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TagsSenate committee wants ‘Race to the Top' documents for Sept. 23 hearing
The New Jersey Department of Education missed a self-imposed deadline of 5 p.m., Thursday to provide state Senate Legislative Oversight Committee with documents related to the Christie administration's unsuccessful application for $400 million in federal "Race to the Top'' education aid.
Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), the committee chairwoman, who requested the material under the state Open Public Records Act, said she is amazed by the DOE's failure to meet the deadline.
On Aug. 26, Buono asked then-DOE Commissioner Bret Schundler for "all documents prepared, received, maintained, controlled or otherwise possessed by you, your employees or any independent contractors employed by the New Jersey Department of Education related to, discussing or describing" the state's Race to the Top application.''
Last week, Buono acceded to an appeal from DOE for a nine-day deadline extension, but turned down a subsequent request for four additional days.
Thursday afternoon, Buono and senior staff at the Senate Democratic Office received phone calls from the DOE officials asking permission for the department to provide information as it sees fit. Buono said the reason given was that the state Attorney General's office needed to review documents before they could be released."The department's utter inability to provide the committee with information as required under law either speaks to a heightened level of panic at headquarters of what these documents show, or underscores a greater and disturbing effort to withhold vital information and censor what will eventually trickle out," Buono said. "The people are best served by an open and honest examination of all the circumstances and facts surrounding the loss of $400 million in education funding. While we will not settle for anything less, it has become starkly obvious the administration would."
Michael Drewniak, Gov. Chris Christie's press secretary, said he had no immediate comment on the document issue.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) has introduced legislation to tighten the requirements for public entities under OPRA. She also has asked the nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services to review the current OPRA statute for other weaknesses exposed by her dealings with the DOE that could be closed through new legislation.
"It's become obvious to me through this process that OPRA as it stands is unenforceable," Buono said. "Public officials should not be able to use nuances in the law to keep residents in the dark. The administration is using the law's ambiguities to its advantage to quash this request."
The information is intended to be part of the Legislative Oversight Committee's Sept 23 hearing into the cause of a incorrect answer to a question that cost the state 10th-place in the competition and $400 million in federal education aid. Schundler admitted to making the mistake and in the political uproar that followed, Gov. Chris Christie fired him.
The committee will review the materials and attempt to ensure that, going forward, similar applications are handled with proper and adequate oversight before being submitted.
"The administration's handling of a simple OPRA request has been anything but open and does not serve the public interest," Buono said. "It shows why people distrust state government. What is the governor afraid of? What is the administration trying to conceal by failing to provide the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee with the information it needs to conduct a meaningful hearing?"
— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
