Chris Christie Says Obama Is 'Great Ally' On Education Reform

By Dave Warner

New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie on Wednesday declared himself an ally of President Obama and his administration on education issues.

Speaking at the governor's mansion, known as Drumthwacket, after private talks with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Christie said he and Duncan "have a lot in common ... in the education reform agenda."

"He has been a great ally to try to reform education for kids across America," Christie said.

Christie, who is considered a rising star in the Republican Party, praised Duncan as an "extraordinary leader on this issue."

He also said, regarding Obama and the education agenda, "I consider myself an ally of his."

Duncan concurred that he shared with Christie a sense of urgency on the education issues, saying "we have to get better for our country."

He praised reform efforts currently under way in Illinois, where he said the state government and unions were working together on a reform agenda.

In New Jersey, by contrast, Christie and the New Jersey Education Association have been firing away at each other on Christie's proposed education reforms, particularly on the issue of tenure.

In a recent statement, Barbara Keshishian, president of the association, said, "Unfortunately, most of his proposals represent a top-down, corporate carrot-and-stick approach that has no basis in reality in the public schools."

Christie, a fiscal conservative often mentioned as a potential contender for the White House, has said he aimed to restore "hope" to New Jersey students, borrowing the tagline of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

(Editing by Chris Michaud and Greg McCune)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[dakos1]

02:43 PM on 04/28/2011

@ SisterAnn -

The statistics don't back what you are saying at all. How would allowing parents to have a choice where there kids go to school ruin the system? Your argument makes 0 economic sense and goes against logic. You are basically saying that we have to support all schools, even bad ones, because vouchers support the rich? What rich? Charter schools spend LESS than school districts, usually by 30% per student!!!

Do you realize that the system we have in place now rewards bad teachers and failing curriculum? Do you know that the average classroom in New Jersey costs around 250,000 dollars and the number goes even further up in the worst districts. Take out the teachers salary, which is on average 55,000 dollars and you can begin to see the waste.

Explain how we use vouchers in other programs in government without much issue but education can't be done in the same manner?

Why is giving someone the choice of what food they can buy with food stamps can't be given the same choice about their education?

Also, please explain it in a way that makes sense. The arguments set forth by the NJEA and other unions are completely biased and are filled with lies.

[waltonj3]

01:09 PM on 05/09/2011

The dirty secret of all school vouchers is that they disproportionately help affluent, primarily caucasian families subsidize their education while neglecting the poor and lower middle class. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the amount of people going into education dips (and it's coming soon). People focus on the pay, but as a public school teacher myself, it's the lack of respect and the toxic discourse which is causing most teachers to throw their hands up and look at other options. It's tough enough in a district with advantages, I can't even imagine working in a place like Detroit, DC or Chicago where the population is at risk and the curriculum leaves no room for good teaching.

Privatizing schools by nature will bring in business and corporate interests which in turn will bring in their priorities. Keeping schools on a local level to some degree reflects the community standards (for better or worse). I'm amazed that people can't see how corporate interests in education will ultimately lead to corporate culture in schools. As we've seen from the last twenty years, this is a terrible model as their product (students) can't be bought and traded.

[hershobr]

12:14 AM on 04/23/2011

Vouchers for charter schools to save American education please.

[salviati]

06:59 PM on 04/22/2011

I think he is an ally of yours on practically every issue Governor Christie.

[SisterAnn]

03:55 PM on 04/22/2011

My impression is they want to make schools a profit center.

The conservatives and republicans are not going to stop until they can charge us for air.

Even with public schools, school is expensive. Add on tuition etc as it will be hopeless.

I suppose we can pay for their grade school education while they are in high school. And pay their high school education lumped in with their college education.

Sometimes I marvel at how the average American and how they have stood up under all the things they have to deal with. The rich, the corporations, the government and the republicans all seem to think the middle class have an endless amount of money to pay taxes, pay a mortgage, pay for school, pay for different insurances, food and gas etc. Even if they have lost their job!

