In regard to Paula Desch’s invitation to have Gov. Chris Christie visit her classroom (“Teacher Would Like Gov. to See What She Does,” Letters to the Editor, Tri-Town News, Nov. 25), one has to wonder why she didn’t make the same offer to the people who pay her salary, i.e., the citizens of Freehold Borough.
Could it be that she made an idle invitation with the knowledge that it was extremely unlikely that Gov. Christie would actually visit her?
Ms. Desch certainly paints a positive picture of her educational credentials. While commendable, this is what we expect of teachers and the reason we view them as professionals.
But the picture she paints of Gov. Christie as casting a negative light on teachers and pitting parents and children against their teachers is inconsistent with my perception of Gov. Christie.
Instead, it is the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) that has attempted to have us believe that Gov. Christie was against our children because he wouldn’t give in to unreasonable salary increase demands.
And this is precisely why he is so popular; because he has taken on the task of battling the NJEA for their arrogant insistence on teachers getting salary increases during a time when the economy is in trouble and many people have lost their jobs.
It may be worth repeating the tenet of Economics 101 to Ms. Desch: it is that in the private sector, when a company loses profitability, salaries are frozen or reduced, and at worst jobs are lost.
This rarely happens in the public sector since we need to educate our children and protect the public in good times as in bad times.
But once we are in a financial crisis, it is not unreasonable to ask public employees to make concessions. Just ask some of the people who have lost their jobs if they would have been willing to take a pay cut.
Bob Ahlers
Lakewood