>TRENTON — The fragile peace between Gov. Chris Christie and the state’s teachers union ended today, five days after it began.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/race_to_the_top_adds_strain_to.html
The Christie administration submitted an application for up to $400 million in federal education funding that rejected key points the New Jersey Education Association and the governor’s own commissioner of education, Bret Schundler, hammered out last Thursday.
In discarding the compromise, Christie publicly scolded Schundler for agreeing to the deal without his approval.
At the same time, NJEA officials said they were stunned to learn the document submitted to the U.S. Department of Education did not contain the agreements on merit pay and tenure they had worked out with Schundler last week. Those same officials said there is now no chance the union will support the application — which could doom the submission.
The union’s president, Barbara Keshishian, accused Christie of “bait and switch.” She said “the governor has once again chosen the path of conflict.”
The union said it learned of the reversal when it called Schundler’s office Tuesday for an update.
Christie, who has engaged in a sustained attack on the NJEA since last year’s gubernatorial campaign, was unfazed by the union’s reaction. He minced no words in blaming Schundler either, stressing he will not budge from his core beliefs on how New Jersey’s schools can be improved.
“This is my administration, I’m responsible for it, and I make the decisions,” Christie told reporters during a news conference in West Trenton. “I’m sure we’ll have disagreements in the future. Hopefully, we’ll just handle them a little differently.”
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/race_to_the_top_adds_strain_to.html
