Gov. Christie gets warm welcome at Harvard. Will go after elected school boards next.

[madfloridian]

But not until he is done with the teachers and their unions..at least it sounds that way. I was surprised that educators at Harvard welcomed him so warmly.

Sounds like they heartily approve of what he is doing.

Harvard Gives Christie’s Education Plans a Warm Welcome


Erik Jacobs for The New York Times
Gov. Chris Christie speaking at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Conservatives may see Harvard as the heart of liberal darkness, but on Friday it gave a warm, even enthusiastic reception to Gov. Chris Christie and his ideas on education overhaul.

Speaking to almost 200 students and staff members at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the New Jersey governor drew rounds of applause with his talk of sharply limiting teacher tenure, rigorously evaluating teachers and administrators, curbing the power of teachers’ unions and pledging to appoint more-conservative justices to the State Supreme Court.

If they were graduate education students and staff, and they applauded all that..then it is pretty clear where they stand. So now appointing more conservative judges is ranked with bringing down teachers and their unions' power and limiting tenure.

Sounds like it all goes together somehow.

He spoke as though he is very proud of his bully tactics.

The tone of the session was polite and subdued, and the questions alternately supportive and wonkish. More than usual, Mr. Christie stayed away from incendiary language, though toward the end he loosened up and opened fire on the teachers’ union (“a political thuggery operation”).

He broke some new ground in saying that he planned to change New Jersey’s system of elected local school boards, though he did not say how. The teachers’ union is a powerful force in electing board members, and it is those boards that have approved contracts with the benefits and job protections the governor reviles.

He IS proud of himself, isn't he?

“They’ll be the next step,” he said. “Even for me there’s just so much you can swallow at one time.”

Here is more about the Christie-friendly Harvard education students. He got a standing ovation. That worries me. Education's future leaders cheering a governor who has no respect for teachers or unions or school boards??

From Huffington Post:

Chris Christie Addresses Future Teachers At Harvard


AP photo of Chris Christie at Harvard, via Huffington Post

According to Bloomberg, Christie was met with a standing ovation when he entered the auditorium.

He delivered a speech about the need for a "revolution" in American education, making his case for reforms that tie teacher evaluations to students' test scores, make it easier to fire ineffective teachers and end tenure. In a thinly veiled criticism of teachers unions, Christie said,

"We have an education system that is set up for the ease, comfort and security of those who operate it."

There he is with the new education reformer talking points....that teachers and unions only care about themselves. The goal is to make it sound as though only reformers care about students. Which is so not true...because reformers are after power and profit.

There is a statement there at Huff Post from NJ.com which supposedly tells about the wave of the future at Harvard.

(New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve) Wollmer called the Harvard audience "sympathetic," pointing to an article in The Boston Globe today that said the Graduate School of Education was moving toward results-based approach to schools.

What does that mean? Moving toward a "results-based" approach to schools? I do believe that means testing and more testing.

Apparently Harvard responded that there is no bias.

Chris Christie, the governor who once said teachers were using students as "drug mules" because they discussed issues of losing money and resources.

Chris Christie, the governor who stood in front of a group of students and blamed the teachers for a shortage of supplies


Martin Griff/The Times of TrentonGov. Chris Christie answers a question during a question and answer session with the Governor at the Boys & Girls Club of Trenton & Mercer County in Trenton.

I wonder now how many schools of education are teaching in terms of what the education reformers believe.

Hard to believe that students of education would warmly applaud attacks and vitriol toward teachers and unions.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Harvard's school of ed has nothing to do with actual school teaching...

..it's administrators, theoreticians, curriculum coordinators, and other REMF's teaching adminstrators, theoreticians, curriculum coordinators, and other REMF's of the future.

Been that way for 40 years, too.

I'm not even a little bit surprised Christie went over well there.

[madfloridian]

3. That's just as scary, or more so.

But then we already know the wave of the future because Obama and Arne took us there quickly.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. +1. Kinda like Teachers' College. It mass produces....

.... administrative drones.

Education bureaucracy loves faux "reform." Among other reasons, "reform" confers upon bureaucracy a raison d'etre.

Cover.


Something or someone has to.... errr.... *implement* the "reform" , after all.

[CTyankee]

2. Another black eye for Harvard, IMO.

This adulation of Gov. Tub O'Shit is just too much...:puke:

[leveymg]

4. Is Arne Duncan really any different on the issues from Christie? They all seem off the same rack ,

Obama included. Why should the upper establishment types at Harvard not give him a warm welcome - they're all "Chicago School" neoliberals who want to cut the public sector and hand it over to multinational corporations.

[xchrom]

6. +1

[madfloridian]

11. Hard to believe they are now calling teachers "political thugs."

Never thought I would see anything like that happen.

[chervilant]

18. Primarily

because they fully anticipate reaping the benefits in their personal coffers.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Sounds like Christie wants to abolish locally elected school boards and

let Trenton call all the shots for all the municipalities with regard to education.

