Chris Christie in Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina

On Crime: As US Attorney, won 130 corruption cases and lost none

1995 juvenile justice plan: individualized to child's needs a troubled child's individual needs, rather than given in blocks to community-based agencies. "It really stands the traditional system on its head. Nevertheless, Christie rang up an impressive record of convictions as a federal prosecutor.

During his tenure as US Attorney, Christie did not lose a single case in which he prosecuted public officials on corruption or other charges. He prosecuted 130 cases against public officials in which he received convictions or had the defendants plead guilty.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 17 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: OpEd: NJ schools best in US; only urban districts struggling

Listening to Chris Christie preach to his town hall audience faithful, one might think that NJ has the worst public school system in the nation. Actually, NJ has one of the best public education systems. Its high school graduation rate (82%) is the highest in the country; its high school students have the highest advanced placement scores; it has the highest percentage of 3 and 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool. Where education struggles is in your urban districts.

If only approximately 5% of NJ's schools are struggling and the state still ranks at the top or near the top in all the important testing categories, then why are the drastic education reforms that Christie is proposing necessary?

Yes, urban districts are struggling. Something must be done in those districts to bring them in line with NJ's successful districts. But the truth of the matter is that the state has to solve the problems of poverty, poor family structure and unmotivated students that dominate these urban districts.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 32-33 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: Criticizes NJEA leadership as well as state's teachers

The Governor will answer critics who say that he is vilifying the state's teachers by claiming that he's only criticizing the leadership of NJEA. Yet in almost every town hall meeting, his actions belie that fact. Christie attempts to portray teachers as greedy with a comedy routine designed to show his audience how teachers are paid on a salary scale based on seniority, not on merit.

"You are still alive," Christie mocked as he addresses his Old Bridge audience on the day he announced his education reform agenda. "So you've added another year onto your tenure year. So congratulations. Here comes your raise. Now your performance was awful. You didn't do what we asked you to do. You didn't produce the product we wanted you to produce, but we don't look at that. All we look at is are you still breathing. Congratulations! You are still breathing. Open up the back account; here comes the money. Now it's laughable, right? It's what happens every day."

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 38 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: OpEd: Portrays tenure as lifetime guarantee, but it's not

Public school teachers as well as secretaries and some custodians in NJ are granted tenure by state statute after compiling 3 consecutive years of employment. Once a teacher acquires tenure, however, only 4 basic reasons can affect whether a teacher can be fired. Those reasons, listed in state law, include inefficiency, incapacity, conduct unbecoming, or just cause.

Unfortunately, Christie has portrayed tenure as a guaranteed job for life. And the public is quick to pick up on his attacks. And in today's economic crisis, large segments of the public believe that at a time when many people are losing their jobs, teachers have it way too good.

Although Christie's education reform agenda did not spell out many specifics when it comes to tenure, he has called for replacing it with a system of 5-year renewable contracts for teachers. In other words instead of tenure, a teacher would have to have his or her contract renewed every 5 years.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 68-70 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: Tried to cut school superintendent salaries by edict

Superintendents no longer accrue tenure. Instead they sign contracts of 3 to 5 years in length. That appears to have led to increasingly large salaries because superintendents are like free agents in baseball. Once their contract is up, they are free to shop their talents to any school district willing to pay. If a district feels it has a superior superintendent, it may be forced to pay larger increases to keep that superintendent from leaving. The salaries of superintendents did not approach what they are now when they were able to acquire tenure.

Christie has tried to curtail those huge superintendent salaries by edict, stating that no superintendent should be making more than the Governor. So he invented a sliding scale for superintendents based on student population [and made it retroactive to] February 2011. Several school boards have filed suit because their superintendent's contract was rejected before the salary scale went into effect.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 78 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: More charter schools; ok for private companies to operate

Chris Christie has made no attempt to hide the fact that he wants to make it easier for more charter schools to open in NJ and that private companies should be allowed to bid to receive approval to operate many of those charter schools. In other words Christie wants to bring to NJ privatization. Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 92 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: OpEd: Christie & NCLB push teachers; but not students

On NCLB: "George Bush's heart was in the right place, but his methodology was all messed up. I mean the concept of not leaving any child left behind, to educate all children, is a good concept, but it became incredibly complicated, underfunded and put a heavy reliance on things like standardized testing. As a reform measure, it does not work."

