Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina: on Education

Arne Duncan: OpEd: Supports merit pay but it is a politicized process

I can't answer if I think merit pay is good, because I don't know what the merit is based on. If it's based on total community involvement, taking into account the area and the parents and the support of the community itself, that's something else. But if it's going to be based solely on a standardized score, I don't know. If you leave it up to individuals, then you're just leaving it open to corruption. I just think there's too many ways to bastardize the system.

This is coming out of Education Secretary Duncan's office, too. And it has been proven many times that it doesn't work. It destroys the integrity of the profession within the school building. It's very divisive in its nature. It doesn't encourage harmony and cooperation. It flies against that philosophy. They say it does, but it doesn't. Talk to school systems that have it; colleges have it. It becomes a very politicized process.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.53-54 Feb 17, 2011

Barack Obama: Increase school choice & accountability within NCLB

President Barack Obama has been attempting to have the NCLB law rewritten by making accountability even tougher and making school choice more available to parents of children in failing schools. In fact, Obama and Governor Christie appear to be on the same page when it comes to education reforms such as merit pay although Obama has not gone to the same extreme as Christie in his plan to repeal state tenure laws for teachers. Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 91 Feb 17, 2011

Barack Obama: To make a difference for kids, become a teacher

President Obama [said in his] State of the Nation address: "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. "In South Korea, teachers are known as 'nation builders.' Here in America, it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect."

A short time later Obama continued, "In fact, to every young person who's listening tonight contemplating their career choice: 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."

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

Bill Clinton: Pushed for voluntary national school standards

When Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, it was not the first time that an American president tried to influence public education.

Reagan had unsuccessfully attempted to bring school vouchers to fruition. Clinton unsuccessfully tried to establish national standards for all states albeit on a voluntary basis. But by the time Bush II became President, he had a Republican Congress that was ready to pass his platform. But Bush II had a Republican Congress that was ready to pass his platform

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 89 Feb 17, 2011

Bret Schundler: Fired as Education Commissioner after failed $400M grant

Perhaps the most egregious mistake of the Christie administration in the Governor's first year in office was New Jersey's failed Race to the Top application to the federal government. This fiasco would take on even greater importance when Gov. Christie fired his Education Commissioner Bret Schundler.

"Race to the Top" money was being made available to the ten states which scored the highest on a federal application. Despite lack of support from the NJEA, New Jersey was named one of the 19 finalists. [Prior to the application] Schundler announced that he had reached a compromise with the NJEA. But Gov. Christie vetoed Schundler's compromise deal with the NJEA and the application was submitted without union support.

Had Schundler's original application been filed, N.J. would have likely finished 4th, thus earning $400 million. Instead the application was three points short of the 10th spot. [Because the application also included a clerical mistake], Schundler took the heat.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.104-105 Feb 17, 2011

Bret Schundler: NJ lost $400M in federal funds due to lack of union support

Let's examine the compromise that Schundler agreed to with the NJEA by looking at more of his testimony before the senate committee.

"We submitted a strong application to the Federal government in connection with the Race to the Top grant competition and almost overcame steep odds against us," testified Schundler. "With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, states were competing aggressively, and to beat the favorites, NJ needed to overcome disadvantages in 3 areas that accounted for a lot of competition points.

its lack of union support for proposed reforms
the fact that so much of its reform agenda was in the proposal stage, not already enacted; and
its inferior education data-tracking capabilities."

"The NJEA asserts that if Christie had accepted those compromises, NJ's grant application would have won union support, causing us to finish in 4th place, and to win $400 million for our schools. The Governor made a bad decision when he vetoed our agreement." Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.111-112 Feb 17, 2011

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Chris Christie: 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

Christie Todd Whitman: Failed to make full payments into state pension system

According to Christie's state treasurer, the amount of unfunded liability for the state pension system increased by $8.05 billion in the past year to a total of $53.9 billion. That doesn't include another $66.8 billion of free health care for retirees.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 26 Feb 17, 2011

Cory Booker: 2010: Appointed to oversee $100M donation to Newark schools

What is disturbing, however, is the ease with which celebrities and national figures have disparaged public education. What do they know about the issue other than what the read or hear? The last time any of them probably stepped in a classroom was when they attended high school.

The money Zuckerberg donated to the Newark schools came with certain restrictions. The biggest restriction was that Zuckerberg wanted a say on how the schools were run. And his first demand was that Booker be put in charge of the schools. Of course, NJ state law prevents that. So Christie had to get creative, and named Booker as his representative to the Newark schools.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.142-143 Feb 17, 2011

Cory Booker: OpEd: $100M gift to Newark schools was a publicity sellout

[After receiving $100 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a donation to the Newark public schools,] the first thing that Booker did was to order a survey of the Newark community to find out what was wrong with public education in Newark. An organization called PENewark spent over $1 million conducting the survey, which was later called too vague by scientific experts to relay any meaningful information. So after spending $500,000 on advertising and another $500,000 on salaries, Newark has to conduct the survey again, this time with the help of education experts from Rutgers and NYU.

