TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey governor and 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie isn’t known for pulling any punches, especially not when it comes to teachers unions.
That’s why his comments to CNN during an interview over the weekend weren’t too surprising.
If anyone on the national level deserves a punch in the face, it’s the teachers union, Christie said.
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According to Raw Story:
In an interview that aired on Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper reminded the New Jersey governor that he had advised people to punch bullies “in the face” during his first term as governor.
“At the national level, who deserves a punch in the face?” Tapper wondered.
“Oh, the national teachers union, who’ve already endorsed Hillary Clinton 16 or 17 months before the election,” he told Tapper. “They’re not for education for our children. They’re for greater membership, greater benefits, greater pay for their members.
“They are the single most destructive force in American education. I’ve been saying that since 2009 and I have the scars to show it, but I’m never going to stop saying it because they never change their stripes.”
The New Jersey governor’s criticism of teachers unions dates back to his early days in office, when he held a series of town hall meetings to discuss his management strategy for the state. Christie was working to pull New Jersey from a budgetary death spiral at the time and requested concessions from the state’s teachers union – a pay freeze and 1.5 percent health insurance contribution – which promptly told him to take a hike.
During one of the town hall stops in May 2010, Rutherford teacher Rita Wilson attempted to challenge Christie on teacher pay, and proposed to be paid $3 per pupil for an annual teacher’s salary of around $83,000, according to media reports.
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“You are not compensating me for my education, and you’re not compensating me for my experience,” Wilson said in an antagonistic tone.
Christie’s response was classic.
“Well, you know what then, you don’t have to do it,” he said to a roaring applause.
“I mean, the simple fact of the matter is this,” he continued as Wilson talked over him with “teachers do it because they love it.”
“Teachers go into it knowing what the pay scale is, teachers go into it knowing all that,” Christie said.
In an exchange later that year, teacher Marie Corfield took to the microphone to deride Christie’s education budget, and rattled off common union complaints about budget “cuts,” and the governor’s supposed plot to destroy public education.
Christie listened politely, then calmly explained why the state was in a budget crisis, pointed out that the state’s teachers union refused to consider a pay freeze to prevent teacher layoffs, and dispelled the notion that responsible budget decisions constitute an attack on educators, according to YouTube video.
“I’m very direct. I’m going to say exactly what I think. And sometimes you’ll agree with it and sometimes you’ll disagree with it. That’s who I am,” he told the teacher.
Apparently, that hasn’t changed.
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