Christie: 'I Don't Think Teachers Are the Problem... Unions Are'

Gov. Chris Christie said there is an "extraordinary divide" between teachers and the unions that represent them during a stop Thursday at Raritan Valley Community College.

The governor, on the campaign trail seeking re-election, conducted his 105th town hall meeting to discuss his middle-class reform agenda, including pension and benefits reform, private sector job growth and his take on teachers' unions.

Alexa Offenhauer, a part-time English professor at RVCC, said she had entered teaching with the understanding that her pay would be lower, but that the trade-off would be job security and good benefits.

Offenhauer asked the governor when rhetoric had changed to make "teachers part of the problem."

'Unions are the problem'

"I don't think teachers are the problem. I think unions are the problem," Christie said in a response that drew applause from the audience in one of the state's Republican strongholds.

He said he believes there can be an "extraordinary divide" between the attitude of teachers and their unions. He said he was told by one teacher that her local educators' union insisted she remove a photograph she had placed in her classroom of herself taken with the governor.

Offenhauer responded that the unions represent the teachers.

As attendees were walking into the Town Hall meeting, staff from the college handed out leaflets detailing that community and county colleges had initially been set up with a formula of two-thirds public funding with students to pick up the last third of funding through tuition.

In 2013, student tuition and fees at RVCC account for 60.8 percent of the operating budget while county support made up 26.7 percent and state funding provides 11.9 percent, according to figures provided by the Raritan Valley Community College Federation.

Although he didn't address RVCC's funding specifically, Christie said the state will spend $9 billion on education this year, and he doesn't feel there has been a "lack of generosity" on the part of taxpayers toward the public sector and schools.

He also spoke about the "unfinished business" he would like to complete during a second term in office. He discussed plans for spending about $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion on revitalizing higher education facilities at the state's universities, colleges and community colleges, with $750,000 of that coming from an approved referendum.

Listening to Branchburg resident Harriett Davis talk about how she had lost her grandson to drug abuse, Christie also spoke about his desire for treatment rather than incarceration for first-time drug offenders. He said he would like a "second chance" for drug abusers to rebuild their lives, and added that putting such a person in jail would be less likely to end their substance abuse, and would also cost more.

"My heart goes out to you," the governor told Davis. "We really are going to try to make sure your grandchild's tragedy is not going to be repeated hundreds and hundreds of times through the state through the programs we are trying to set up."

In response to another question, Christie said he would like to focus on employment programs and group homes that would place autistic adults in society, rather than in institutions.

Shore will be open in 2013

Christie wrapped up the meeting describing his sense of "mission" for restoring the Jersey Shore. He said he had promised last November that the Jersey Shore would be open for visitors by this summer.

"In summer 2013, the Jersey Shore will be open for business, but it won't be the same as in summer 2012."

However, the governor said his goal is that by 2014 the Jersey Shore will be rebuilt and better than before.

Afterwards, Offenhauer spoke about RVCC as "such a great school" and said the governor had shown awareness that he was in a public building and at a community college.

But she and another RVCC part-time educator, Kathy Manz, who also teaches at Voorhees Regional High School in Hunterdon County, said the governor's rhetoric through the years had a negative effect on teacher morale throughout the state.

Manz said the governor may have toned down his approach because he already had achieved many of his objectives in dealing with teachers and unions during his first term in office.