New Jersey Education Association executive director Vincent Giordano first said that "life's not always fair" when explaining why low-income families shouldn't get school vouchers to leave failing schools, and now he promises not to be "bullied" into resigning by the governor.
"Life's not always fair, and I'm sorry about that, but to suggest that we take money from taxpayers and give it to certain taxpayers to use to educate their kids outside of the public school just seems to me to be [wrong]" Girodana said on a local New Jersey Capitol Report while criticizing the idea of school vouchers. He was responding to a questioner who had just observed that without vouchers, "some of these parents," the Inquirer relates, "can't afford to take their kids out of failing schools."
Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., who supports the vouchers, said that Giordano should resign. "If someone in my administration said something like that to the poor and disadvantaged in this state, they would find their rear end on the sidewalk in two minutes," he said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Giordano struck a defiant note in his response. "I have no intention of resigning. If he thinks he's going to bully me like he bullies everyone else, he doesn't understand who I am or how deeply I care about the work I do," he said.
