N.J. education commissioner Schundler: 'I made a mistake'
STATE HOUSE BUREAU
STAFF WRITER
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler took full blame Thursday for making a deal with the state’s largest teacher’s union on merit pay and layoff policies before checking with his boss.
“I made a mistake,” he told reporters simply. “It’s not myself who gets to make final decisions for the state of New Jersey. It’s the governor.”
Schundler’s mea culpa was his first public comment about Governor Christie’s last-minute rejection of a reform blueprint that the commissioner spent weeks negotiating with the New Jersey Education Association. Schundler said he should have presented his compromises to Christie before finalizing them with the union last Thursday.
He said that when the governor learned on Friday that the blueprint surrendered plans for individual merit pay and using teacher quality as a factor in layoff decisions, the governor was “very direct” in telling Schundler to add those elements back.
The high-profile do-over centered on the state’s application for Race to the Top, a federal competition with a June 1 deadline for submitting proposals to spur school
CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler testifies before the Senate education commission Thursday.
Schundler’s mea culpa was his first public comment about Governor Christie’s last-minute rejection of a reform blueprint that the commissioner spent weeks negotiating with the New Jersey Education Association. Schundler said he should have presented his compromises to Christie before finalizing them with the union last Thursday.
He said that when the governor learned on Friday that the blueprint surrendered plans for individual merit pay and using teacher quality as a factor in layoff decisions, the governor was “very direct” in telling Schundler to add those elements back.
The high-profile do-over centered on the state’s application for Race to the Top, a federal competition with a June 1 deadline for submitting proposals to spur school