Gov. Christie Winning Battle with N.J. Teachers’ Union
by Mark Impomeni

06/08/2010

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the state’s powerful teachers’ union, have been locked in mortal combat over Christie’s plans to balance New Jersey’s budget.

Christie has rescinded planned state aid to school districts for the remainder of the current fiscal year, sought changes to pension rules, and demanded that teachers contribute 1.5% of their salaries toward the cost of their benefits package and accept for a one-year wage freeze. The union has opposed him at every turn, running ads statewide accusing the governor of attempting to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class and at the expense of students.

Christie has been getting the better of the fight. His pension changes were enacted by the Democratic-controlled legislature earlier this year, and New Jerseyans turned out in record numbers in April to heed the governor’s call to vote down their local school budgets if teachers in their districts did not agree to the wage freeze and benefits contributions. Sixty percent of school budgets went down to defeat, the most ever in the state.

Now, as he attempts to close a gaping $11 billion gap in a total budget of just under $29 billion, Christie has proposed cutting state aid to school districts in fiscal year 2011 by close to $850 million. The NJEA is again calling foul. But after a spring of opposing New Jersey’s brash new governor with little to show for it, the teachers’ union finds its public support eroding.

A new Fairleigh Dickinson University/Public Mind poll released Tuesday found public opinion on the NJEA slipping nine points from the last survey in March. Forty-four percent of New Jersey registered voters now say they have an unfavorable view of the NJEA, compared to 35% two months ago. That number includes 26% who say they have a “very unfavorableâ€