Zuckerberg's monumental gift was played for all the publicity it could get on Oprah Winfrey's show and it certainly did help the public forget about the Race to the Top fiasco. But the fact that Christie and Booker were selling out to Zuckerberg in order to get their hands on his money did not sit well with many educators.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.143 Feb 17, 2011

Cory Booker: Supervises Newark schools by gubernatorial appointment

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

George W. Bush: OpEd: NCLB is right idea but under-funded & over-complicated

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

Mike Bloomberg: Included among celebrity philanthropists who fund schools

Gov. Christie made an appearance on Oprah with Newark Mayor Cory Booker to accept a $100 million gift from Mark Zuckerberg, who started up the wildly successful social network Facebook. Zuckerberg's appearance on Oprah Winfrey was just one of the latest examples of celebrities or wealthy philanthropists jumping on board the education bandwagon. Bill Gates and his wife Melissa, of Microsoft fame, have been contributing to education through their foundation for years. So has NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and even Sam Walton, the owner of Wal-Mart, has established a foundation to give away money.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.142-143 Feb 17, 2011

Mike Bloomberg: Pushed for mayoral control of city school system

Bloomberg has the power to make policy decisions concerning his city's schools. The single biggest reason that a mayor should not control a school district is that it would put too much power in the hands of the single chief executive of both the city and its schools. It is a recipe for disaster because the mayor in control will be primarily obligated to govern the city first, and that could come at the expense of the school system.

The perfect example [is that] Bloomberg is anticipating municipal cuts that could amount to a billion dollars [of reduced state aid]. Bloomberg has already warned that a cut of that magnitude would mean that he would have to lay off as many as 15,000 teachers in the city. That figure amounts to the number of teachers that NYC has hired over the past 5 years.

Bloomberg has already called for the power to terminate ineffective teachers first. The NYC teachers' union has strongly condemned Bloomberg's call for the abolition of tenure and his layoff plans.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.162-163 Feb 17, 2011

Richard Codey: Lt.Gov. created after Codey led both Legislature & Executive

Far too often in the past NJ has had to see the State Senate President step in as Acting Governor when the elected Governor had to step down for any reason. We saw this occur when Christie Whitman resigned to head the EPA in the Bush Administration and again when Jim McGreevey resigned over the whole flap with his reputed homosexuality and the naming of Israel's Golan Ciprel as the State's head of Homeland Security.

Former Senate President Dick Codey was one of NJ's most popular Governors in the time he spent as Acting Governor. However, the state legislature felt that having one person hold the leadership position of 2 of the 3 governing branches of government was far too much power in the hands of one person. So the position of Lieutenant Governor was created.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.174 Feb 17, 2011

Ronald Reagan: Espoused school vouchers as part of educational reform

When Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, it was not the first time that an American president tried to influence public education. Earlier presidents had tried different strategies to upgrade the educational process in this country, some successfully and some not.

Reagan had unsuccessfully attempted to bring school vouchers to fruition. These would have spent public funds on tuition for private or religious schools. Bill Clinton unsuccessfully tried to establish national standards.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 89 Feb 17, 2011

Thomas Kean Jr.: $6,000 voucher for elementary school; $9,000 for high school

The legislature is debating passage of a bill called the Opportunity Scholarship Act. This bill introduced in the Senate by Democrat Ray Lesniak and Republican Tom Kean, Jr. calls for a 5 year pilot program that would allow eligible low income students who attend chronically failing public schools to be given awards of either $6,000 (elementary school) or $9,000 (high school) that would cover in full a year's tuition at any participating public or non-public (read private) school.

In effect, this would be a school choice program that, in 5 years, could result in as many as 19,000 students abandoning public schools for charter or private schools. The money for the program would be donated by corporations into a scholarship fund, which would be controlled by a selected non-profit scholarship organization. Should there be more students that apply than money is available, then a lottery would be held to choose the students who will win the wards.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p. 29-30 Feb 17, 2011

Tom Menino: First mayor to gain control of big-city school system

Is there a current trend to give mayors of large cities the decision making power over school districts? It would certainly appear so. As of March, 2009, 11 of the country's largest cities had school districts being controlled by mayors and the number has probably increased since then.

[NYC Mayor Mike] Bloomberg is the most visible of the mayors in this position since he runs the largest city in the US. In 1992 Boston Mayor Thomas Menino was actually the first city mayor to gain control of his city's school system. Bloomberg followed suit when he was elected in NYC and other big city mayors have followed.

The single biggest reason that a mayor should not control a school district is that it would put too much power in the hands of the single chief executive of both the city and its schools. It is a recipe for disaster because the mayor in control will be primarily obligated to govern the city first, and that could come at the expense of the school system.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.162-163 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 definitions & background information on Education. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Chris Christie on Education. Click here for more quotes by Cory Booker on Education.
*Candidates and political leaders on Education:*
*Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:* GA:Chambliss(R) IA:Harkin(D) MI:Levin(D) MT:Baucus(D) NE:Johanns(R) OK:Coburn(R) SD:Johnson(D) WV:Rockefeller(D) *Resigned from 113th House:* AL-1:Jo Bonner(R) FL-19:Trey Radel(R) LA-5:Rod Alexander(R) MA-5:Ed Markey(D) MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R) NC-12:Melvin Watt(D) SC-1:Tim Scott(R)	*Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:* AR-4:Tom Cotton(R) GA-1:Jack Kingston(R) GA-10:Paul Broun(R) GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R) HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D) IA-1:Bruce Braley(D) LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R) ME-2:Mike Michaud(D) MI-14:Gary Peters(D) MT-0:Steve Daines(R) OK-5:James Lankford(R) PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D) TX-36:Steve Stockman(R) WV-2:Shelley Capito(R)	*Retired House as of Jan. 2015:* AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R) AR-2:Tim Griffin(R) CA-11:George Miller(D) CA-25:Howard McKeon(R) CA-33:Henry Waxman(D) CA-45:John Campbell(R) IA-3:Tom Latham(R) MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R) NC-6:Howard Coble(R) NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D) NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R) NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D) NY-21:Bill Owens(D) PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R) UT-4:Jim Matheson(D) VA-8:Jim Moran(D) VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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