. Christie is learning that when taking on the teachers' union, too far is anything that does not involve more. As Mr. Christie has rightly exposed, education in New Jersey is not "for the children." This is not a "for the children" issue. This is about the teachers. Christie won that argument out-right when he offered to give the difference between the freeze and the current wage back to each district that accepted the freeze for use in the district -- for the children. The union told him and the kids to shove it. So, to be clear, New Jersey is now the state where "no teacher is left behind."
As an educator, trusted to make allocations of resources for their best and highest use in a state institution, I have real sympathies with great teachers, great administrators, and great schools working hard to perform. I am obviously not anti-education. I am not anti-children, as I have and will be branded. I send my kids to public school, and I have a rich record of volunteering my time to at risk children for tutoring. In short, I am not the enemy of the teacher. Make no mistake, however, I am the mortal enemy of the teachers' union. Their role is not now, nor has it ever been "for the children." They lie when they say it is so.
The Union, like any organization that collects money and pays salaries to itself and staff, is for itself first. Secondly, it is for the teachers. Is it for all teachers? No, it is there to protect the highest paid teachers, and to obstruct accountability for the least performing teachers. It lives to grow, and through growth it gains power. It is for the illegal immigrant. It is for any new social program that will create more members to pay more dues and create more power. That its members teach in our schools does not make the union "for the children."
Now -- I don't have any fantasy that NJ will ever become a right to work state. I don't think the union can or ever will be broken, and many politicians feed out of the trough to make sure that doesn't happen. I also don't necessarily fault the union for being for the teachers -- that's its job, though its secondary focus. I fault it for the transparent and phony position that it is "for the children." I fault it for using kids as political pawns to grow its power, and I fault it for protecting teachers who should not be teaching.
Mr. Christie can't fix that either, not in a budget session. So, he must start somewhere. That somewhere is the freeze.
I support the freeze, and much much more.
When the Union or its members start acting for the children, and for their bosses, the taxpayer, I will be there to advocate for better pay for premium teachers.
However, NJ is fighting for its life. Chris Christie will retire a wealthy man even if he never gets re-elected. His political life is not really the issue here. The issue here is, can New Jersey, a state so fed up that it finally elected a reformer, actually swallow just a token reform? I doubt it. Right now, it looks like NJ likes the talk of reform more than the action needed for reform.
New Jerseyans are finding out that real reform in a state honey-combed with patronage and corruption requires everyone to take a hit. Popular reform is when someone else's programs get cut. Real reform is when your programs get cut.
The freeze is the first step to real reform. It's a baby step. But if reform must someday take off, it must first crawl.
As sure as most pay freezes represent political cowardice and lazy governance, so too does the NIMBY attitude of New Jerseyans unwilling to trust the man they elected. In this case, reform must start here or die. As between imperfect reform or the status quo in New Jersey, all those not eating from the trough must be for imperfect reform. Let's see if that is a majority.
Lot's of Hot Air on Freeze
Pay freezes are like across-the-board department cuts, both are politically expedient forms of lazy governance. I don't like them as a rule, and I have written about them, pounded the podium over them, and ridiculed them both over the years.
In tracking the Governor's public fight with the NJEA, I have seen and heard it all about this proposed pay freeze. Most recently, watching facebook groups pop up to protest firings of teachers, Christie's staffs' salaries, or to find common cause against the pay freeze. The overwhelming majority of these groups comprise fully invested, bias, teachers and their often gullible students. Reading the wall posts on such sites ought to give pause as to the quality of people recruited into the profession. Putting aside that dig, and recognizing that people get nutty over money and entitlements, I understand the passion, even if it often ridicules Christie first for his weight.
Over the past few days, I have seen a few people join these anti-freeze groups that have surprised me. Why am I surprised? I am surprised because it appears that these groups are now seeing cross pollination and common cause with people not necessarily aligned with the NJEA. This shouldn't surprise me, I guess, because if these people are not political allies of the NJEA, they must be making a principled stand on the issue of lazy governance and pay freezes. That's my thought, though I am sure some are taking these positions under political pressure or for personal reasons related to economic familial benefit.
This got me to thinking -- Rich -- shouldn't you be joining these groups too? Aren't you against blanket pay freezes as a rule?
Well -- every rule has an exception. That's what I think.
Trust me, pay freezes are still lazy governance. Pay freezes don't even scratch the surface of the structural educational disaster that is the State of New Jersey -- where, no teacher shall be left behind.
