Dear Editor:
“I coulda’ been a contender.”
That famous movie line could also be the cry of many New Jersey kids today.
Recently on the PBS program, New Jersey Capitol Report, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Education Association, Vincent Giordano, was asked about kids whose parents can’t afford to take them out of public schools. His response? “Life’s not fair.”
Just as Johnny Friendly in “On the Waterfront” stood at the docks and decided who worked and who didn’t, Mr. Giordano apparently decides which kids get a good education and which don’t.
Giordano called in sick after his statement rather than answer for his flippant response. Either that or his dog ate his press release.But NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer said the comment was a “misinterpretation.”
“What he really meant is that, with poverty in urban districts, life isn’t fair for these kids.”
The reason we have a public school system in the first place is because, for some children, life isn’t fair.
The system wasn’t created to support a teacher’s union.
To paraphrase Karl Malden in the film, “You know what’s wrong with our education system? It’s the love of a lousy buck and a guaranteed job that’s more important than our children’s education.”
Wollmer went on to say, “These kids didn’t choose what happened to them, and that’s not fair, but it’s even more unfair to impose school vouchers and airlift 10 per cent of the kids out and leave 90 per cent of the kids with even less money.
If there are less kids, than it should take less money to educate them. If it is possible to help 10 per cent, then it is our duty to help the 10 percent while we are working on a solution to help the 90 percent.
NJEA’s response to school vouchers is to do nothing and let everyone go down with the ship.
Governor Christie called Giordano’s statement “outrageous” and said he was “disgusted” by it.
The governor has the courage to stand up to cronyism and patronage. We stand with him.
Diana Davis, Chair
Republicans of Hoboken