[Jamesb333]

01:54 PM on 04/22/2011

African Americans in general have a problem with teachers. Oprah certainly did public school teachers an injustice when she devoted two or three shows to that silly movie Waiting for Superman. They need to look at their own home life before they tee off on teachers.

[nypoet22]

04:26 PM on 04/21/2011

it's unfortunate the extent to which obama has thrown teachers under the bus. the central falls, rhode island incident shocked me awake. until then, i had thought perhaps the president was just following some sort of intricate plan to win real improvement. now i think he must really be horribly misinformed. at least i'm hoping that's the case, because the alternative is even less palatable.

[JeffBryant]

03:54 PM on 04/21/2011

You think being an ally of Christie is bad. It get's worse. In an interview with education pundit Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, Republican Congressional Representative Duncan Hunter stated, "If you hear Arne Duncan speak or the President speak on education, you could substitute Michele Bachmann in there, for the most part. They sound very Republican-ish, they might be at the American Enterprise Institute giving a speech on education"
http://bit.ly/fk6X8r

[Tauna Rogers]

02:49 PM on 04/21/2011

Obama should be embarrassed and humiliated to have Gov. Chris Christie call him an ally in ed reform. But then Obama's administration celebrated sending the Three Bipartisan Stooges of Ed Reform (Arne Duncan, Newt Gingrich, & Al Sharpton) around the country celebrating Disaster Ed Reform, otherwise known as Race to the Top.

And the truth is...Obama and other neoliberal Democrats (like Democrats for Education Reform) ARE allies in the destruction of public education. We are losing a comon good, a critical foundation for democracy, which has served this country far better than the public has been led to believe.

[hershobr]

12:15 AM on 04/23/2011

They are trying to save public education through public vouchers for charter schools which help everything. What is one negative to public vouchers?

[blindhog]

01:11 PM on 04/21/2011

Christie and others, have you figured out how you're going to deal with the wealthy and powerful rich parent, who for some reason doesn't like a teacher and wants the board to get rid of him or her??????????? That is the situation many workers who don't have union support are in-------------JOBLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SisterAnn]

03:59 PM on 04/22/2011

Christy won't care, he and his friends will be counting their money they make off of privatizing school. They probably won't privatize them all, just those whose district has money. It depends on if the government subsidizes them.

[robnelsong]

01:40 AM on 04/23/2011

I'm completely off topic but somehow you have appeared on my HP "ignore list" which is clearly an error, given that I an a fan of yours. Please F&F me again because I really enjoy your commentary and I'd really like to keep up with your remarks­. Keep up the good fight!

[pray4words]

12:17 PM on 04/21/2011

wow a republican working at being ethical not selfish ...I will wait and see what comes next...just do not trust any republican right now

[cmr86]

12:35 PM on 04/21/2011

And dems are any better?

Both parties are a bed of snakes.

[LeftLeanWing]

11:26 AM on 04/21/2011

and dont skimp on the Pâté

[LonosCurse]

09:17 AM on 04/21/2011

What? Which Obama is he talking about?

[cmr86]

12:35 PM on 04/21/2011

Obama's education stance kinda sucks.

[LonosCurse]

01:02 PM on 04/21/2011

Without getting into the validity of your comment, what I was alluding to was the fact that if Obama says it's Thursday, any good Republican will claim that it's Monday.

[nypoet22]

04:20 PM on 04/21/2011

understatement of the decade

[ptrgamb]

06:31 AM on 04/21/2011

Well, some of the Republicans who've been praising him will stop that now

[ObamAtomic]

02:24 AM on 04/21/2011

What, he need some money now?

[TFT]

02:21 AM on 04/21/2011

He is a great ally of Obama's on education reform. They share the same vision. They believe kids need to educate their way out of poverty, and it's teachers that keep kids down, or something like that (folks around these parts agree, btw).

[cmr86]

12:36 PM on 04/21/2011

Just the latest in Horatio Algerian metanarratives.

[hershobr]

12:16 AM on 04/23/2011

Teachers unions, not teachers.