TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s recent comments on CNN that the national teachers union deserves a punch in the face has irked some educators, one of which offered his face up for the punching.

Last Sunday, the 2016 presidential candidate was put on the spot by CNN host Jake Tapper, and Christie responded in his classic, no-bull style.

“During your first term as governor you were fond of saying you can treat bullies in one of two ways: You can either saddle up to them, or you can punch them in the face. You said, ‘I like to punch them in the face,’” Tapper said. “On a national level, who deserves a punch in the face?”

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“Oh, the national teachers union, whose already endorsed Hillary Clinton 16 or 17 months before the election,” Christie said. “Because they are not for education for our children. They are for greater membership, greater benefits, greater pay for their members. And they are the single most destructive force in education in America.

“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,” he said.

Christie’s candid response didn’t sit well with Russ Walsh, a Pennsylvania teacher and administrator of 45 years. Walsh also apparently served as a teachers union negotiator at one point.

Christie, of course, has repeatedly stated he has great respect for the individual educators in New Jersey schools, but little respect for the union officials who steer the organization’s policy and negotiations.

Regardless, Walsh took Christie’s punch-in-the-face comment in the most literal sense, and offered his face up as the sacrificial punching bag.

“Of course the teachers union has no literal face and the leaders of both major teachers unions, (Rhonda) Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers and Lily Eskelson Garcia of the National Education Association are women. I don’t think even a Republican candidate for president could get away with punching a woman in the face,” Walsh wrote in his blog “Hey, Governor Christie, Punch My Face!”

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“Belittling them, yes. Berating them, yes. Taking away the choice of what they do with their bodies, yes. But not striking a woman, especially with a Hillary running on the Democratic side.

“So, taking all this into consideration, I would like to step up and offer Christie my face to punch,” he wrote.

Walsh went on to make it clear he loathes Republicans in general, and Christie in particular, for standing up to teachers unions that have largely controlled education in the United States for several decades. He repeated many of the union’s typical talking points, about how improved working conditions equal improved learning conditions, and about how unions are leading the way in “to ensure that children have access to the best knowledge and the best instructional strategies available unfettered by flavor-of-the-day ideology.

“When teacher unions fight for reasonable pay, they are fighting to attract high quality candidates to the profession,” Walsh alleges.

But the fact is, during Christie’s first term he repeatedly attempted to secure very minor concessions from the state’s teachers union – a one-year pay freeze and 1.5 percent contribution toward health insurance – to help plug a $1 billion budget gap left by the federal government. Union officials refused to discuss the matter.

New Jersey teachers union bosses attacked Christie, alleging he was destroying public education, because of his focus on creating a sustainable, affordable education budget. They alleged he cut public education funding, when he actually increased state contributions to schools.

One local union official even sent an email to his members asking them to pray for Christie’s death, and when Christie confronted state union officials about it, they simply shrugged their shoulders and went about their business.

The bottom line is, in virtually every state teachers unions constantly push for increased education funding for raises, incentives, and special perks, but union officials couldn’t care less about students or their members. In New Jersey, the union’s objections to a pay freeze resulted in massive teacher layoffs across the state – something that’s devastating to local school districts, students and the teachers themselves.

Christie has been careful to separate his feelings for top union officials – those setting the political policies and negotiation tactics for thousands of educators – from the actual educators doing excellent work in schools every day.

But people like Walsh continue to attempt to lump leaders in with rank-and-file educators, an all-for-one and one-for-all view that’s not shared by those at union headquarters.

“If Christie wants to punch the teachers union in the face, he needs to realize that he is punching every teacher in the face. He is punching each and every dedicated teacher who has been working to improve the lives of children for decades before Christie discovered that bashing teachers is a winning campaign strategy,” Walsh wrote.

“So, Governor Christie, here is my face. Take your best shot …”