By Jodi-Marie Masley/ Star-Ledger Guest Columnist

The unveiling of Gov. Chris Christie’s budget makes clear what so many teachers already knew: Behind all the teacher-bashing rhetoric lies a campaign to degrade the quality of public education in New Jersey.

New Jersey has been known nationwide for its stalwart schools. If Christie’s budget is allowed to pass, that will soon be a distant memory. His budget represents an outrageous attack from a man whose children are in private school and who has a bizarre vendetta against public schools.

Our school district, Bridgewater-Raritan Regional, is facing a 55-percent reduction in state aid for next year, in addition to what has already been cut from the current year. We simply cannot sustain that level of damage to the education we are obligated to provide our youth.

Christie’s cuts are not trimming off fat. They were already hitting the meat and bone of the public education system, and now they have gouged the marrow. His cuts are resulting in massive layoffs of teachers, causing the student-teacher ratio to rise dramatically. It is well known in education that the more class sizes grow, the less education can take place for each individual student. In this situation, the most self-sufficient will get by, but struggling students will be left behind. Teachers will be classroom managers more than educators. That is not what a New Jersey education is about.

Students will also suffer because important programs are being cut. Reading recovery and programs for the disadvantaged, foreign language, high school electives that many students rely on to keep them interested in school, after-school programs and clubs, sports and other activities are all washing away in the flood of Christie’s Draconian cuts.

What are our youth supposed to do? Under Christie's regime, they will languish. They will not develop as they should, in the tradition of a strong New Jersey education.

Christie must be stopped. No man should be able to wreck the education of the youth of this state with a budget that has its priorities completely backwards and violates the state school funding formula. No one should have the power to rob our children of their right to a quality education and programs that allow them to develop and flourish. Our children deserve better. If the state's lawmakers do not put an end to this shameful mockery of public policy, they will have forfeited the right to look any child in the eye and claim to have his best interest at heart. And they should be promptly removed from public office.

Jodi-Marie Masley is a teacher in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District.