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Tags3,200 teachers and staff expected to be rehired
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Without additional comment, Gov. Chris Christie's office Thursday announced that the state Department of Education has submitted an application for the $268 million in federal aid it expects to receive to finance the rehiring of 3,200 teachers and support staff in public school districts statewide.
The lack of public comment may stem from the criticism the governor received from Democratic legislative leaders and those of the statewide teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), for not moving as quickly as they wanted in submitting the application. The criticism was timed to attempt to further embarrass Christie after his administration failed to finish in the money in national competition for $400 million in federal Race to the Top education aid.
The silence from the governor's office didn't stop NJEA President Barbara Keshishian from commenting.
"We are pleased that the governor has finally applied for New Jersey's share of this important federal funding,'' she said. "We continue to be dismayed, however, that he waited until almost the last possible moment to do so. If his objective was to keep 3,900 (officials put the number at 3,200) New Jersey educators unemployed for as long as possible and to create maximum chaos and confusion in our classrooms, he has certainly succeeded.
"While he dragged his feet, other states that applied as early as August 13 have already received their funds,'' Keshishian said "By failing to act quickly and decisively to get this money to New Jersey, Governor Christie ensured that our schools would open with fewer people working and larger class sizes. Nearly 4,000 people who could have gone to work this morning are unemployed today because of the governor's irresponsible delay.
Keshishian added, "Now that we know the money is headed to New Jersey and how it is going to be distributed, the governor should direct the Department of Education to immediately advise every district in the state of how much funding it will receive, so districts can act quickly to begin getting educators off the unemployment rolls and back into our schools."
After Christie cut nearly $1 billion in aid to public schools in the spring as part of an effort to wipe out a budget deficit of over $10 billion, over 9,000 teachers and staff statewide reportedly lost their jobs or retired.
Unlike the some 1,000-page Race to the Top application, the one submitted Thursday is four-pages long. It is signed by both Christie and Acting Education Commissioner Rochelle R. Hendricks."On behalf of the state of New Jersey I look forward to receiving final approval from the department of its award of funds in the near term,‘' Hendricks wrote Joseph C. Conaty, the U.S. DOE's director of Academic Improvement and Teacher Quality Programs. "I also want to thank you and your staff for the continued assistance with reviewing our application and providing guidance related to it.''
