Chris Christie’s blunt style of dealing with critics has made him an Internet star, and the latest addition (courtesy of the Newark Star Ledger) to that genre should add to his reputation. When asked on a call-in television show about how he has cut the education budget while sending his kids to private school, Christie shot back, “It’s none of your business.”

That clip will almost certainly go viral in the coming days–amusing conservatives and enraging liberals who will consider his response arrogant. And the critics won’t be completely wrong. If Christie were acting in such a way as to limit the opportunities of other children while his own children were enjoying benefits not available to others, then where his kids go to school would be the business of the public. The fact President Obama sends his children to an elite private school while seeking to kill opportunity scholarship vouchers for poor kids is just such an example of hypocrisy that is very much the business of all Americans.

But as much as those five words will likely be the only part of the exchange that is remembered, the rest of the response was actually quite thoughtful and appropriate.

Christie went on to explain he and his wife paid $38,000 in taxes, and  because they believed religious education should be part of their children’s lives, they were sent to parochial schools. But that didn’t mean he had no right to make decisions about what is best for the public education system. His argument is he is doing what he can to “improve” the opportunities of every child, not just his kids, even though the unions and the state education bureaucracy oppose those decisions. He’s right, and it should be pointed out this is the opposite of what Obama has done. It should also be pointed out  keeping the state from going bankrupt and improving his fiscal health is good for all of New Jersey’s citizens, including its kids.

So while Christie was wrong to say the issue is “none of your business,” he’s right to assert that being the parent of religious school students doesn’t disqualify him for office or that he is obligated to raise the state’s already exorbitant taxes or to funnel unlimited cash to education bureaucrats and the teachers’ unions.