New Jersey Teachers Take it to the Mattresses on Facebook

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is facing a budget deficit. He is not alone. The vast number of states with more red than black ink on their books is hampering economic recovery, and reminding the population that recovery isn’t a reality in every day terms on Main Street just yet. Having already cut $470 million from education’s slice of the state pie, Christie is proposing a wage freeze and for teachers to pay an additional 1.5 percent of their total salaries for healthcare.

While the public, as they seem to be most everywhere these days, is fine with cutting/freezing teachers’ wages and stripping them of benefits, the New Jersey teachers aren’t as thrilled.

So what does a disgruntled group in America do to protest against “the man” these days?

They start a Facebook page.

New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Christie’s Pay Freeze isn’t the catchiest title, but it sure is a popular group on Facebook these days. With close to 68,000 fans, the page provides links to new articles about the budget crisis, and it’s impact on public schools in the state. It also provides plenty of personal commentary that is sometimes thoughtful, yet sometimes just personal, mean and petty.

Fat jokes aimed at Governor Christie are very popular. Although they pale in comparison to a letter sent to 17,000 state teachers by the union president in Bergen County, Joe Coppola.

“Dear Lord, this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays… . I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

At the Daily Beast, John Avalon points out that the Facebook group’s members are mainly teachers and some are behaving in a manner unbefitting their public “office”. Teachers are role models whose public words and actions should be more measured.

I can see his point. I wouldn’t want my daughter’s teachers behaving badly on the Internet in a forum as public as Facebook, where she could read it. Having taught teenagers myself, I can attest to the importance of image. My students, whether they voiced it or not, expected me to hold myself to a higher standard of public discourse. Vulgar language, crude humor, bullying or belittling was something that diminished me in their eyes.

Is that fair? Teachers are only human after all.

In my opinion, yes it is fair. People go into education knowing the rules and thumb their noses at expectations at their own peril. The New Jersey teachers who have joined the Facebook protest page, and engaged in behavior that mimics the antics of their students in social media forums, isn’t acceptable.

To be fair, there are many teachers in the group trying to steer the debate in a positive manner, but like so many topics on the public stage right now, it’s the nasty, over-the-top people who seem to garner all the attention with their low-road antics.

The money question in public education has never been more heated or important. The Obama administration is radically altering the way schools will be funded, and there is just cause for concern on the part of states as they watch federal funding evaporate. The possibility exists that the gap between have and have-not schools will grow. This is a result of the new rewards/innovation based system that is more reminiscent of Wall Street than perhaps it should be, considering the subject is our children’s future.

Like most education issues, there is more half-truth and misinformation than not. Teachers in New Jersey are already paying health insurance costs in one form or another, and the pay freeze is likely coming on the back of increases in out-of-pocket health care expenses for them in the coming year. This translates into wage cuts, rather than freezes. However, this is no different than what is happening in other industries, and the majority of Americans are in no mood to entertain the idea that public employees shouldn’t feel their economic pain too.

Given Facebook’s alleged policy prohibiting groups who promote “hate”, I am surprised the New Jersey group hasn’t been shut down. Facebook, though, is known for being somewhat arbitrary about enforcing that particular stipulation.

Being a creature of the web, who has used social media in less than a stellar manner a time or two herself, I can understand the temptation to take one’s cause to cyberspace. I wonder, however, just how a Facebook page could change anything in a tangible way. Or is it just a way to blow off steam and feel like one is doing something while still sitting on the sofa watching the latest episode of Glee?

Facebook is the Antichrist by Oversocialized

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Charmaine C.

9:03AM PDT on Apr 15, 2010

Surely some things are above money? Why does every last thing have to be about profit? Personally I would keep the teachers, look after the children's education first and foremost, then sack the useless politicians and deadbeat bureaucrats who sit on their padded butts all day thinking up spin to deceive the constituents. Money can't buy a good teacher...they are priceless!

send a green star

Jim S.

8:05AM PDT on Apr 15, 2010

Take it to the mattresses? What kind of strange comment is that? What do mattresses have to do with this subject? Possibly, you could have meant "take it to the mat", though I still don't see how that applies. Maybe an english course is indicated. See your local english teacher.

Lorelai R.

