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State education chief does not plan to resign
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler does not intend to throw himself on his letter opener in the aftermath of his boss, Gov. Chris Christie publicly criticizing him for agreeing to concessions with the state teachers' union in an effort to assure the success of a bid for $400 million in federal education aid.
In his first public comments since being verbally taken to the woodshed by Christie on Tuesday, Schundler told the Senate Education Committee Thursday he has not considered resigning.
Christie publicly embarrassed Schundler when he said the commissioner did not have the power to make the agreement. Schundler is a former mayor of Jersey City and ran unsuccessfully for governor as the Republican nominee in 2001.
Schundler told legislators he accepts the blame and will continue to support what he and Christie see as an agenda designed to reform state education policies. Schundler said he thought he was confronted with a "make-or-break'' situation when he gave the concessions to the New Jersey Education Association, the statewide teachers‘ union.
On May 27, Schundler and NJEA leaders unexpectedly announced they had reached an agreement that the statewide teachers' union would support the Department of Education's application for a $400 million federal "Race to the Top'' grant. The agreement called for the Christie administration to halt its push for merit-pay bonuses and to allow school districts to ignore seniority when deciding which teachers might be laid off.
The agreement was unexpected because Christie and the NJEA have been at odds since he took office over his plans involving changes in public education.
When Christie learned of the agreement, he became angry and called Schundler to remind him who is charge and said he should have been consulted before any agreement. The governor then had the concessions removed from the application before it was submitted to the federal government on Tuesday.
"It was my mistake,'' Schundler told reporters before appearing before the Education Committee in the Statehouse Annex.
