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Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), chairwoman of the upper house's Legislative Oversight Committee, Thursday filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request with the state Department of Education for information regarding how the Christie administration handled the failed federal "Race to the Top" application, which was submitted with an error, that, at least in part, cost the state $400 million in education funding.
The information will be part of the upcoming Senate Legislative Oversight Committee hearing to determine the cause of a flubbed response to a question that caused the state to miss the 10th-place winning spot in the competition which was conducted by the U.S. Department of Education,'' Buono said. "The committee will review the materials and work to ensure that, going forward, similar applications are handled with proper and adequate oversight before being submitted.''
The Assembly is also planning to conduct a hearing on what has become an embarrassing matter for Gov. Chris Christie. No date has been set for either hearing.
"The goal of the (Senate) committee will be to establish safeguards within the preparation process of similar applications to ensure that the taxpayers of New Jersey do not miss out on additional federal funding for which the state qualifies," Buono said in a letter to state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. "To do this, we will need to piece together the chain of events that led to this error."The Education Department answer a question on the application incorrectly and the action bumped the state government out of the race for the coveted funding. Christie accepted blame Wednesday but said Washington bureaucrats who turned the application down because of the mistake are also to blame. Neither the governor nor Schundler would identify the state employees who either made or overlooked the mistake. Schundler has asked the U.S. Department of Education to consider awarding the state $75 million in unallocated Race to the Top funds.
New Jersey finished 11th in the competition just three points behind Ohio for the final position. The question the state failed to answer according to the application's clear instruction was worth five points. Ohio, eight other states, and the District of Collection are sharing $3.4 billion.
"Somewhere along the line, a breakdown in the process allowed an incorrect response to slip through the cracks," Buono said. "We need to determine the exact process the state followed in preparing and proofing this application, and establish the changes necessary to prevent this type of mistake going forward."
The state changed its application for the "Race to the Top" competition over Memorial Day weekend after Christie declined to go along with compromises Schundler agreed to with the New Jersey Education Association, the statewide teachers' union. The initial application contained the correct answer to a budget question involving funding in 2008 and 2009. The final draft included an answer comparing state budget information from 2010 and 2011.
The public records request seeks "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 New Jersey's 2010 application to the U.S. Department of Education for The Race to the Top Funding."
-- TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
