I say this in the kindest way I know. If anyone at the New Jersey Education Association is reading this, will you please SHUT UP!
On Wednesday, Aug. 8, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration filed an application for $268 million in federal stimulus aid through the Education Jobs Fund. Granted, the administration waited until the very last minute and filed on the day of the federal deadline. The state could have applied on Aug. 13, as most states did, and gotten the money two weeks later.
But New Jersey was one of 12 states that waited until the deadline. Christie’s administration explained that it wanted to determine whether to roll back some of the $820 million in across-the-board cuts made this year.
Whatever.
The money should arrive this month, and the feds have encouraged districts to start hiring teachers in anticipation of the funds. But even if it’s a couple of weeks later than it might have been, $268 million and up to 3,900 teachers positions is a good thing. Right?
Not according to the NJEA, which sent out a press release on Thursday, Aug. 9, slamming Christie for waiting.
NJEA President Barbara Keshishian — who was apparently sucking on a lemon as she wrote — said, “We are pleased that the governor has finally applied for New Jersey’s share of this important federal funding. We continue to be dismayed, however, that he waited until almost the last possible moment to do so. If his objective was to keep 3,900 New Jersey educators unemployed for as long as possible and to create maximum chaos and confusion in our classrooms, he has certainly succeeded.
“While he dragged his feet, other states that applied as early as August 13 have already received their funds. By failing to act quickly and decisively to get this money to New Jersey, Gov. Christie ensured that our schools would open with fewer people working and larger class sizes. Nearly 4,000 people who could have gone to work this morning are unemployed today because of the governor’s irresponsible delay.
“I hope New Jersey residents will look at the application and decide for themselves whether there is any justification for taking nearly a month to decide which of two boxes to check, because that is all he’s had to do since August 13.”
Note that the NJEA said not a single word about the good it hoped would be done with the $268 million, not a single word about how happy it is that so many of its members will have jobs they didn’t have last week, not a single word about how much benefit that money will have for students (who never seem to be a priority to the NJEA anyway).
Instead, it spent its entire statement spewing political vitriol at the governor, and the “chaos and confusion” getting the money will create.
It almost sounds like they’d rather not have the money at all, since getting it in September will cause so many headaches. Maybe they’d like the feds to just give the money to some other state — one that will just shut up and say thanks instead of bellyaching.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the NJEA is still acting like a bunch of spoiled 5- year-olds who didn’t get the Barbie they wanted from Santa Claus. This is, after all, the same NJEA that sent out a “joke” group email earlier this year basically wishing Christie dead. This is the same NJEA that spent so much money trying to scare people with misleading television ads as Christie was preparing a budget aimed at pulling New Jersey back from the brink of insolvency. This is the same NJEA whose intransigence and refusal to get on board with our state’s application went a long way in costing us $400 million in federal Race to the Top money last month.
So this most recent diatribe shouldn’t shock us. The NJEA hates Gov. Chris Christie so much the folks in charge of the organization just can’t help themselves. But a lot of us out here in places that aren’t an office building in Trenton are getting pretty sick of it.
If your granny was anything like mine, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
The NJEA has shown us once again that they can’t say anything nice — even about $268 million in federal money that will pay the salaries of so many teachers and dues-paying NJEA members — so I say it’s time they stick a sock in it.
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In past columns, I’ve made fun of the practice of “vanity sizing” by the people who make women’s clothing. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it’s when companies slap a size 10 label on a dress when it’s really a size 16 so the prospective purchaser will feel better about herself.
But a recent investigation by Esquire magazine found the people who make women’s clothing aren’t the only culprits. Apparently, lots of people who make men’s clothing are doing the same thing.
For example, the magazine found out that Haggar and the Gap were both selling men’s pants labeled as having a 36-inch waist that were really 39 inches. But the worst offender was Old Navy, where the writer found men’s pants labeled as having a 36-inch waist were actually 41 inches.
Which would explain why all of the cargo shorts I bought at Old Navy at the start of the summer keep falling down around my ankles and exposing parts of me that seldom see daylight and are never seen in public.
If I get arrested because my shorts fall off in the produce aisle at the grocery store, do you think the cops will buy it if I try to explain the notion of “vanity sizing” as an alibi?
I doubt it. In fact, I think the cops would probably point out that they have a solution for perverted old geezers who show off their wares to ladies buying corn and tomatoes.
They call that solution handcuffs. One size fits all.
Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].