Ex-N.J. education chief says Christie went too far, while Christie administration criticizes Schundler for 'revisionist history'
Former education chief Bret Schundler at his home in Jersey City Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. Schundler was fired today by Gov. Chris Christie in the fallout of New Jersey's Race to the Top failure.TRENTON — Politically speaking, the day was a fast moving soap opera.
Gov. Chris Christie fired state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler today after the governor said Schundler misled him about what was said during a meeting with federal examiners on the state’s application for a $400 million federal grant.
Schundler said it was Christie who was wrong, and added the governor did what he often does, took a kernel of fact and went too far with it.
The Christie administration shot back, saying it didn’t get anything wrong and Schundler was only damaging himself.
"Frankly, I don’t feel I did anything wrong," Schundler said.
"We regret that Mr. Schundler continues to sully his own image by engaging in revisionist history," said a statement by the Governor. "Mr. Schundler was the Administration’s only source for what occurred in the Race to the Top presentation. All of the governor’s statements were based on Mr. Schundler’s account."
By the time the two sides stopped pointing at each other, Christie’s political capital came into question as did Schundler’s credibility. At issue was what was said during an Aug. 11 meeting between a New Jersey delegation led by Schundler and federal officials reviewing the state’s application for Race to the Top, a multi-million dollar grant.
The more-than-1,000-page education grant application included wrong data for school funding. Instead of giving information requested from 2008 and 2009, New Jersey provided data for 2011. The mistake cost 4.8 points out of 500, and the state fell three points shy of winning money.
In a press conference Wednesday, Christie blasted "bureaucrats in Washington," saying New Jersey tried to furnish the missing data during the presentation in the Capitol, but officials refused to accept it. The next day the U.S. Department of Education released a video of the presentation showing Schundler and the New Jersey team made no attempt to provide the data. It was a flat contradiction to what Christie said at his press conference.
This morning he fired Schundler.
"I was extremely disappointed to learn that the videotape ... was not consistent with the information provided to me by the New Jersey Department of Education, which I then conveyed to the people of New Jersey. As a result, I ordered an end to Bret Schundler’s service," Christie said in a statement.
Schundler, the former Jersey City mayor who founded one of the state’s earliest charter schools, said he never told the Governor he tried to add new information to the state’s application — which would have been against the rules. But he said he told a reviewer the state would have met the application’s requirements had the correct information been included.
Schundler said Christie knew this but got carried away in his press conference.
"I believe the governor gets rolling, and...." he said, trailing off.
Christie’s spokesman Michael Drewniak said Schundler was trying to "cover up misleading the governor."
Schundler said he still does not know how the error in the grant was made, but that he believed it happened in the fact-checking process.
Schundler, who became choked up when talking about the progress the state is poised to make in education, said being commissioner was his "life’s dream."
He also expressed "tremendous disappointment" about leaving the administration, and said he thought "the governor and I were a good team."
Schundler admitted he might have made a slight blunder by telling the governor the conversation with the reviewer happened during the interview, on camera — when, in reality, he said it happened after the camera was turned off.
If New Jersey did produce the numbers on Aug. 11, according to Race to the Top rules, it would not have mattered. While the state could not have introduced new facts, the presentations are held so states can explain what they have written or point to data misplaced in other sections.
Schundler insisted he be fired rather than simply offer his resignation because, he said, he needed to file for unemployment benefits.
"I do have a mortgage to pay, and I do have a daughter who’s just started college," Schundler said.
Schundler and his wife have less than $5,000 in the bank, according to financial disclosures released Thursday by the State Ethics Commission. Over the last 12 months, Schundler reported making between $50,000 and $100,000 on each of his previous jobs as education commissioner and chief operating office of The King’s College, a Christian liberal arts school in New York City. He is not yet eligible for a pension.
However, even the unemployment question is in dispute.
The state Department of Labor late Friday said cabinet officials are "generally not eligible for unemployment benefits." Federal and state law say that positions are ineligible.
New Jersey’s education world, already abuzz about the Race to the Top snafu, was reeling over Schundler’s ouster.
New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian said Christie made Schundler the "latest scapegoat for his $400 million debacle.
"The governor can blame whomever he wants for his failure to secure a much-needed grant of $400 million for our schools, but this is what happens when you slap together an application instead of using a well-prepared, collaboratively constructed one," she said.
The mistake on the application was Schundler’s latest high-profile misstep in office. He was berated by the governor in June, after he compromised with the NJEA on the earlier Race to the Top application.
Seton Hall University political scientist Joseph Marbach said Christie may be able to salvage his political capital. Schundler’s credibility was already damaged when the governor torpedoed that compromise proposal.
"By appointing a new commissioner, the administration may be able to start from square one and maybe heal some of the relationships that have been strained," Marbach said. "In a strange way, it may leave the governor in a better position."
Speculation in Trenton also began turning to the question of who will be the state’s next education commissioner.
Rochelle Hendricks, assistant commissioner for the division of school effectiveness and choice at the state education department, will serve as acting commissioner while a national search for a new commissioner commences. She was also one of the five presenters at the meeting with federal officials.
The Christie administration wanted Andrew Smarick, who accepted a job with the state in May, to take over as acting commissioner, according to two sources familiar with the decision-making. But he was deemed ineligible, because the state Board of Education had not yet approved him as deputy commissioner.
By Lisa Fleisher and Jeanette Rundquist
Star-Ledger reporters Josh Margolin, Jessica Calefati, Matt Friedman, Chris Megerian, Susan Livio, David Giambusso and Kenya Mann contributed to this report.