Today’s moment of conservative zen comes from New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie is taking on the greedy public sector fat cats head on.Posted on 11/13/2010 9:19:12 AM PST by Kaslin
Gov. Christie zeroes in on all the zeroes in educational executive salaries. It's a target-rich environment.
Today’s moment of conservative zen comes from New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie is taking on the greedy public sector fat cats head on.
About the only thing that could make that clip any better would be a few uses of the word “jackwagon.” But we’ll let that slide.
For a little background, go here:
The day before the meeting Seitz is quoted in the Daily Record as saying, “Because of the proposed salary caps, I have to look at my future and the financial welfare of my family. I certainly would have options if I didn’t feel the compensation in this district, or New Jersey, is appropriate.”
The governor reacted to Seitz’s veiled threats to leave New Jersey and go to a nearby state where there is no state salary. “I will say in response to Mr. Seitz, ‘Let me help you pack.’ We have real problems in our state that we have to fix and we don’t have the time, nor the money, nor the patience any longer for people who put themselves before our citizens,” Christie railed.
Christie is brilliant to individualize the issue by making an example of Seitz. The fact is, public sector salaries have gotten out of control and the educational system is a prime example. And the problem isn’t unique to New Jersey by any means. For starters, 7 of the top 10 richest counties in the United States surround — literally — Washington, D.C. That’s no coincidence. And taxpayer money is increasingly being used for lobbying — to spend more taxpayer money. Is it any wonder that our country is in the mess it’s in?
As for educational salaries, I’ll see Christie’s Lee Seitz, and raise him a Jesus Chavez.
Who’s Jesus Chavez? He’s the superintendent of the Round Rock Independent School District in central Texas, with about 42,000 students. And he makes a lotta money.
Round Rock Superintendent Dr. Jesus Chavez has 14 years experience and is the only superintendent who agreed to talk to KVUE about superintendent salaries. His base salary is $250,000 a year.
That works out to just shy of six bucks per student. Don’t worry, though. He doesn’t think superintendents make too much.
“I don’t think superintendents get paid too much,” he said. “There is a shortage of superintendents, principals and other top level administrators. So the market and the qualifications that one brings makes it competitive.”
Shortage or not, this is ridiculous and arrogant. Parents, the vast majority of whom earn far less than Dr. Chavez, are routinely asked to kick in school supplies paid for with their own money. Schools hold fundraisers to pay for even basic classroom supplies. Yet atop the educational pyramid sit folks like Chavez, among the wealthiest in their regions. The superintendent of the Austin ISD makes a whopping $276,000 in base salary. In the case of educational executives, the rich seem to get richer while teachers and classrooms get shortchanged. Parents get hit on both ends, through rising property taxes to pay these salaries and through being hit up to pay for supplies directly.
If you cut Dr. Chavez’s salary in half, he would still be far ahead of the local median salary (which is itself probably inflated a bit by the presence of Dell’s and other high tech headquarters), and that money could pay for two or three additional teachers. Multiply that by all the other fat cats at the top of the educational food chain and pretty soon you’ve made a real difference in class sizes.
Or, you know, you could just turn those savings back over to the taxpayers who are paying these exorbitant salaries in the first place. Doing so might even be economically stimulative.
Love this guy. Don’t agree with him on everything, but love him anyway. He just SAYS IT TO THEIR FACES.
It's going to take him and a good number of conservatives to get America back on track.
Interesting. My company is at the height of being politically correct. One must give positive reinforcement and cajole slackers to work or risk being disciplined by the idiots that are being paid to think this crap up. God forbid if I told anyone to shape up or ship out.
He is no different than Rudy...Rudy did the same thing...Christie is closer to a Rino...he is definitely not a conservative....and anyone who believes he is needs to do their home work on the man.
I would pay money to hear him call that educrat a jackwagon!
If you want to know more, email me...
I once worked for a queen of political correctness. Never again.
President Kennedy’s Executive Order 10998, allowing Federal unions, is what opened the door for public sector unions at the state and local level, which is leading to bankruptcy from bloated public sector salaries, benefits, and retirement plans. Businesses that offered plans like many governments have would go bankrupt. Gov’t entities will, too, eventually, but it will be much more painful.
This is why unions should again be outlawed for public employees.
The practice of keeping bad teachers "dancing lemons," revealing the sad practice of shuffling bad teachers around the system instead of firing merely because they may have tenure on the job. While new teachers are automatically laid off due to budget cuts, teachers that have a disciplinary problem or a troubled history are kept because they've been on the job longer. This is wrong and reflects badly on the union and teachers alike, not to mention that it leads to a bad education for our kids.
What is the purpose of teacher unions? To work for children? Establish new and better requirements? Push their members to better serve parents and children?
"Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power. And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees" ...National Education Association's just-retired General Counsel Bob Chanin. (The NEA is the local County Association's parent body).
NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin Says Farewell:
As legendary New York teachers union leader Albert Shanker said, "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."
All government unions should be banned. The idea that government workers need protection from guess who?? THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, is ridiculous. remember, teachers are government employees. Ban government unions.
Watching Chris Christy counsel them is high drama..
If he could drop 30-50 pounds, Christie would be a really cool presidential candidate. I’d take him now but a lot of Americans have a bias against fat people and, face it, the presidential election today is as much a beauty contest as it is selecting a leader. It’s more American Idol than Lincoln-Douglas.
Chris Christie: A Conservative Myth - Intro
Mark Levin's Take on Christie
Christie for President? What a refreshing concept. A President (essentially a conservative one, but not as conservative as I”d like him to be) with STONES, who’d take on the liberal establishment (the unions, the MSM) without flinching. The GOP needs more like him.
He’s not perfect, but he’s still better than 99.9% of all public officials.
Just an observation with coverage on Christie. It is complete opposite of what Palin would get if she was to say this. Goodness could you imagine. “Death Panels” was brilliant and completely accurate, something Christie would say but would get two different coverages. Palin is a woman they have big problems with conservative women.
I like him... few politicians have the guts to tell the union bosses to go take a hike.
The single most classic commercial ever. THis family LOVES it and chuckles everytime we see it.
This is a great video and story. In one town not too far from Parsippany, NJ the superintendent is retiring. Last spring she made a big scene about threatening to quit because the school board wanted to outsource custodial staff and eliminate a few positions — all for the good of the students, of course. The board backed down — and then she decided to retire before the new pension rules went into effect. She got out while the getting was good. So much for the good of the students, I guess.
'Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It.' - Saul Alinsky
Christie has RINO blood in him, but for New Jersey, he is infinitely better than the union thugs who control the Democrats. He would be another disappointment in Congress or the White House, so I hope he keeps himself entertained where he can do some good.
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