Article: Gov. Chris Christie: Sworn enemy of New Jersey's public schools

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Gov. Christie: Sworn enemy of New Jersey's public schools

By Star-Ledger Guest <http://connect.nj.com/user/njoslguest/index.html>

Columnist

May 06, 2010, 6:05AM

By Gordon MacInnes

Noah K. Murray/The Star LedgerNew Jersey Gov. Christie spoke at the

Charter School Association conference last month.There is no other way to

read the actions and statements of Gov. Christie: He is New Jersey's

first governor to be a sworn enemy of public schools.

I use the words " sworn enemy " not because of Christie's frontal assault on

the teachers' union. Any of us who has served in the Legislature,

particularly on one of the education committees, has worried about the

disproportionate power of the New Jersey Education Association. Given its

passivity when Gov. Christie Whitman cut income tax rates and floated the

pension bond issue to make up for the lost revenues, the NJEA bears much

responsibility for the current financial mess and the inadequate funding of

schools and teacher pensions.

Gov. Jim Florio took on the NJEA to reign in salary and benefits costs. Gov.

Tom Kean never attended a public school or sent his children to one. Neither

fact made them enemies of public schools. In fact, as a Republican, Tom Kean

gained much respect for strengthening public education, setting minimum

teacher salaries, initiating the first-ever alternate certification route to

attract non-traditional teachers and the nation's first state takeover law

to protect children in failing districts.

Nor does this conclusion grow from a belief that public education should not

bear its fair share of cost reductions so that New Jersey can avert

bankruptcy. No effort to right the state's finances can ignore the largest

recipient of both state and property taxes.

No, this conclusion grows directly from a review of the governor's budget

moves. In this worst-ever fiscal meltdown, Christie is pushing to take money

from beleaguered public schools to launch the nation's largest program to

subsidize private and religious schools - topping Florida, which spends just

over $110 million. At the same time, his constant references to " shared

sacrifices " exclude either families with incomes exceeding $400,000 or, now,

parents already paying private school tuitions.

The governor proposes to divert $360 million over five years from the state

treasury to help private schools through the economic crunch. These dollars

might have been used to make certain that property tax payers would not be

further burdened by the largest-ever reduction in aid to their local public

schools. These dollars might have been used to reduce the number of teachers

and other public employees who will go onto the state's already swollen

unemployment rolls. Instead, the funds will be diverted to schools that are

not even required to prove that they are doing a better job at educating

students than their hometown public schools.

Initially, Christie wants to limit tuition subsidies to low-income parents

in districts with public schools found failing under a suspect definition.

Fourteen of the schools which would trigger these subsidies are charter

schools - ironic indeed, as the governor and Education Commissioner Bret

Schundler are hailing charters as prime examples of how to save public

education. Almost one-quarter of all charter schools are on the list, while

only 3.5 percent of public schools are.

Not surprisingly, 105 of the 174 failed schools on the list are found in

just five cities: Camden, Trenton, Newark, Paterson, and Jersey City. A part

of the $360 million might have been used to expand efforts to concentrate on

ensuring that children in those districts become strong readers by employing

the approaches taken by (with only two of its 29 schools on the

list) or Union City (with no schools on the list). In these two very poor,

densely populated cities, students perform much better than those in the

" Big Five " or, for that matter, than students attending charter schools in

those districts.

Christie seeks to convince New Jerseyans that their public schools - the

second highest performing in the nation - are such failures that we should

give up on them when the going gets tough.

Never, never, never has a chief executive of New Jersey so flamboyantly

turned his back on the 1.3 million public school students and their parents.

Gordon MacInnes, a fellow at the Century Foundation, was a member of the

state Senate education committee 1994-1998 and was assistant education

commissioner for Abbott implementation 2002-2007.

From: Modrak [mailto:davidmodrak@...]

Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 10:34 PM

'montvilledems@...'

Subject: May 12th talk: Gordon MacInnes

A reminder to all,

Please pass this information on to everyone you think might be interested.

Again, help is needed in getting the word out. If you can spare some time

to make phone calls, let me know and I'll send you phone lists.

Gordon MacInnes, former State Senator and Assistant Commissioner for Abbott

Implementation, will give a talk entitiled, " Education in New Jersey: The

worst year yet, " on May 12th, 7pm at the Church of the Transfiguration (9

Two Bridges Rd Towaco, NJ 07082). The event is free and open to the public.

Desserts and coffee/tea will be served. Sponsored by the Montville

Democratic Club. More information at montvilledems@....

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