By Matt Rooney | Cross-posted at SaveJersey.com

UPDATE, 12:59 PM: Things just got more interesting for Vincent Giordano, Save Jerseyans. StateHouseSteps is reporting that Governor Christie called for his resignation/dismissal this morning at a Westfield town hall meeting…

Developing…

10:43 AM: Save Jersey was the first to call out NJEA Executive Director Vincent Giordano for his remarkably elitist remarks on Saturday’s “New Jersey Capitol Report” show. Yes, it was offensive… even for a union stooge!

You remember the quote:

“Well, you know, uh, life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that…” (click here and listen to the clip)

It still boils my blood 48 hours later!

Mr. Giordano’s gross insensitivity to the plight of low income kids treading water in failing school districts caught the attention of national outlets, too, after Save Jersey spread the word via social media. And then the heat was on yet again for a union that’s been on the ropes since Governor Christie’s ’09 election.

So much heat, in fact, that the NJEA took a rare step yesterday afternoon: trying to explain /justify/rationalize their idiocy in a press release.

Click here to read a pdf of the full press release.

Please note that I described the release as an attempt to rationalize Mr. Giordano’s elitism; would asking for a simple apology been too much? I guess so…

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By Matt Rooney | Cross-posted at SaveJersey.com

I know we’re focused on “higher” education today at the blog, Save Jerseyans, but New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) Executive Director Vincent Giordano really stepped in it this weekend. Big time.

He appeared on Saturday’s NJTV “New Jersey Capitol Report” to discuss recent developments in the state’s never-ending education debate. When questioned about the fairness of New Jersey’s low income families being financially unable to afford the option of moving their children to better performing schools, Mr. Giordano was cold, dismissive, and completely unsympathetic to their plight.

The exact quote?

“Well, you know, uh, life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that…” (click here and listen to the clip)

No kidding! At least he’s “sorry.”

I am, too.

Governor Christie recently pegged Mr. Giordano’s salary at $550,000 per year; the NJEA claims he’s only making $300,000.

I think he’s overpaid either way, Save Jerseyans.

And his “hey, they can technically transfer” argument is pure sophistry.

The “choice” he alludes to is illusory. Sure, it’s easy to send your kid to an academically and culturally stronger school when you earn $300,000 from public union dues. The 1%, including President and Mrs. Obama. But for the rest of us? School choice means scrimping and saving to pay both private school tuition AND property tax levies tied to education funding.

It’s a false choice, Save Jerseyans. Shame on Mr. Giordano for pretending otherwise.

__________________

Matt Rooney is a New Jersey attorney, conservative commentator, and the founder & Blogger-in-Chief of New Jersey’s #1 conservative blog, Save Jersey. You can learn more about Matt and the Christie Revolution by visiting today!

The following is my article in The Monitor.  The Monitor is the re-branded name for The Citizen, and it’s the Kansas City Metro’s premier center-right print and online publication.  Make sure and bookmark KCMonitor.com for regular updates on news from Kansas, Missouri, and the Kansas City area.  Click here to learn where to find one of the 200 locations distributing this free print newspaper.

This article is re-published with permission.

Did 2010 Create Real – Or Just Expedient – Change Among Elected Republicans?

Independent voters – who are largely conservative, particularly on fiscal issues – will throw out either political party when it says one thing and does another

Also:

– Koch brothers (the wrong ones) receive a death threat;
– Major school choice progress nation-wde

May 4, 2011

by Benjamin Hodge

In 1994, Republicans captured both Houses of Congress for the first time in four decades.  Those Republicans were sent to change Washington, but Washington soon changed the Republicans, who by 2006 were functioning as a pro-life, somewhat-less socialist version of the Democratic party.

When Republicans spend like Democrats, the result is both bad policy and bad politics.  Independent voters – who are largely conservative, particularly on fiscal issues – will throw out either political party when it says one thing and does another.

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(Yes, I learned of this idea from Erick Erickson…)

Click here to read the original Email in a Web-friendly format.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Column: “GOP’s DC Opportunity: Put Money, Time
Into School Choice”

Haven’t yet read this new print publication?  Click here to find one of the 200 locations near you where this paper can be picked up.

