I like Chris Christie a lot, but I have to disagree with his response to the woman who asked why he sends his children to private schools when he as governor is cutting funding for public education. He said it’s none of your business.
First of all, this is a gratuitously nasty and snarling response. True, the woman asking was maybe being a little nasty herself, but I don’t see the need to respond in kind. Reagan would never have done so. Second, given that Christie actually did go on to give a rather lengthy explanation for why he sends his children to private school, it was pointless to insist that it was none of her business. Third, he had a very simple explanation, easy to relate, that he wants his children to go to parochial school for religious reasons. Fourth, although the woman was being a little insinuating, the question is not completely illegitimate.
Christie could have said that this kind of question, regarding politicians’ sending their children to private schools, should be directed to your Democratic leaders. They are the ones who stand in the way of school choice and promote ed-school progressive theories that have been cheating public school children for decades. And yet these same Democrats will send their children to private schools, taking advantage of choice they deny to you and refusing to take the medicine they shove down the throats of less fortunate kids. That’s the hypocrisy you should be attacking. We Republicans realize that the public schools need reform, and we stand for measures that would bring significant improvement. Yes, in the meanwhile, we may send our children to private schools, but there is no contradiction there, because we are admitting there are problems in the public schools, we are trying to address them, and we are not pretending that the only issue is lack of funding.