NJ mom calls out Democrats for 'infuriating' focus on Trump, detention centers as students fall behind

Fox News

13-05-2025

A New Jersey mother argues Democrats in her state are so focused on fighting the Trump administration that they've left their own constituents behind as Garden State students struggle.
"It's really just infuriating," Christina Calvanico Greenberg, a mom of two, told "Fox & Friends" Tuesday.
"My children are 13 and 15. They've gone through the Keyport school system. Our high school has a 14% proficiency rate in science. Why are they not storming and saying, 'What is going on in these districts? You're receiving millions of dollars. You have millions going in. Why is that not a priority?"
A trio of Democratic lawmakers said they were justified in "storming" an ICE facility in Newark last week, arguing that President Donald Trump's administration is "weaponizing law enforcement." Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was also present and was arrested and charged with trespassing.
"Why are detention centers where we're focusing? As a mother, it's incredibly infuriating," Greenberg responded.
The Nation's Report Card indicates that only 38% of 8th graders in the Garden State are proficient in reading, while only 37% are proficient in math.
In February, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy hinted at a brighter future for education by saying the state's budget would provide "the single largest investment" into New Jersey's public schools in history.
"With the funding, we're not merely investing in the success of our state students – which we obviously are – [but] we are also helping every working parent save more of their money because every additional dollar the state spends on public education is a dollar our families get to save in property taxes," he said at the time.
But Greenberg failed to find the words convincing, arguing sky-high costs for educational funding have not yielded satisfactory results.
"I'm a little confused because Keyport is a very blue-collar town. We have a lot of amazing, hard-working people. We also have a very large senior citizen population here. A 20% raise to our taxes was going to be approximately $1,000 to $1,500 per household…" she said, a price tag she says seems impossible for constituents footing the bill.
"I honestly don't know how he's putting his head on the pillow every night," Greenberg said of the governor. "I don't know how seniors in our town are affording this. And I don't know how middle-class families are shelling out that extra thousand dollars a year right now."