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Kevin Riordan: Christie in his own ivory tower

Since 1962, Rutgers University has presented an honorary degree to nine of New Jersey's sitting governors. Christopher J. Christie on Sunday becomes the 10th; commencement festivities begin at 1 p.m. under the Voorhees Mall elms on the New Brunswick campus.

Since 1962, Rutgers University has presented an honorary degree to nine of New Jersey's sitting governors. Christopher J. Christie on Sunday becomes the 10th; commencement festivities begin at 1 p.m. under the Voorhees Mall elms on the New Brunswick campus.

Rutgers is being magnanimous, to say the least; the governor cut $18.5 million from the university's state funding this fiscal year. If Christie keeps it up, perhaps president Richard L. McCormick will give him the keys to Old Queens in 2011.

The prospect of fireworks as the bully lumbers into the belly of the beast Sunday may be just as far-fetched. (A sneak peek at the governor's planned remarks wasn't available.) A more down-to-earth perspective comes from an elementary school teacher in a small, working-class Camden County town I spoke to last week.

The slo-mo smack-down between the governor and the New Jersey Education Association about teacher pay and benefits worries this veteran educator. But she also recognizes the status quo is simply not sustainable.

The state "can't keep living in debt. We have to give a little," she says, meaning NJEA members.

Not that plenty of teachers don't give a lot already. For example, her colleagues regularly take food to school, especially as students prepare for the "be-all and end-all" basic-skills tests required by the state.

Turns out many of the kids stay up late watching TV. They arrive at school tired and hungry.

"So when the kids don't become proficient," the teacher asks, "who's at fault?"

Um . . . maybe the parents?

Speaking of which, on school mornings my father, a union man who worked two jobs, made breakfast for his six kids. Cream of Wheat in the winter. Yuck.

My mother, a teacher's aide, belonged to a union and retired with a modest pension. (She earned it, and she needs it.)

Busy as they were, my parents made sure we did our homework, went to bed, and had breakfast before we walked to school. It was their responsibility - one they would never imagine passing on to a teacher.

I bring this up because the cartoon slugfest over public education funding in New Jersey has so far offered few glimpses of, well, real people.

Instead, we get blogs about "greedy millionaires" and "union goons." We read letters to the editor that practically salivate with eagerness to punish urban school systems, union leaders, or whomever talk radio is blaming today for New Jersey's real or imagined ills.

Look, after the pallid reign of Christie's predecessor, that Trey Anastasio look-alike with the charisma of a dead fish, lots of people are heartened to see the new governor shake things up.

Our property taxes are preposterous. And our government spends too much of our money trying to do stuff (like raising children) we should do ourselves.

We've got more than a budget to balance. We've got a culture to change. So we need more than snark from Rutgers honoree Christie.

Enough with the jokes about the difference between public-sector employees - of which he has been one for most of his career - and "everyone else."

(Good old class warfare, once a specialty of the Democrats, now a Republican tactic. And still worthless.)

Enough with scapegoating teachers by scapegoating the NJEA leadership.

Enough with the bluster about how he's the biggest, the baddest, and the boldest, and how he won't back down.

We've heard it, and we get it.

What we need now is gubernatorial leadership, persuasive, inclusive, and, yes, gutsy enough to bring along not just those in the amen corner, but folks like the Camden County teacher. Or even Senate President Steve Sweeney, on occasion.

The honorary degree McCormick will present cites Christie's "strong will" and "courage."

The governor's got more than enough of the first. Let's hope he's got enough of the second, too.