Gov. Christie’s application fails to make the grade
NJEA president Barbara Keshishian released the following statement today:
"Last June, Gov. Christie rejected a 'Race to the Top' application prepared by his Commissioner of Education, Bret Schundler, and replaced it with his own. The original application was developed over several weeks in consultation with educational stakeholder groups including NJEA, and it had the support of hundreds of NJEA local education associations, as encouraged by the Race to the Top application guidelines. Gov. Christie's substitute application, which was hastily prepared without input from professional educators, lacked any such support.
"New Jersey's failure to win Race to the Top funding is a direct result of Gov. Christie's misguided decision to hijack the grant application process for his own political purposes. His decision to reject the collaboration required by the US Department of Education cost New Jersey a chance at $400 million.
"He made it clear in June that he was not interested in the input of professional educators in the application process, and he insisted that he knew best what it takes to win this grant. He now owes the people of New Jersey an explanation for why his application failed. And he owes students and taxpayers an apology for undermining a process that could have brought much-needed resources and genuine reform to our state's public schools.
"The original application, which Gov. Christie rejected, was the result of weeks of study, research and collaboration among NJEA, other education groups, Commissioner Schundler and other top NJ Department of Education officials. It contained innovative, research-based reforms, including a novel approach to compensating successful school communities. That application had pledges of support from close to 400 of our local education associations, as well as from NJEA.
"Yet Gov. Christie chose political gamesmanship over the best interests of New Jersey's students and taxpayers. He broke with his own commissioner and submitted his own application, and when it made the list of finalists, he openly boasted that he didn't need the support of NJEA and its members, despite our helping to craft an application designed to bring real reform to New Jersey's schools.
"His irrational, ideological hatred of NJEA -- which led him to throw his own Commissioner of Education under the school bus for cooperating, rather than conflicting, with NJEA -- has led to utter failure, and the loss of desperately needed funds for our public schools.
"Maybe this costly lesson will convince Gov. Christie to realize that collaboration is preferable to confrontation when it comes to building consensus around sound public policy."
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