And, therein is the reason I cannot oppose the pay freeze initiative. New Jersey is an educational disaster. It is a state so honey-combed with political patronage, inefficient government, union corruption, and regulatory malfeasance, that to oppose any reform to the system, flawed as it may be, would be irresponsible. New Jersey is what it is because reform dies on the table of political patronage year after year. Rarely can the tax payers of NJ muster enough support and outrage to make any substantive change to the beast that controls their destiny.
New Jersey needs change. It needs reform. It needs to break the union. It needs to eliminate the department of education. It needs to consolidate local governments and school districts. It needs to de-couple property taxes from the funding of schools, and it needs to re-structure the delivery of and payment for educational services. It needs to start yesterday. It needs to start somewhere.
Would I like it better if Mr. Christie announced that he was going to shave budgets by paying good teachers more, firing lousy teachers, eliminating schools, consolidating districts, and firing administrators, and revamping the entire system. Yes, yes I would like that very much.
He can't do that.
So, he is stuck with asking teachers to do what virtually every New Jersey resident who hasn't been fired, downsized, or had his or her pay cut. He is asking them to stand pat and freeze their pay during an economic crisis that threatens to break the back of the state -- and the country.
In doing so, he is not in a position to choose which teachers should go, which should have salaries right-sized, and which, in an ideal world, should be paid more. Yes, I really believe good teachers are paid too little. But the teachers have union protection and labor law protections that simply don't allow a Governor to make those distinctions. All he or she can do is try to reduce overall educational outlay of cash. In doing so, the pay freeze becomes the best available tool in his tool-kit, given the rules by which he must play.
That is why, in this case, I have no problem supporting the pay freeze. Frankly, I don't think he has gone far enough. However, Mr. Christie is learning that when taking on the teachers' union, too far is anything that does not involve more. As Mr. Christie has rightly exposed, education in New Jersey is not "for the children." This is not a "for the children" issue. This is about the teachers. Christie won that argument out-right when he offered to give the difference between the freeze and the current wage back to each district that accepted the freeze for use in the district -- for the children. The union told him and the kids to shove it. So, to be clear, New Jersey is now the state where "no teacher is left behind."
As an educator, trusted to make allocations of resources for their best and highest use in a state institution, I have real sympathies with great teachers, great administrators, and great schools working hard to perform. I am obviously not anti-education. I am not anti-children, as I have and will be branded. I send my kids to public school, and I have a rich record of volunteering my time to at risk children for tutoring. In short, I am not the enemy of the teacher. Make no mistake, however, I am the mortal enemy of the teachers' union. Their role is not now, nor has it ever been "for the children." They lie when they say it is so.
The Union, like any organization that collects money and pays salaries to itself and staff, is for itself first. Secondly, it is for the teachers. Is it for all teachers? No, it is there to protect the highest paid teachers, and to obstruct accountability for the least performing teachers. It lives to grow, and through growth it gains power. It is for the illegal immigrant. It is for any new social program that will create more members to pay more dues and create more power. That its members teach in our schools does not make the union "for the children."
Now -- I don't have any fantasy that NJ will ever become a right to work state. I don't think the union can or ever will be broken, and many politicians feed out of the trough to make sure that doesn't happen. I also don't necessarily fault the union for being for the teachers -- that's its job, though its secondary focus. I fault it for the transparent and phony position that it is "for the children." I fault it for using kids as political pawns to grow its power, and I fault it for protecting teachers who should not be teaching.
Mr. Christie can't fix that either, not in a budget session. So, he must start somewhere. That somewhere is the freeze.
I support the freeze, and much much more.
When the Union or its members start acting for the children, and for their bosses, the taxpayer, I will be there to advocate for better pay for premium teachers.
However, NJ is fighting for its life. Chris Christie will retire a wealthy man even if he never gets re-elected. His political life is not really the issue here. The issue here is, can New Jersey, a state so fed up that it finally elected a reformer, actually swallow just a token reform? I doubt it. Right now, it looks like NJ likes the talk of reform more than the action needed for reform.
New Jerseyans are finding out that real reform in a state honey-combed with patronage and corruption requires everyone to take a hit. Popular reform is when someone else's programs get cut. Real reform is when your programs get cut.
The freeze is the first step to real reform. It's a baby step. But if reform must someday take off, it must first crawl.
As sure as most pay freezes represent political cowardice and lazy governance, so too does the NIMBY attitude of New Jerseyans unwilling to trust the man they elected. In this case, reform must start here or die. As between imperfect reform or the status quo in New Jersey, all those not eating from the trough must be for imperfect reform. Let's see if that is a majority.
