In 'Race to the Top,' a false start by Education Comissioner Bret Schundler
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
June 03, 2010, 5:45AM
New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler at a hearing in Trenton.Love him or hate him, you have to give Gov. Chris Christie this much: He is clear about what he wants.And that makes it all the more baffling that his own education commissioner, Bret Schundler, could strike a compromise with the state teachers union that did such violence to the core principles the governor had set down on education reform.
Schundler, it turns out, was acting on his own without consulting the governor or his senior staff on the content of the compromises. He went rogue.
So it’s no surprise the governor smacked him down, in private and public, and rejected the compromise. The mystery is why
Schundler strayed so far from the governor in the first place, and how the governor allowed such a sloppy mistake to occur.
The dispute centers on the federal Race to the Top initiative, in which