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Christie's Latest Hissy Fit Cost You $45

by: vmars

Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 10:45:43 AM EDT

promoted by Rosi

One thing to keep in mind when thinking about why we didn't get $400 million offered to us by the feds is that we were on the bubble exactly because the Christie application sucked. Had the application not been so bad that we were on the edge of acceptance, the error made in the Christie application wouldn't have meant anything.

A second thing to remember is that there was once an application - negotiated by the Christie administration's Commissioner of Education Bret Shundler and the NJEA - that would have scored high enough to get the $400 million. That application also didn't have the error that cost us $400 million. But Christie threw a another hissy fit when he heard about it on the news instead of from Shundler, and tossed that application out.

Instead of just changing the parts he didn't like, Christie appears to have started from scratch as part of his hissy fit. As a result a question that was simply factual and had no bearing on the NJEA-Shundler negotiations was removed and replaced with the wrong information. And that led to the loss of $400 million during a massively problematic fiscal era.

Now, for some reason, people like Christie and Bob Braun want to blame the feds. There's some need in the media to make all things equal, and even in a situation where it's obvious what happened they need to blame both sides equally.

But there are only two explanations I can see for this disaster. The first is that Christie intentionally tanked the application in an effort to continue hurting the public schools to the extent where vouchers appear to be the only solution. Or that Christie intentionally mis-wrote the answer to that question in order to hide funding cuts by the previous administration in some effort to improve his own standing or image. I find conspiracy theories like this not terribly realistic, in no small part because Christie's not that clever.

The more likely is that it was Christie's need to be in control, his hate of the NJEA and his inability to play well with others that lost this money. Essentially his pissy temperament - the same one that got him in trouble as a Freeholder and was so respected by the media as US Attorney - just cost every resident of the state of New Jersey $45. It's incompetence of the worst kind - willful and unnecessary.

Essentially, we lost the money because Governor Chris Christie is an asshole.

vmars :: Christie's Latest Hissy Fit Cost You $45

Tags: Chris Christie, Hissy Fit, RTTP, School Funding, Schools, public scools, Vouchers, (All Tags)

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Christie's Latest Hissy Fit Cost You $45 | 8 comments

Just another Christie tax increase... (0.00 / 0)

n/t

Blog: http://www.deciminyan.org

by: deciminyan @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 15:52:49 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Typical GOP Strategy (0.00 / 0)

"Run Government Like A Business", which of course is absolutely ridiculous. What business would be successful when every four or eight years everyone gets fired and gets replaced by others who are appointed in a non-competitive selection process? It only gets worse in Chrisite's case, becasue he refuses to take advice from the trained, certified, professionals who were there before him and will remain when he disappears.

Today's Star Ledger editorial takes issue with the NJEA. One of the editors obviously feels similiar towards the NJEA as The Governor. Why on earth would the NJEA want to help The Governor? It is not like they just decided to turn their backs on Christie. The most unproductive thing a labor union or politician can do is begin a crusade against another group or politician. It is a last resort. Christie drew first blood (rambo quote) and did not let up. Christie chose to end diplomacy. Prior to Christie's rise to power I'll bet over 50% of NJEA members were inactive. I suspect many inactive NJEA members have become energized because of the atrocities Christie has committed towards education funding and now realize the need for unions as politics attempts to hijack education from those who know how.

If a politician begins a war and does not take the advice of his generals on how to win, he will lose. If a politician does not take the advice of teachers on how to educate students, he will lose. Unfortunately, many students will be left behind in this battle.

"Only a fool would follow a bully"

by: brendanod @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 17:20:19 PM UTC

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Really!??!?! (0.00 / 0)

A second thing to remember is that there was once an application - negotiated by the Christie administration's Commissioner of Education Bret Shundler and the NJEA - that would have scored high enough to get the $400 million.

Please explain, how do you know this?

I've read in the Star Ledger that the reforms Schundler negotiated were not as strong (and would not have scored as highly) as the revised application.

Please explain how you know differently.

"Where ever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 17:46:46 PM UTC

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My Guess (0.00 / 0)

would be that one could sit down and study the winning applications and theorize how the initial Schundler/NJEA would have fared.

What cannot be argued is that the particular question which was answered incorrectly, was answered correctly by Schundler/NJEA. The changed answer that the Christie administration gave was either incompetence, ideology, or refusal to give previous administrations proper credit.

They took a test and failed, just like many of our real students will be doing as class sizes increase and those who need a helping hand will be left behind so only the rich can survive.

"Only a fool would follow a bully"

by: brendanod @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 18:16:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thousands of Grants (0.00 / 0)

are written and applied for each year by NJEA members. The NJEA certainly has the ability to coordinate with its members (who are very successful and have winning strategies at winning grants) to put forward its best effort to apply for a grant that would benefit everyone. We can assume that this is what occured with the Schundler/NJEA agreement. The Governor declined that assistance.

Instead, we let the class bully do the homework and let his intellectual ability shine.

"Only a fool would follow a bully"

by: brendanod @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 18:35:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Normally... (0.00 / 0)

I'd agree with you...

But if you remember from the first round the NJEA nearly convinced the Corzine administration not to even apply for the money. And then, even when Corzine (a union friendly governor) did apply, the application did not enjoy full union support.

Right or wrong (a debate for another thread, and I've seen decent arguments for both sides) these are reforms the Obama administration is pushing and concepts the union vehemently opposes, (ie. merit pay, tenure, senority). It wouldn't have been in the union's best interest to write a proposal embracing Obama's reforms.

"Where ever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 19:39:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I don't know why (0.00 / 0)

Obama is embracing merit pay. Do incompetent teachers exist ? Of course. Just like any profession, there is a percentage of the workforce that should be doing something else.

Teaching is not like selling cars. Sales commision cannot be awarded for simply aquiring good test grades. The best police officer is not the one who writes the most tickets. We all know the most aggressive salesperson is really not the best employee. It is far more complicated than the bottom line. Obama and Corzine (probably even Christie) know this. Your best employees are competent,dependable, and trustworthy. Awarding a sales commision for top grades (or sales) is just going to make teachers compete for the easiest sales route, where the rookies will have the most difficult students and the senior teachers will have the lay-ups.

"Only a fool would follow a bully"

by: brendanod @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 01:37:00 AM UTC

[ Parent ]