Christie's Town Hall Draws Small Protest

Kandice Hanrahan took a half-day from work so she could get a message to the governor. 

And that message was displayed on a placard she held in the parking lot of John Paul II Learning Center's gymnasium before a Town Hall meeting with Gov. Christopher J. Christie.

"Proud New Jersey Public Educator," it read. 

Hanrahan was one of a about a dozen protestors who braved the winter chill Thursday afternoon. 

Inside, about 500 people packed the stuffy gymnasium for the two-hour meeting. 

Hanrahan teaches at Pitman Middle School, where she's worked for the past 11 years. What brought her out Thursday, she said, was, "I guess, where it's all going with the union busting."

Teachers, she said, "are just being vilified by the governor."

Christie's administration has proposed sweeping changes to the tenure system for teachers, and also has asked state employees to pay more into the beleaguered state pension system, as well as to pay more for health benefits. 

"We have no problem paying into the pension system, but this governor has not sat down with anybody from the union," Hanrahan said. "He's not negotiating."

During the Town Hall meeting, Christie said he's been rebuffed in his efforts to make progress with the New Jersey Education Association. 

Hanrahan stayed outside during the meeting. 

"He's not going to say anything new in there," she said. "I've heard enough from him."

Hanrahan was joined by 21-year-old Joe Perella, a junior at Rowan University, and president of the school's Democratic Club. Perella held a sign that read, "Where are the jobs Governor?"

Perella said he's troubled by Christie's "rhetoric regarding state employees."

"They are not bad for New Jersey," the biology major said. 

During the meeting, Christie said, while referring to teachers, "what I can't stand are unions who protect the worst of the worst." 

Perella said he was pleased that Christie, a Republican, isn't making further cuts in school aid this year. But Perella wants the governor to acknowledge the concerns of the teacher's union. 

"Twenty-five percent of our graduate are graduating with a teaching degree," Perella said of Rowan. "I want to make sure they're getting a good job with a pension and benefits, and with a union that is empowered to protect their rights."