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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Montclair teenager gives Gov. Chris Christie an education | NJ.com

Montclair teenager gives Gov. Chris Christie an education | NJ.com

Montclair teenager gives Gov. Chris Christie an education

By Paul Mulshine/The Star Ledger

April 04, 2010, 5:57AM

chris-christie-montclair-school.jpgGov. Chris Christie answers questions from students at Montclair High School.Back in October, when he was a candidate for governor, Chris Christiecame to The Star-Ledger offices in Newark for an interview with the editorial board.
I served him up a softball. I noted that nearby Montclair, that pleasant suburb where so many Star-Ledger employees live, has property taxes that rank among the highest on the planet. If elected, what would he do to help these poor souls?
By way of response, Christie took us on a tortuous path that included creating charter schools in Newark so that eventually he could reduce the massive amounts of state aid to that city so that even more eventually he could go to the state Supreme Court and beg permission to direct a tiny bit of that aid Montclair’s way.
That was bad. What he did upon taking office was even worse. Not only did he fail to increase aid to Montclair, he slashed state aid to the town by 60 percent. And then last week he showed up at the local high school to boast about how well it was all working out.
The kids weren’t buying it. One girl gave the Gov a quiz on the state Constitution. After first noting that the state Constitution provides for "a