Who says you can't go home? To the strains of Bon Jovi, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie this morning announced his run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination at his alma mater. Christie chose to announce at suburban Livingston High School, where he was senior class president and captain of the baseball team. "Everything started for me here," he told a friendly invitation-only crowd in the gym. "I had to come home."
He was met outside by hundreds of teachers in red shirts from around the state who gathered for a “truth to power” rally. Their handmade signs read "Christie: fat chance" and "Liar, liar, extra-large pants on fire." I know a lot of New Jersey teachers and I have yet to meet one who has anything nice to say about Christie, whom they see as denigrating public schools and endangering their pensions and benefits. They also fume over his support for charter schools and vouchers. A video of Christie going after a teacher who challenged him at a town hall meeting back in 2010 has over 1.3 million views on YouTube and helped put the former federal prosecutor on the national political stage.
As a local school board member when Christie took office, I know that he is the only reason that some costs were reined in. He instituted a cap on outrageous superintendent salaries and demanded that teachers and other school employees pay something towards their previously free health-care premiums. Christie told the crowd in the high school gym that he didn't care about being popular. "I'm not running for prom king," he said. Here are some of his other views on education:
The reform run-down:
We have also done much in the past five years to reform our education system. For the first time in 100 years, we came together to reform tenure, so that failing teachers can be removed from the classroom. For the first time, we brought the concept of performance-based pay to schools in our largest city, Newark, so that we can pay the best teachers more. We’ve reformed and re-energized public education in Camden…. We have expanded charter schools. And together we have enacted urban hope legislation to create renaissance schools in our highest risk districts.
Finally, for four years in a row, we’ve provided a record amount in aid to our public schools, over$11.9 billion in the current fiscal year. But on this, we cannot and should not rest. More school reform is needed. And a great first step would be to pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act, to give parents a choice of a school that meets their child’s needs. Let’s give families an alternative to chronically failing neighborhood schools. Let’s keep driving for better outcomes. Let’s give parents and students more choice.
State of the State address, Trenton, January 2015
Teachers’ unions:
I’ve had tens of millions dollars spent against me. There's commercials right now on the air in New Jersey from the teachers union attacking me: web ads, TV ads, radio ads. In my first term they spent nearly 20 million dollars. During my term, not in the campaign.
We all like teachers but I believe teachers deserve a union as good as they are. And they don't have it now.
New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ Politics and Eggs, Manchester, N.H., June 2015
Hillary Clinton’s donors:
When you watch this presidential race coming up and you look at Hillary Clinton, please make sure you look--to the extent she decides to disclose any of this stuff-- at where she’s getting her money from. Because I am willing to bet you today, that the single biggest interest group that will donate to Hillary Clinton will be the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Guaranteed. Take it to the bank. And then, if she becomes president, she will be a complete defender of an education system that puts as its first priority the comfort of adults not the potential of children.
New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ Politics and Eggs, Manchester, N.H., June 2015
Teachers:
They said it was impossible to speak the truth to the teachers union. They were just too powerful. Real teacher tenure reform that demands accountability and ends the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance would never happen. For the first time in 100 years with bipartisan support, we did it. We believe that the majority of teachers in America know our system must be reformed to put students first so that America can compete. Teachers don't teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they love children.
Republican National Convention, Tampa, Florida, August 2012
Teacher tenure:
We reformed the oldest teacher tenure law in America so that now teachers that get a failing grade can get fired and not have a job for life in front of our children’s classrooms.
Faith & Freedom Coalition “Road to Majority” conference, Washington, D.C., June 2015
Common Core:
For the better part of the last two years…at most of those town hall meetings we have someone stand up and complain about Common Core--parents, educators, who are concerned about it. I felt like we had to give it a fair chance, I think we did. We’ve given it a four-year chance. We don’t have buy in from parents, we don’t have buy in from educators. They feel as if it’s been imposed upon them from Washington, that their voice hasn’t been heard. And if you’re going to have the best local education you can have, you have to have your local educators and those families buying into what you’re trying to do. And so I think what I’ve done is more fair than what anybody else has done, some people just reflexively oppose things.
