The president of the state's largest teachers' union today demanded an apology from Gov. Chris Christie for saying some union members used students like "drug mules" to ferry information about whether their parents should vote in today's elections.
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Barbara Keshishian, president of the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association that has been feuding with Christie, said students and teachers should receive an apology because the words were incendiary and the anecdote used in the quote about drug mules was "factually inaccurate." Keshishian made the comment in a statement she sent to The Star-Ledger.
"You'd think that a former federal prosecutor would get his facts straight before accusing someone of wrong doing," Keshishian said. "But what he said yesterday was outrageous, mean spirited and untrue."
A Christie spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Christie made the comments about the teachers Monday as part of a broader criticism of the NJEA bringing politics into the classroom ahead of the statewide vote. He cited a "mandatory" homework assignment in Monroe Township where students were told to ask their parents whether, and why, they would vote today. School officials and the NJEA defended the third-grade teacher's assignment and said they weren't lobbying for parents' support.
Keshishian's demand for an apology comes only a week after the roles were reversed. Last week, the union president visited Christie in his office to personally apologize for a memo alluding to Christie's death written by union members in Bergen County.
Christie and the NJEA have been in the midst of a public battle since the governor slashed state aid to schools by $820 million and tried to force unions to accept salary freezes by urging voters to reject budgets in districts where teachers have not agreed to take a one-year wage freeze and contribute at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health benefits.
As of Friday, 145 of the state's nearly 600 districts had implemented a pay freeze or cut of some sort, but only 20 of those involved teachers, Christie's office said.
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