Mocking prayer, A New Jersey teacher’s union prays for Gov. Chris Christie’s death.

April 13, 2010 03:30


Hell hath no fury like a teacher’s union scorned. To close a $10.7 billion budget deficit, New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie last month proposed slashing education by $820 million, an equivalent to a 5% cut for each school district. That follows on the heels of an across-the-board pay freeze.

By ALLYSIA FINLEY at WSJ

Not happy is the Bergen County Education Association, which sent a letter to 17,000 members asking them to pray for the governor’s death. The letter offers a sample prayer that begins: “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.”

The president of Bergen’s union Joe Coppola claimed the missive, which was signed by the New Jersey Education Association’s regional representatives, was just a joke and wasn’t intended to be made public, but the zinger apparently missed the governor’s funny bone. “There is nothing professional about this ‘professional’ group. These tactics come from the same people who in public Web postings wish the governor would die. How do they explain themselves to the children?” fumed Mr. Christie’s spokesman Michael Drewniak.

Mr. Coppola has now acknowledged that the jibe showed “poor taste, bad taste and was definitely an error of poor judgment.”

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