PLAINFIELD — Gov. Chris Christie took his message of education reform to a breakfast this morning honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "There are generations of our children who have lived with our failure and with us assuaging our guilt by just throwing more and more money at the problem and be unwilling to fix what...
Gov. Chris Christie, shown in a file photo, talked about creating hope among children that would bring an end to urban violence and drug problems through better education during a visit to Plainfield this morning.PLAINFIELD — Gov. Chris Christie took his message of education reform to a breakfast this morning honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"There are generations of our children who have lived with our failure and with us assuaging our guilt by just throwing more and more money at the problem and be unwilling to fix what really needs to be fixed," Christie said.
Christie talked about creating hope among children that would bring an end to urban violence and drug problems through better education.
"I truly believe if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were with us today, as he worked toward economic opportunity and voting rights and civil rights, he would recognize its education opportunity which is defining how we bring hope to this next generation of our citizens," Christie said.
Christie has been pushing his education reform since he unveiled a multi-part proposal in September. Included in his proposal are measures to eliminate teacher tenure, which he says will improve education across the board by allowing districts to fire bad teachers.
Christie tied his message of better education to stemming violence and helping people get out of poverty. While his town hall meetings, generally in rural and suburban parts of the state, tend to highlight the economic benefits of improving education, his message in Plainfield was about changing the socioeconimic problems facing the state's urban residents.
"There are tough things to be done and they need to be done for places like this one," Christie said. "They need to be done for our children who want a future where their aspirations and their dreams can be obtained."