Schundler’s blunder
Last Updated: 5:13 AM, August 29, 2010
Posted: August 29, 2010
Comments: 3
PrintJust two days after promising not to scapegoat anyone over the bureaucratic bungle that cost New Jersey federal Race to the Top money, Gov. Christie last week jettisoned Education Commissioner Bret Schundler.
Sad to say, he had no choice.
The problem wasn’t the initial foul-up, in which Schundler’s department included the wrong year’s budget figures on a single page of Jersey’s 10,000-page submission. That mistake put Trenton just behind the lowest state qualifier.
It was that Schundler lied to Christie, claiming he’d tried to give the feds the correct information and was rebuffed — though a video clearly showed otherwise.
“I never promised the people of New Jersey that this would be a mistake-free administration,” said Christie. “However, I did promise that the people in my administration would be held accountable.”
Unfortunately, the fiasco will only further embolden Christie’s enemies — and particularly the teachers union.
From the moment it was learned that New Jersey had lost out on Race to the Top, union officials gleefully noted that the state had also been penalized because the union — the New Jersey Education Association — didn’t back its reforms.
That cost Trenton 14 points on its
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