"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
Rochelle Hendricks is our acting Education Commissioner. She got the job after the prior commissioner Bret Schundler spoke the truth about what happened in Jersey's bungled Race to the Top application, an application originally made in good faith and supported by our union. She has been Commissioner less than three months.
New Jersey's largest teaching union
holds its convention for the next two days. The folks that go to teachers' conventions are mostly, well, teachers.Not administrators.
Not union officials.
Not politicians.
Teachers. Thousands and thousands of teachers.
The Commission was invited to speak to the teachers, as every Commissioner before her has, and she refused.
"When the NJEA is willing to work with the Christie administration as a true partner in an effort to reward good teachers instead of protecting bad teachers, when the NJEA is willing to modernize the tenure system and improve the quality of education in our urban districts, I look forward to working with you."
Really?
Why not slide on down the Parkway and say hello to us. The teachers. You can walk right past the table of NJEA union officials and talk directly to us.
It's been a long while since you taught, comfortably ensconced in one of our wealthiest districts (where some folks still spell Rumson with a "v"). Put away
Stoop a day for the kids you so righteously defend. Get to know us.
That's how functioning government works.
Posts
2 comments:
Our governor's political grandstanding and his administration's refusal to meet with teachers caused New Jersey to lose $400 million in federal aid to education. How does Hendrick refusing to meet with teachers solve anything? Rather than start a dialog, she'll sit in her office wrapped in a political agenda. I'm NOT a teacher - I am a parent and taxpayer - and I'm SOOO tired of my kid's education being used as a political football.
Dear Gnu,
I still can't fathom how we lost that money.
My guess is that the Governor is seeking national office in a couple of years.
He spent more time running in others' campaigns than he did running Jersey the past couple months.
Thanks for dropping by--I don't spend a whole lot of time doing political stuff, but your words remind me (and others) that folks are paying attention.
Post a Comment