GOVERNOR CHRISTIE

[SnakeTom]

Any opinions on how his Administration failed to get the 400 million dollars that were due for Federal Funding to Education?

Regarding our Governor first let me say that I agree with some of the things he has done (cutting costs) & disagree with others (specifically the firing of Justice Wallace). But with NJ is such a dire financial crisis we can not afford to lose this funding. The Governor's actions & words here are very bizarre to me. First he blames President Obama, then he blames & fires his own Education Commissioner Bret Shundler yet never takes any responsibility himself. Has he never heard of the saying "the buck stops here". His inability to accept reponsibility for his administration reminds me of a prior pirate coach we all know well.

Now I know New Jersey's financial crisis was not created by Christie. We can thank former Governors Whitman & McGreevy for much of our problems in this area. But he was elected to solve these problems (just as Gov Corzine was but failed), let's hope he can succeed but this blunder certainly does not help in this regard.

Tom K

 

[SPK145]

Well, he actually held the person responsible for the blunder ACCOUNTABLE, a notion we never see here in Jersey, especially in Washington, and most egregiously, from the teachers unions.

Of course the Obama administration would do anything to make Christie look bad, no question about that. This mistake could have easily been rectified, no?

This lost money would not help solve the current fiscal crisis. This is money that would be lost or replaced again next year. Would create a false sense of security.

Lastly, education is a state issue, not a federal issue. If NJ needs more money for education, let NJ residents pony up. Ever since the feds got involved with education, the American education system has gone into the crapper.

 

[Muggsy Blue]

The Obama administration played no part in making Christie look the fool; he did that all by himself. Yes, it could have been easily rectified as clearly shown on the video. When Schundler and his team admitted they did not have the necessary budgetary information and asked for permission to come back to that, the committee agreed. Problem is, that they didn't have the information to come back to. That info was on the NJEA's application which oops, the governor sent back to them with a NO THANKS.
When Schundler was forced to rewrite the document over Memorial Day weekend, he left it off. Purposefully, maybe. That would have shown the 08
and 09 school aid figures with much higher school aid. Then they would have to explain the 2 cuts in school aid that totaled over $600,000 made by our illustrious governor.

And correctly, Race to the Top money would not have helped to solve the current educational financial cuts, as it would have mainly been used to fund charter schools. I agree with SPK that education is a state issue not one for the feds. Obama should not be funding charter schools. Let the individual districts pay for educating their own kids. My town as well as most of Bergen County will. If you don't want to pay for education, just do as the governor suggested: Vote your budget down. Seems like sound advice.

I'm glad that NJ lost out in Race to the Top funding and SPK makes a good point that NJ residents should pony up for their own schools.

 

[HALL85]

+1. I never like Schundler as a pick and he's not done a good job. It was a Christie appointment, so he takes accountability for a bad hire. Another issue that is being over-politicized instead of looking at the real impact, like Steve has done. Unfortunately, his post can't be put into a sound-byte so you won't see that mentioned on the news.

 

[Section112]

Race to the Top = a one year solution which solves nothing in the long run.

Christie should suck it up and admit he made a huge mistake in hiring Schundler and say that he is accountable for the mistake that did cost us a one year sum of $400M. Sometimes admitting your mistake and moving on is the right thing to do! He is doing what he can to amend the horrible mistakes of the past four governors but sometimes we all make mistakes and he needs to admit his mistake in this case and move on. He says he is not a politician but this debacle sure looked like he is becoming one.

NJEA still sucks though!

 

[Muggsy Blue]

NJEA is a body of over 200,000 teachers in New Jersey and there is no doubt that they really suck. I would hope that Christie cuts all aid to education next year and shows those teachers what we really think of them.

 

[Section112]

Ahh Muggsy always playing politics. I said the union sucks not the teachers. NJEA does not equal the teachers. I have 4 union members/teachers in my family and they do not like how NJEA operates and they do not think the NJEA has their backs at all. In fact they don't think the NJEA really cares about them much. NJEA is not out there for the kids either which they love to portray in their lame ads on TV.

Clearly this situation is a debacle by Christie and Schundler and they should take the fall for it. The downside is this will just push the NJEA further from the fray of realism and what the state can afford.
This post was edited on 8/31 6:11 PM by Section112

 

[Muggsy Blue]

Politics? au contraire, I meant what I said. I couldn't be happier that NJ lost Race to the Top funds. When a state can cut over $800,000 total from education and defeat 50% of the school budgets in the central and southern part of the state, they shouldn't be looking for federal subsidies. No Obama handouts for New Jersy.

And I respect your 4 teacher relatives that have a problem with NJEA. I think that they should demonstrate that at their retirement by turning down their pensions and those health benefits because with out NJEA, they don't have them.