Christie and Common Core

Governor Christie is a deeply dishonest man.

In 2011, he brokered a deal with NJ pensioners, including teachers, which called for us to make greater contributions to our pensions and to pay significant amounts towards our medical benefits for the first time. I must admit he did this in a very clever and deceptive way, in the sense that gross salaries were not impacted, which likely would have led to far greater resistance. Rather, he left gross salaries untouched, but significantly reduced actual take-home pay.

-Very slippery, indeed.

Christie hailed this 2011 pension reform as his "greatest governmental victory". On his side, he promised to make certain contributions to the pension system. However, Governor Christie has repeatedly failed to live up to his side of the pension reform agreements, and instead of infusing the fund with much needed resources, has borrowed recklessly from them, further endangering the already hobbled system.

Recently, he was ordered by a NJ Superior Court to make the payments that he himself agreed to in 2011. Governor Christie has now stated that the very law that he brokered and signed is unconstitutional, and that as a result he should not have to abide by it.

-Now this level of self-deception simply shocks me.

On the matter of Common Core, here's what he said in August, 2013 at a KIPP Charter Schools educational conference (http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/02/christies_flip-flop_on_common_core_moran.html):

"We are doing Common Core in New Jersey and we're going to continue. And this is one of those areas where I have agreed more with the President than not. And with Secretary Duncan. I think part of the Republican opposition you see in some corners in Congress is a reaction, that knee-jerk reaction that is happening in Washington right now, that if the president likes something the Republicans in Congress don't. If the Republicans in Congress like something, the president doesn't."

And here's what he said on the same issue recently in Iowa:

"I have grave concerns about the way this has been done, especially the way the Obama administration has tried to implement it through tying federal funding to these things. And that changes the entire nature of it, from what was initially supposed to be voluntary type system and states could decide on their own to now having federal money tied to it in ways that really, really give me grave concerns. So we're in the midst of re-examination of it in New Jersey. I appointed a commission a few months ago to look at it in in light of these new developments from the Obama administration and they're going to come back to me with a report in the next, I think, six or eight weeks, then we're going to take some action. It is something I'm very concerned about, because in the end education needs to be a local issue."

Seriously, is this guy for real??

I am one of those people who trusts her gut. I have watched several interviews of Governor Christie and my take-home intuition is that he is deeply self-deceptive. My basic belief is that if he can be so overwhelmingly dishonest with himself, how is there any hope that he will be honest with other people?

Governor Christie has demonstrated a consistent pattern of dishonesty, intimidation, and bullying over the course of his gubernatorial term. From the aforementioned pension reform debacle, to his radical flip-flop on Common Core, to his federally investigated Bridgegate, there is a consistent pattern of dishonesty and expediency. I for one hope that he goes no further than New Jersey. And I will be very glad when we also are rid of him.