Starting today, the 30 second ad will air on both broadcast and cable stations across New Jersey.
"Future" highlights the clear contrast between Jon Corzine who fights for what matters to New Jerseyans and Bush Republican Chris Christie's record of being wrong when it matters most. Jon Corzine was able to cut the budget by billions, but still increase the state's investment in public schools. Under his leadership, he expanded early childhood education and our students now rank at the top of the country in reading and math.
The ad details how Chris Christie would shift tax dollars for our public schools to private schools. He also says he would join Governors Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford and reject stimulus funds, forcing the layoffs of up to 35,000 teachers. Christie has even called early pre-school education "babysitting."
And the ad:
I'll put the documentation below the fold. This is another contrast ad that starts with the positive of what Governor Corzine has done to cut the budget while protecting education. It then closes on the negative with Christie talking about how he would shift tax dollars from public to private, reject stimulus funds forcing layoffs of teachers and called early preschool education "babysitting." The ad closes saying that Christie is wrong when it matters most.
Jon Corzine is fighting for what matters. Now? While he cut the budget by billions he invested more in public schools.
Jon Corzine protected funding for New Jersey schools. According to Education Week "even in an austere budget year, the Garden State found the funds to give precollegiate education a boost, driven in part by Gov. Jon S. Corzine 's high-profile campaign to revamp the way the state hands out money to its schools. The $32.9 billion New Jersey state budget for fiscal 2009, signed by the governor July 1, was a decrease from the previous year's $33.5 billion. But the $7.8 billion it allots for pre-K-12 education is a 7 percent increase over fiscal 2008's amount...[The education funding] also provides extra money for districts with high concentrations of students from low-income families, and it adjusts for regional cost differences." The recently passed Fiscal Year 2010 budget also increased education funding to $8.8 billion. [Education Week, 1/7/09; New Jersey Fiscal Year 2010 Budget]
Our students rank at the top in reading and math.
New Jersey students rank at the top of the country in reading and math. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress a report card issued by the U.S. Department of Education, only one state ranked higher than New Jersey fourth-graders in reading assessment and no states ranked higher in eighth grade reading assessment. In mathematics, only one state ranked higher than New Jersey in fourth grade assessment and only two states ranked higher in eighth grade mathematics assessment. [U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Report Card]
He expanded early childhood education.
Jon Corzine expanded early childhood education. According to the Star Ledger, "Corzine has expanded preschool programs, especially in the cities, He has protected education funding and expanded health programs for the poor, in spite of shrinking state budgets two years in a row." [Star Ledger, 9/20/09]
But Chris Christie? He'd shift tax dollars for our public schools to private schools.
Chris Christie supports school voucher scheme that would drain money from public schools. Chris Christie has repeatedly called "for vouchers in failing school districts. He would grant vouchers for students to go to private schools in their districts or public schools in other districts that accept voucher students." [Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/23/09]
Would reject stimulus funds- forcing layoffs of up to 35,000 teachers.
Chris Christie would reject $2 billion in education funding from President Obama's economic recovery package. On Fox News, Christie was asked what he thought of right-wing governors like Mark Sanford who were rejecting federal stimulus funds. Christie replied, "I think it makes sense. If they're going to put strings on that money that are going to tie your hands and make you expand programs and not be able to have the freedom of choice that people elected you for, then you shouldn't take the money." Sanford opposed federal stimulus funds for education in South Carolina. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services found that $2 billion in federal stimulus money for education for New Jersey has conditions attached by the federal government. The average salary for New Jersey teachers, according to the National Education Association, is $57,000. Therefore, rejecting $2 billion in federal stimulus funding would require approximately 35,000 layoffs across the state to make up for the loss. [Fox News, 5/18/09; Star Ledger, 7/8/09, Office of Legislative Services Report, New York Times editorial, 3/21/09]
Even with stimulus funds, thousands of teachers in other states were laid off in dozens of other states because of plummeting state and local revenue. "How much the federal [stimulus] money has succeeded in stabilizing schools depends on the state. In those where budget deficits have been manageable, stimulus money largely replaced plunging taxpayer revenues for schools. But in Arizona, California, Georgia and a dozen other states with overwhelming deficits, the federal money has failed to prevent the most extensive school layoffs in several decades, experts said....And in some places, teacher layoffs have pushed up class sizes. [New York Times 9/8/09]
Education expert: tumultuous times for education across the nation would have been worse without the stimulus funds. "I've been in public education north of three decades, and these are the most sweeping cutbacks I've seen," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. "But it would have been worse without the stimulus." [New York Times 9/8/09]
Called early pre-school education "baby sitting."Chris Christie. Wrong when it matters most.
Chris Christie called early pre-school education baby-sitting. Chris Christie, when asked in the NJN GOP primary debate about pre-kindergarten funding, Christie said Corzine has decided "the government should baby-sit for children? It's simply wrong." As the Philadelphia Inquirer later reported, "Christie, in a televised debate, likened government-sponsored preschool to state-funded babysitting." [NJN GOP Gubernatorial Primary Debate, 5/12/09]