[madfloridian]

8. Yes, that is one of the goals of the reformers.

They want mayoral control, like Rahm and Bloomberg have...and they want the power to control school boards. It's scary stuff.

[madfloridian]

9. From NJ.com...more on the union's "political thuggery"

He is just plain hateful and spiteful in his Harvard talk.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/gov_christie_calls_njea_a_poli.html

"The antiunion message was well received by the crowd, which applauded when the governor delivered his harshest criticisms of the NJEA."

"Graduate student Jenny Hanson, 29, ended the 30-minute question and answer portion by asking Christie why he uses words like "thuggery," "fight" and "disrupter" in dealing with the union and if he has ever considered that his approach might not be working.

The governor paused for a moment, lowered the tone of his voice and told Hanson he often thinks about the approach he has taken with the union. He said he is willing to sit down and talk with the unions, but only once they demonstrate they’re willing to get on board.

"I am prepared to ratchet down the rhetoric if I could get any indication that there is any interest in changing the failed system," Christie said. "Until that time, ‘disrupted’ and ‘fighting’ and ‘thuggery’ are the words that I’m going to continue to use."

Arrogant sob.

[madfloridian]

10. Christie says NJ Education Asso. is "“fat, rich and entitled.”

He seems to enjoy the name calling.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/04/29/gov-chris-christie-calls-nj-teachers-union-fat-rich-and-entitled/

"Christie spoke about various obstacles to reform and cited the New Jersey Education Association, which he called a “political thuggery operation” and said was “fat, rich and entitled.”

Earlier this month, Christie referred to the leadership as “bullies and thugs” during a speech in New York.

Asked by a student Friday if he felt his combative tone was preventing progress on his reforms, Christie said he struggled with that question more than people realize, but it wasn’t time to change his approach."

[chervilant]

19. hmm...

He should be careful using 'fat' to denigrate others...

[madfloridian]

21. Heh heh, good point.

:hi:

[madfloridian]

12. "the only fight worth having"....Christie says that about teachers' unions

"Mr. Christie’s first ovation came when he said, “The reason I’m engaging in this battle with the teachers’ union is because it’s the only fight worth having.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/nyregion/harvard-gives-christies-education-plans-a-warm-welcome.html?_r=2&hpw

He has strange priorities.

[madfloridian]

13. A last kick.

Just because Christie appears to be wave of the future and because of the insults and intimidation of teachers.

[bbgrunt]

14. Mass is becoming an Alice in Wonderland through

the looking glass. What the hell compelled the dems there to pass a bill restricting collective bargaining? I think there is something in the water.

[perdita9]

15. Teachers think Ivory Tower Academics are Idiots

I have a graduate degree in Education. What goes on at the University level usually has no basis in the reality of an inner city classroom.

This reaction to Christie's speech doesn't surprise me but it does disappoint me.

[YOHABLO]

16. I Could Not Agree More perdita9

I too have an education degree. From my experience and observation of the faculty at my college of education at a major university here in Atlanta, the instructors (professors) are more concerned with their tenure and not ruffling any feathers. After all, that is why they are teaching at a the university level, that can't stand teaching in the public school systems. Mostly, because of the low wages and the never ending hassles from administrators. Personally, Harvard would not be my first choice for obtaining my masters degree. I wonder how Christie's little speech would have gone over at Columbia. I find anyone applauding this fat idiot abominable. These Harvard grad students seem to be goose stepping to the very ideas that will be their demise.

[madrchsod]

17. obama,duncan,and christie..what have they in common?

[brentspeak]

20. Harvard bourgeoisie sees $$$ for themselves in school privatization scams

[smoogatz]

22. Honestly, given the current climate

I don't know why anyone would want to become a teacher. Way to blame the troops for the incompetence of their generals.

[wilt the stilt]

23. This guy needs to go on the biggest loser

at this weight he will be dead by the time he is sixty.

[KamaAina]

24. Screw you, Harvard!

Signed,

KamaAina
Yale '85, cum laude :P

[Jefferson23]

25. Christie has no use for the law, I wonder if those at Harvard applauding him

are aware of that.


Chris Christie Lambasts the State’s Judiciary


Snip* Governor Christie announced on an April radio show that he would ignore future Supreme Court rulings in Abbott v. Burke, an education funding case, if they required that he committ more state money to education. Last year, Christie chose not to re-nominate Judge John Wallace for the New Jersey Supreme Court, citing Christie’s desire to “change the direction” in which the court was moving. Wallace’s seat has not yet been filled. Christie’s recent remarks, as well as his comments about Wallace, herald a development that the Philadelphia Inquirer cleverly titled “Christie v. Court,” and threaten, for some, an abuse of Gubernatorial power.

http://hlpronline.com/2011/04/chris-christie-lambasts-the-states-judiciary/