[Gov. Christie] said the lame duck session will be mostly for education reform, including the Opportunity Scholarship Act voucher program. He attacked the midway proposal by the teachers’ union on tenure reform – from three years to four years and arbitrators instead of courts – with clichéd “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.”
“It’s not in my mind a serious reform,” he said, although he did say state Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz (D-27), of Newark, was willing to work with the administration on a bipartisan plan.
Charles Stile in The Record:
A dramatic overhaul of public education — expansion of charter schools, diluting or scrapping tenure for teachers, taxpayer-financed vouchers for low-income students in select districts — was not a dominant issue in the Seinfeldian legislative campaigns about nothing. But it will be front-and-center in the coming lame-duck session.
Rank-and-file Democrats, especially those with close ties to the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s teachers union, will undoubtedly resist. These are top legislative priorities for Christie, and it so happens to be a top priority for Norcross, who has lately taken on the mantle of education reformer. If both these guys want this, it’s a fair bet that they’ll get a good chunk of it through.
Tom Moran (Star-Ledger), regarding the diminishing common ground between Democrats and the Governor:
Finally, the governor is running out of issues that can attract significant Democratic support. He had that with pension and health reforms, and with the property tax cap. He will have it on some of his education reforms, which are coming up next.
So now, eyes turn to the lame duck session, where education reform is expected to top the agenda. Which leads to this prediction: We wouldn’t be at all surprised to see sports betting, and the Opportunity Scholarship Act, become a priority in lame duck. And see Christie gain a new ally, Sen. Ray Lesniak – a prime champion on both issues – in the process.
And RiShawn Biddle of Dropout Nation:
In New Jersey, school reform-minded Democrats kept control of the state legislature. Garden State senate president Stephen Sweeney — who teamed up with Republican governor Chris Christie to end the nearly-free healthcare benefits negotiated by the NEA (and require teachers to pay more toward their health insurance and pensions) — will not only keep his job, but may end up getting rid of Barbara Buono, the majority leader who voted against the plan (and other school reforms) this year. And Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, who risked her own political capital to back some of Christie’s reform efforts, will also keep her job for now; her backer, state Sen. George Norcross (who stood up to the NEA affiliate this year on school reform), also remains in office.
