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Kearny, NJ history teacher epic fail: Chris Christie is going against "democracy"

Kearny, NJ teachers held a rally yesterday to protest Chris Christie's cuts to "education" (ie their paychecks). Here's some video:

Near the end a pleasant-sounding white-haired lady (identified as "Barbara Toczko, Retired History Teacher") says:

"He's proud of what he's doing."
"Democracy in action is the key to this whole country, and he's going against every democratic principle we've ever had."
"You can tell I taught history." (cackles)

She taught history? Boy am I glad I didn't get stuck in her class.

Exactly which "democratic principle" requires the hegemony of the teachers' unions? Chris Christie is the elected governor, working with the elected legislature. That is "democracy in action."

Paul Tractenberg and the perpetual plaintiffs at the Education Law Center ganging up on the State Supreme Court? Now there's something which is going against every democratic principle we've ever had! They run crying to a judge every time the people's elected representatives do something they don't like.

And unfortunately the power-hungry judges are all to eager to flex their muscles by imposing outrageous demands upon the legislative and executive branches.

Separation of Powers is one of those "democratic principles" Madam History Teacher really ought to be so fond of, isn't it?

I think by "democratic principles" this lady actually means "Democratic Party principles." Then yeah, Chris Christie is definitely going against those. He has to. Otherwise we're gonna go broke.

Just because they've got the word "democrat" in their name doesn't necessarily mean they're pro-democracy, an observation that anyone who's been paying attention to events in Wisconsin would immediately understand.

Maybe if more history teachers actually read the Constitution instead of NJEA press releases I wouldn't have to take time out of my day to explain this stuff to them.

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Five minutes with Google reveals that Barbara Toczko is much more than just a "retired history teacher."

She's Co-Chair of the Government Relations Committee for the Hudson County Education Association (ie the Teachers Union). So now we know why she has such a skewed view of "democracy," don't we?

Funny how the (unionized) newspaper dudes at the Star-Ledger didn't see a need to mention that, eh?

And speaking of NJEA press releases, according to this one, Barbara Toczko is also employed by the NJEA directly.

Last May she got herself photographed vehemently protesting (with her best Howard Dean Yee-arrgghh face) at an NJEA rally in Trenton.

"Retired," my ass.

Barbara Toczko is The Union, and the union is The Problem.

UPDATE 08 Apr 2011 09:11:
Linked by Theo Spark!

UPDATE 08 Apr 2011 16:14:
Also linked by Fausta who likewise wonders why reporters can't bother to use Google.

Posted at 16:03 by Chris Wysocki   [/education]   Comments | Perm Link |
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