6:43AM PDT on Apr 15, 2010

(i was supposed to have four characters left oh well, lol its like the federal budget i guess)

We should compensate teachers fairly for the work they do. What other job requires six years of school, a master's degree, has a fifty percent burnout rate, and pays less than 30 grand a year to start in many cases? Are we really surprised that teachers quit teaching at that high a rate?
Are we really surprised when they act poorly because they, like many of us, have finally had enough?

I honestly have no idea where the American public got the idea that a teacher's job was 'cushy' anyhow. Most districts have budgets so tight that teachers end up using their own money to buy classroom supplies. They often have to clean their own classrooms, too, as supplementary personnel are being cut to save money. To top it all off, they have 9 months to make a huge impact on a child, in room with 30 other children in it, all with their own needs, and often half of those kids are in crisis,either from poverty, or learning disorders, or family turmoil.

6:28AM PDT on Apr 15, 2010

Most teachers work 60-70 hours a week, the extra time is not paid for, its just expected. They don't get 'summers off' either. Most teachers spend their summer months reviewing lesson plans, taking classes (on their own money) required to keep their certifications up, and going to seminars that are required to train them to administer all those standardized tests used to 'hold them accountable'.

Add in the fact that teachers are required to have master's degrees, often with a complete double major in addition to the education degree (for all post elementary teaching).

Then take average starting pay. In a good district, with incentives added for math or science teachers, who are in high demand because they could make twice as much outside of teaching, new teachers can make as much as 35k. Most teachers are offered starting salaries of 25k or so.

As for those benefits, Michelle M. is right, most teachers pay into a state teacher's retirement, so they don't get Social Security. Also, anyone who thinks teachers have good health benefits hasn't seen the gutting that has been done. Coverage has been massively chopped. In many cases, teachers are taking hidden pay cuts year to year, losing money to 'costs'.

These are the people who mold our children, who teach them to be able to think critically, to problem solve, to delegate, to be creative, to love learning. We should expect excellence, yes, but we should also compensate it prope

Michelle M.

6:00AM PDT on Apr 15, 2010

h, the myth of tenure. Tenure simply means you cannot be fired without just cause. That's it. Cause has to be documented. Before tenure you could be fired because the principal didn't like you, and in no-tenure states, that happens a lot...whether or not the teacher is qualified. Tenure isn't a free pass. Teachers are still observed and evaluated, put on probation, warned, and fired...with tenure.

And that "good pension?"
They pay for that "good" pension out of their paychecks. True, there is an employer contribution too. Instead of paying to SS, they pay to the state pension fund. No social security for teachers. They lose most of what they earned before they taught.

Nancy V.

7:03PM PDT on Apr 14, 2010

When times are tough we all have to 'tighten our belts" and that goes for teachers as well as the rest of the employed USofA. Teachers get many many perks that many in industryf don't get...good pensions, medical plans and lets not forget tenure (which to me should be a no no as too many rely on that and don't do the job well). At times like these we all have to tighten our belts and make due w less...

Tricia H.

6:57PM PDT on Apr 14, 2010

I don't know enough about teaching conditions in America to pass comment on the teachers' justifications, but teachers venting on Facebook is a different matter.

Teachers certainly the right to express themselves, but I don't regard FB as the appropriate forum, and would have hoped that those entrusted with educating our children behaved in a rather more mature way.

Surely they could have established private discussion groups by some other means, and then used the best and most helpful input to publicly and contructively further their cause.

It's almost a lazy way to protest, and one which doesn't reflect well on their profession or their role in society....and I don't think it's a lesson that sets a good example to their students.

Heather A.

6:43PM PDT on Apr 14, 2010

Where I live, teachers are advised to be extremely conservative when using Facebook, if not to shut down their accounts entirely. If they posted vulgar, violent, or otherwise inappropriate remarks on a public page, especially on a page their boss is likely to look at, there is no doubt in my mind that they would be fired. You can be refused employment because of your Facebook activity (not officially, of course, but employers do look at potential employees' profiles), so I think it's pretty bold of these teachers to stick their necks out like this just to take a childish jab at politicians they don't like. I would definitely not be doing that if I were in their place.

Margaret D.

6:21PM PDT on Apr 14, 2010

I am with Dianne D. A majority of state and muni workers have taken cuts over the years. I remember when 7% was a normal raise. When I was a Police Officer in the great State of NY, we went for 18 months without a raise and when we finally got it, it was 1.3 percent. But, you know, it was better than seeing good cops laid off.

6:17PM PDT on Apr 14, 2010

Maybe their Union dues should be cut.