Governor Christie:

While you were in the neighborhood, did you happen to inquire about how you could help the Freehold Borough Schools with their lack of funding, space and critical resources, despite their heavy burden on our taxpayers?

I second that Joe!!!!!!!!!

Who can take Christie seriously when Klienberg is sitting behind him in the bleachers?

I heard the Dean's were ther too.

I agree with Christie on tenure, its failing our chidren. Union contracts say we cant fire LEMONS (bad teachers) and so you have the lemon dance, principals swaping teachers amongst schools, the Dance of the Lemons. Tenure does not allow us to get rid of lousy teachers. We need to make distictions among teachers but the unions disagree. There are 23 steps to remove a failing teacher, its impossible with forms and dates. The Unions are major obstacles to real reform. Then there are seniority contracts that allow senior teachers to stake a claim on positions over junior teachers sacrificing good teachers for bad teachers. We see it with charter schools that are a threat to unions and their public schools. Unions have used their power in policitcal process to prevent too many of these charter schools meanwhile there are huge waiting lists for them. Unions insist to pay teachers based on years on job not productive teacher. If there are layoofs due to budget cuts, due to tenure, the newest hires are let go even if you are the best teacher of the year, too bad, your gone. The unions put a cap on charter schools in NY, they try to prevent them.

I'd say for the most part, the teachers that I've seen in my town all do an excellent job. Do some need some coaching to improve their teaching practices-of course, but I don't see any I'd consider lemons. I have friends who work in public schools who I know are rock star educators-and it's frustrating to me that their results are not rewarded adequately. That said, all teachers would benefit from a system where there are more private sector-like performance management practices in place. The teachers who are the top performers will get rewarded for it, and through the appropriate programs their skills and competencies will get recognized as the best means to educate our children. If the lower performers can't succeed in the classroom, then there needs to be a clear path to get them out of the classroom. It doesn't mean they have to leave public education, it just means they have to do something that’s better suited to their talents. But if someone needs to be fired, then there needs to be a means to do that without being bureaucratic in nature. There's too much at stake. In the private sector, if I under perform, my company can lose a few dollars (ok, that's understating it a bit), but whatever happens to the company will be absorbed. In public education, an under performing teacher left to under perform can affect generations of people. Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but in the extreme you have kids moving through life with a gap in core skills and knowledge.

Private sector practices that focus on human capital management, such as talent acquisition, talent development and performance management need to be brought into the schools. Yes, the schools do all of that, but in a way that unions have influenced in order to provide protection to the members. The protection afforded members by the union in this case undermines their whole reason for existence (worker protection) in that it negatively impacts their client base or in private sector terms, their customers (aka the students). The unions need to allow school systems the latitude to onboard talent who have the appropriate skills and intrinsic motivation, the ability to nurture that talent as necessary and within budget, and to provide adequate incentives aligned with appropriate performance measures. The union excuse of "that won't work here" is a closed minded view that is hurting everyone associated with the public education system. It’s time to come to the table with an open mind and make some cutting edge changes in our school system.

Don't just bust the Unions which helps the teachers maintain their devotion to teaching our young including their respect and dignity, improve upon it to benefit, the schools, their teachers and the communities at large and cut the blubber.

Now if all teachers really did have a "devotion to teaching" this would not be an issue!!