The problems with the No Child Left Behind law are myriad. Several come to mind right off the bat: its dependence on standardized test scores; linking merit pay to test scores; and the goal of achieving 100% proficiency by 2014 is totally unrealistic.

Another huge problem with NCLB that many supporters of the law ignore is that it places no consequences on the students who do not meet proficiency levels. Not once has Governor Christie or any other politician called out students who, in some cases, do not make any attempt at learning. And Christie continually boasts that he tells it like it is.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 93-96 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: Couldn't measure charter success: lost $14M in federal funds

September 24, 2010: Another juicy fact that had not yet captured the public's attention [was] that the State of NJ had also missed out on gaining $14 million that was supposed to have gone to charter school expansion.

In an Associated Press report out of Trenton on November 29th after the Philadelphia Inquirer had reported it earlier in the day, it was revealed that NJ failed to gain the $14 million in Federal funds because the state did not have an adequate plan for measuring the success of charter schools. Federal reviewers found other flaws in the NJ application as well. Of the 17 applications considered. NJ was one of only 5 that were denied. If it had been successful, a total of $150,000 would have gone to every charter school in NJ.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.142 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: Let school leaders get certified by alternate routes

The mayors taking control of school districts: "It would politicize the entire system. It would start making decisions even more political than they are today, especially in our large cities. In NJ, we have enough rules and regulations and laws that require certain backgrounds, certain certifications for you to be running a public school system. Booker doesn't have them."

No, Booker doesn't have certification as a school administrator. Perhaps that's why Governor Christie is pushing, as one of the staples of his education reform agenda, to make it easier for principals and school leaders to gain certification by going through an alternate route. Alternative route programs generally mean that prospects are not required to earn college credits by taking courses in education or to have the appropriate educational experience that would be needed to run a school system.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.166 Feb 17, 2011

On Education: OpEd: Ignores that parents educate kids more than teachers

I would hope that Governor Christie would take President Obama's words from his State of the Nation address to heart. "Let's also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child's success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom," said President Obama. "If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child--become a teacher. Your country needs you."

Notice that Obama said "after parents." The President recognizes that parents and the home environment are THE most important cog in a child's education and THEN comes the teacher. That is directly opposite what Christie believes. As we've seen, the Governor believes that teachers are at least 50% responsible for a student's test scores. Even if that were true, then the other 50% would have to be divided up between the students themselves, their parents and other variables.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.199 Feb 17, 2011

On Tax Reform: OpEd: Vetoed "Millionaire's Tax" on wealthiest New Jerseyans

income tax rates by 10% across-the-board over 3 years; higher-income taxpayers would have seen a greater decrease because they pay more in income taxes. But after Democrats cried foul, the governor backed off that plan and endorsed a Democratic proposal to cut income taxes only for income under $400,000.

Buono is correct that Christie proposed a tax cut last year. But Buono leaves out that the governor dropped his original proposal in favor of a Democratic tax-cut plan that he's supported since July. Does anyone see a trend here in Christie's actions? Virtually everything he is doing benefits what Tractenberg called the "corporate types" or what is more commonly known as the wealthiest New Jerseyans, starting with Christie's vet in a matter of minutes of a Democratic bill to reinstate the so-called "Millionaire's Tax" in the early days of Christie taking office.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 126-127 Feb 17, 2011

The above quotations are from Teachers Under Attack! How NJ Governor Chris Christie's Personal Vendetta Against Teachers Will Destroy Public Education by Mike Spina. Click here for other excerpts from Teachers Under Attack! How NJ Governor Chris Christie's Personal Vendetta Against Teachers Will Destroy Public Education by Mike Spina. Click here for other excerpts by Chris Christie. Click here for other excerpts by other Governors.
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