Even given the current decibel level in politics, the nasty din surrounding the customarily snore-inducing rubber-stamping of local school board budgets in New Jersey last week was something to behold.

Let’s go to the videotape. There was that subtle memo from Bergen County representatives of the state teachers’ union castigating Gov. Christopher J. Christie and ending with a prayer that seemed to want him dead. “Dear Lord,” it read, noting that God had taken the author’s favorite actor, Patrick Swayze; favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett; favorite singer, Michael Jackson; and favorite salesman, Billy Mays. “I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

There was the governor’s tactful accusation that teachers were “using the students like drug mules” to carry information about whether their parents planned to vote — this based on what teachers said was a third-grade teacher’s civic lesson on voter participation that had nothing to do with how they would vote.

And after Mr. Christie urged voters to reject budgets in districts where teachers had not agreed to a one-year wage freeze and new contributions to health benefits, voters defeated 58 percent of the 541 proposed budgets, the highest rejection rate since school boards began keeping track in 1976.