Bret Schundler says he is a great believer in educational accountability, willing to take on the statewide teachers’ union to establish a system that links teacher job security and pay to student learning. But there are limits to the education commissioner’s commitment to accountability. And those limits are based, not on union pushback, but on his own ideology. A former Democrat but now a self-described “Republican with libertarian instincts,” he doesn’t want to see too much regulation of private schools that receive public money. “We regulate everybody but we’re not going to regulate everybody the same,’’ said Schundler.
The contrast between Schundler’s insistence on close accountability in public schools and his instinct to preserve the independence of private schools, even private religious schools that operate with public money, is striking.
The central focus of Schundler’s accountability effort is the creation of a statewide, centralized data base that would allow the state to determine what factors — including the performance of individual teachers — result in student learning.
Can the state develop a system that shows correlations between individual teachers and student learning? “Absolutely,” he said. In two years or less.
“Once you put all the data points into a large collection, once you put all that stuff into the system, you can begin to measure the impact of an independent variable,” said Schundler. “You’ll have amazing data.’’
Amazing data that can be used to pay teachers bonuses or deny them a job.
But, when asked whether that same level of scrutiny should be applied to non-public schools, Schundler — once active in a number of state and national organizations promoting school choice and vouchers — demurred.
“I would make sure the money is used for education,’’ said Schundler, who called parental choice a “human right” and was chief operating officer of a Christian college in the Empire State Building.
He added, “That’s an appropriate measure of accountability.’’ He cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s warning against “excessive entanglement” of government with religious schools.
He said it’s like the difference between the government giving food stamps so people can buy food from a farm and the government actually running the farm.
When praising the idea of a massive data base that can be used to evaluate teacher effectiveness, he cites the policies of President Barack Obama and his administration’s “Race to the Top” program.
“The president said educational effectiveness should be used for compensation, promotion, and retention,” said Schundler. He wants to build that capability into the state’s application for hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money.
But “Race to the Top” doesn’t really require basing job and pay decisions on student achievement, although the feds do cite the link between “educational effectiveness” and teacher evaluations as “evidence” of reform.
And “Race to the Top” also insists on year-to-year maintenance of state funding for public schools. It further requires, according to the Federal Register, “Financial data to show whether, and to what extent, expenditures, as a percentage of the total revenues available to the state increased, decreased, or remained the same.’’
So Schundler’s desire to change tenure may not be motivated by federal initiatives like “Race to the Top.” The lack of a new tenure system won’t necessarily disqualify the state from receiving more federal aid — anymore than the Christie Administration cuts in state school aid would automatically disqualify it from receiving more Washington money.
Schundler, unsurprisingly, backs his governor on the cuts in school aid. He expects the issue to come before the state Supreme Court. He said he is prepared to argue to the court that schools can be thorough and efficient — as required by the state constitution — with the amount of money the state will provide.
“There is ample evidence that what we’re providing is sufficient so that a thorough education can be provided,” said Schundler. He said the state will provide the court with examples of schools that work effectively even with reduced funds.
Schundler is the first elected official to be named state education commissioner, a position once so independent its term outlasted that of a governor. He also is the first candidate for governor to get the job — he lost to Jim McGreevey in 2001.
He said he ran for governor to push his educational agenda. He never thought another governor would “have the courage” to appoint him to the top schools post. Star Ledger
Nice to see Mr.Dancer in the Pic. A TRUE friend of Lakewood