Four hundred million dollars in education reform funds up in smoke. One Cabinet member fired, then called a liar, leading him to release a meticulous chronology defending his part in the events that precipitated his dismissal. The week-plus episode sparked by New Jersey’s unfortunate flub in the Race to the Top competition would have been remarkable political theater in any case, but it was particularly fascinating to observers this year because it marked the first significant missteps of Gov. Chris Christie’s first year in office.
While the event created a political opening for Democrats, who hope to keep the story going in hearings that begin Tuesday, political analysts said the short-term headache doesn’t appear likely to be a long-term, chronic condition for Christie.
Rider University political scientist Ben Dworkin called it “a speed bump” that tarnishes Christie a bit but is unlikely to deter him from pursuing pension and arbitration reforms, among other major changes, after Labor Day.
“This is not the first mistake the Christie administration has made, but it’s certainly the biggest and the most significant because the public is able to understand it,” Dworkin said. “Most of the other little trip-ups that the Christie administration has had have been inside Trenton politics that few normal people will be caring about. But everybody understands what it means to make a mistake on an application that has consequences — in this case, hundreds of millions of dollars.”
New Jersey was among the states competing for a share of $4 billion President Barack Obama’s administration dangled as an incentive to reform education. Its bid fell just short, though it would have had enough points to win had the state submitted correct budget information in response to one innocuous question.
Christie blasted inflexible federal officials for not accepting late information he said Education Commissioner Bret Schundler provided — only videotape shows that never happened. Christie said he’d been misled and fired Schundler, who insists he actually told Christie’s team he didn’t and couldn’t provide the data in question. Read more in the APP.
4 billion, this is what N J Lost.
Did it ever occur to anyone that Corzine Budget for 2008-2009, had plenty of $$$$in it for Education, now here comes Chris Christie, possibly, someone did not want everyone to know in the state of New Jersey that CHRISTIE, literally CUT SO MUCH MONEY POSSIBLY FROM THthe Education ACCOUNT this year, and somehow wrong figures were given to Shundler possibly deliberately.
IS THIS THE REASON THAT SHUNDLER WON’ LET GO OF CHRISTIE, AND
someone should check Corzine Budget figures, and let’s possibly see if CHRISTIE MAY HAVE CUT EDUCATION more than he wants people to know?,
If you have a coherent thought feel free to express it….
Actually, IMHO, Christie has repeatedly made a very large mistake: he hasn’t acted like a mentch in any of his public interactions associated with the education situation.
I understand the need for what he is trying to accomplish, however, his methods in pursuing his goals are embarrassing. Public shaming/insulting of people when you disagree with them is not a way to govern effectively. It takes good policy and makes it look bad.
This time, public evidence has proven that his administration blew it, but he only individual to accept Harry S. Truman’s ideal of “the buck stops here” is Schundler. For a guy responsible for that error, at least he has the self respect to admit fault – and once he told the truth on that, I completely believe his version of events – Christie knew that he was lying when he blamed others and got his story wrong in public.
I would also tend to believe that Schudler’s compromise with the teachers was better than Christie’s. BTW – it was this change that forced the rewriting of the application, and likely led to points losses much higher than those the everyone is blaming for the loss – remember, NJ lost by three points, and one error was identified, but there were plenty other points lost due to pigheadedness, if not incompetence.
Its not his first mistake and by no means will it be his last. He will do his utmost to destroy the education system in NJ.
this was not christie’s fault! if the NJEA would have signed on, the state would have been given 14 points toward the points needed. with those 14 points, the lost points would have been moot. The points lost were for the wrong year being used, NOT the budget numbers that were used.