NJ Education Report

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board labels Bret Schundler “The Incredible Shrinking Education Commissioner.” Cute. Schundler’s anorexia, according to the Ledger, is due to his eroding credibility after cutting a deal with NJEA over our Race To The Top application, only to have our governor reject the negotiated agreement.

The Ledger says Schundler shouldn’t resign, just check with his boss more often. Agreed. Who knows? Maybe they’re just good-copping/bad-copping the NJEA. Or perhaps Schundler judged that a strong application without union support would get a thumbs-down from Arne Duncan (in spite of Duncan’s protestations that buy-in is less important than strong reform). Did Schundler second-guess the Feds and decide that it’s better to achieve a détente with NJEA bosses and move forward with a scaled-down version of education reform rather than none at all? As it stands, our application is strategic and bold, yet heavily dependent on the Legislature’s ability to withstand union pressure.