First, an important update on DC school vouchers.  This is from The Washington Examiner at 8:05 p.m. today, Saturday, April 9 (emphasis added):

“The last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown means life largely continues as usual for most people, but some D.C. policies will be changed by the budget deal.The deal includes a measure that bans the District from using city funds to provide abortions for low-income women and a provision to continue a school-voucher program in D.C.“More recent articles on the subject:

• Clerk of the US House shows all Kansas House members supported DC school vouchers
• Washington Post: “Budget deal includes D.C. abortion rider, money for school vouchers”
• RedState: “House GOP de-segregates DC school system”
• Heritage Foundation: “Opponents of DC School Voucher Program Can’t Get Facts Straight”
• Washington Times:  “House votes to restart D.C. school vouchers”
• Associated Press: “US House reinstates DC school voucher program”

Here’s my column on the matter, published in The Citizen. Please note that there are several links/sources embedded within the original article; to reach those links, go to the original article at The Citizen’s Web site.

The Citizen: “GOP’s DC Opportunity: Put Money, Time Into School Choice”

Read the news, and you’re likely to see edi­to­ri­als and news arti­cles dis­cussing “cuts” in K-12 government-run edu­ca­tion. Fifty-three per­cent of the Kansas bud­get is spent on K-12; add in spend­ing on col­leges, and two-thirds of the bud­get is spent on education.

We’re told we need to spend more, that cuts will harm the qual­ity of edu­ca­tion in Kansas.

We hear noth­ing, of course, about the more than $1 bil­lion in unused money sit­ting in the accounts of 300 Kansas school dis­tricts, accord­ing to the Kansas Pol­icy Insti­tute. Or that Kansas schools spent $12,330 per stu­dent in 2010, up from the 2005 per-student expen­di­tures of $9,707.

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I’m pleased to introduce KansasReform.com, our new Web site for the Kansans for Reform of State and Local Government PAC, or, for short, Kansans for Government Reform.

My introductory words on the front page:

Thank you for visiting. After witnessing waste within the state government, and after fighting and winning over corruption at Johnson County Community College under Presidents Charles Carlsen and Terry Calaway, I formed the Kansans for Government Reform PAC in order to fight for good-government principles, ones that are non-controversial among the public, but that are routinely ignored by local governments and by leaders in both the Democratic and Republican parties. I’m referring to issues like:

• Property rights.
• Open budgets and open meetings. Competitive bidding for contracts.
• An accountable and highly-qualified state judiciary, as we have at the federal level but are denied in Kansas.
• Education that is controlled by students and parents. At colleges, students are allowed to choose the source of their educational services, yet there is a complete and total monopoly at the K-12 level. This leads to waste, corruption, and an inability to hire the best teachers or to fire the worst.

We have a five-member Advisory Board, and it requires an 80% approval (four out of five) agreement in order to endorse candidates or position statements. I encourage you to learn more about our recommended candidates, and about the position statements officially supported by the Kansans for Government Reform PAC.

Click here to see our candidate endorsements.  We’ve endorsed two Kansas candidates so far, and more will follow in the coming weeks.

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Yes, there must be cuts made to government-run K-12 education in Kansas.

No, cuts will not lay off good teachers.  No, cuts will not damage the quality of education.  The cuts will result in the laying off of many unneeded, over-paid administrators; a greater amount of competition in bidding practices; and perhaps the firing of a few bad teachers.

Kansas’ Democratic Governor Mark Parkinson has proposed a one-cent increase — in actually, that is an 18% increase — in the state sales tax, from 5.3% to 6.3% on every dollar spent by consumers.  On Thursday, the House Taxation committee received testimony in favor of the tax increase.  Today, the committee held a hearing for opponents.  there were around six verbal testimonies, and my written testimony was one of four.  I was the only tax opponent with experience in government-run education.

The most vocal proponents are the 300 monopolized school districts in Kansas, who claim that drastic anti-education consequences will result from cuts in education.

WIBW covered the proponents’ side here:

K-12 education is among items that have absorbed cuts. Mark Tallman of the Kansas Association of School Boards says cutting further education and social services would hurt people more than an increase in sales tax.

WIBW didn’t mention that Tallman, along with being the contract lobbyist for the association that receives millions in combined membership dues from most of the state’s 300 school districts, is a contract lobbyist for the Kansas arm of the far-left NEA.

The Lawrence Journal-World also covered the proponents’ testimony:

Megan Greene of Lawrence, whose daughter, Azucena Melchor, attends Cordley School, told committee members that the Lawrence school board is considering drastic budget cuts – firing teachers, increasing class sizes and closing schools.

“When schools are the institutional anchors for neighborhoods, their closure means loss of property values, loss of families in the neighborhoods, and a general decline,” she said.

Below is my written testimony:

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