I wanted to give things a chance to work when it has shown that it can’t, if you don’t then change, then you’re just being stubborn. I don’t get paid, at least not all the time, to be stubborn. So I am not being stubborn on this and as I walked in here today I had two or three different parents come up to me and say thank you for getting rid of Common Core. And so, no decision you make in this regard, especially regarding our education of our children, because it’s an emotional issue, no decision you make will ever be universally popular. So the answer is, that’s the reason I did it, not for other reasons.
State.nj.us/governor, May 2015
The education gap:
We have one of the most, if not the most, expensive K-12 education systems in the country and in our urban areas with economically disadvantaged children we are failing at a startling rate. I think the opportunity gap problem…is exclusively driven by education. You know, education is the great equalizer for all this. And unfortunately in our public school systems and our urban areas-- not exclusively, but in the main-- they’re failing. And it’s because we are trying to teach those children the same we teach other children under different socio-economic circumstances. If you live in an urban area and due to the economic circumstances of your family your parents are working two or three or four jobs to keep a roof over your head and keep food on the table, they’re not home at three o’clock in the afternoon when you get home from school to say: hey, have you done your math homework, let me sit down and read with you, let me review your book report. Lots of people say this is because parents don't care. I don’t believe that. There are some that don't. There are some irresponsible parents… but what’s happening in our society is (Americans) are working two or three jobs to try to make ends meet.
New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ Politics and Eggs, Manchester, N.H., June 2015
Longer school day and year:
We need to approach education different in different areas. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all. How are we still teaching everybody almost the same way that we taught them in the 1800s? Lines of desks, facing forward, looking at a black board or a white board, one person standing in the front of the room from 8:30 or so to 2:30 or so in the afternoon eight months a year. You want to know why we’re not going to be competitive in the world in the next couple of generations? If we don't change that we won’t be. I don’t know, it seems to me having the whole summer off makes no sense for kids who are falling behind.
Those kids in our urban areas who are missing out on opportunity, the problem is they need more instructional time. They need a longer school day. They need to stay in school until six at night so they go home when their parents get home. And they need that time in school for people to help them with their homework, to move them along. We need a longer school year. There’s no reason that K-12 education should be an eight-month enterprise in this country. We pay our teachers full-time salaries for eight month jobs. Who here wouldn't sign up for that gig? Not bad. But it’s not serving our kids. And especially in these challenged areas where they have other socio-economic pressures on them … we need to adjust the model. Why aren't we? One reason and one reason only: the teachers’ union. That’s it.
New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ Politics and Eggs, Manchester, N.H., June 2015
Vouchers:
Let’s give families an alternative to chronically failing neighborhood schools. A great first step would be to pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act, to give parents a choice of a school that meets their child’s needs.
State of the State address, Trenton, January 2015
Democrats:
We believe that we should honor and reward the good (teachers) while doing what's best for our nation's future--demanding accountability, higher standards and the best teacher in every classroom.
(Democrats) believe the educational establishment will always put themselves ahead of children. That self-interest trumps common sense. They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children. They believe in teachers’ unions. We believe in teachers.
Republican National Convention, Tampa, Florida, August 2012
The budget:
We are making record investments in aid to our schools, and this year again I propose to do that for a fifth straight year, with an increase over last year to bring total school aid to over $12.7 billion. For the last four years, we have worked to support the priority of higher education, and this budget again does that, with over $2.2 billion for higher education, including a $20 million increase in Tuition Assistance Grants.
Fiscal year 2016 budget address, Trenton, February 2015
Personal education background:
Christopher “Chris” Christie, 52, was born in Newark and raised in Livingston, N.J., where he attended public schools. He left New Jersey to earn a degree in political science at the University of Delaware and came back home to attend Seton Hall University School of Law. At Delaware he met his future wife, Mary Pat, who had a career in investment banking. They worked together on his college political campaigns and he served as student government president for three years at Delaware. They have four children, who have attended Catholic schools.
Other candidates' views on education are here: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Lincoln Chafee, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, Martin O'Malley, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Jim Webb
