At the recent Washington, D.C., educational forum hosted by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie, gave the keynote address. Speaking about his state's teachers' unions, Christie said, ?It is an obscenity?an obscenity?that those who claim to be involved in public education for kids aren't just as offended and just as impatient as I am.? According to NorthJersey.com, Christie ?called LeRoy Seitz, the superintendent of the Parsippany-Troy Hills School District, ?the new poster boy of greed and arrogance in public education in New Jersey' because his school board is suing the state to protect his pay raise from a cap Christie wants to impose.? Christie also said that education is the ?seminal civil rights issue of our time,? and said of the current school structure, ?It is simply a system that is there to serve the adults, not to serve the children.? The governor also believes there is no time to lose: ?If there is ever a time when we can transform the system of public education in this country, the time is right now and we cannot wait,? he said. Welcome to Clich?fest 2010. Sure, the governor was preaching to the choir and no doubt trying to get his audience excited and fired up. But still.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow