TRENTON — Fired Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said Wednesday he is not a liar and took a shot at Gov. Chris Christie, who he said "defamed" him "for something he knows I did not do." "Good prosecutors don’t support their argument with claims they know are false," Schundler said, referring to the governor’s former job as U.S. Attorney for...
Former education chief Bret Schundler at his home in Jersey City Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. Schundler was fired by Gov. Chris Christie in the fallout of New Jersey's Race to the Top failure.TRENTON — Fired Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said Wednesday he is not a liar and took a shot at Gov. Chris Christie, who he said "defamed" him "for something he knows I did not do."
"Good prosecutors don’t support their argument with claims they know are false," Schundler said, referring to the governor’s former job as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. "And they don’t charge people that they know are innocent."
The former commissioner’s strident defense came in a seven-page chronology released a day after he took responsibility for an error that cost the state up to $400 million in federal education funds. The Christie administration said Schundler’s handwritten notes deleted crucial 2008-09 information from a page of the state’s Race to the Top application.
Christie has said Schundler told him the budget information was given to federal reviewers, and the governor made that statement at a news conference. Schundler said he never told the governor he provided that data. After a tumultuous week of revelations and repercussions, Christie’s spokesman Wednesday said the governor stands by his version of what happened.
"Once again, Mr. Schundler acknowledges that he told both the governor and the U.S. Secretary of Education that he verbally confirmed for Race to the Top judges that New Jersey satisfied spending criteria on education for the period 2008-2009," spokesman Michael Drewniak said. "However, video of the presentation revealed that this was not the case. This indisputable fact was the basis for Mr. Schundler’s dismissal, no matter how much he attempts to cloud the issue or redirect responsibility for his own conduct."
Christie fired Schundler Friday, saying the education commissioner misrepresented what happened during the state’s Race to the Top presentation in Washington, D.C., last month. Christie has not directly called Schundler a liar, but on Tuesday he said there is one clear lesson from last week’s fiasco: "Don’t lie to the governor. That’s the message."
"The governor’s charge against me is false," Schundler said Wednesday in his document, which at times was indignant. The chronology was accompanied by e-mail exchanges and letters Schundler said support his contention that the governor misinterpreted what he was told.
"The governor called me a liar this week," Schundler said. "That was the last straw. I have no choice now but to defend my name through this chronology of facts and the attached evidence."
New Jersey missed out last month on the millions for education reforms, in part because of the bungled answer to a question seeking the 2008-09 data. The administration says Schundler’s edits removed that information and replaced it with 2011 data.
As confirmed in an online video the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday, Schundler and other top officials from the state Department of Education searched for the missing information during their presentation but could not provide it after two requests from the competition’s judges.
Schundler does not dispute the video’s proof and said in his chronology that he told the same, on multiple occasions, to the governor and his senior staff via e-mails, phone calls, and even during a crucial, in-person conversation with the governor last Wednesday morning.
During that discussion, Christie said Schundler misled him, telling him the state had provided correct budget information to interviewers.
Schundler denies the governor’s version of events.
"I interrupted and told him not to claim that I had provided the missing numbers to our grant reviewers," Schundler said. "I stressed that I did NOT provide the missing information; I did not have it."
In his chronology, Schundler said he recalled telling one of the interviewers "that we did meet the education spending criterion. But that exchange is not on the videotape of the one-hour Q & A."
"It’s clear to me now that it must have happened three minutes later when, the hour over, we and the reviewers stood up, shook hands, and exchanged niceties," he continued.
Not so, Drewniak said.
"We’ve gone over this, and over this," he said Tuesday. "The commissioner represented to the governor that he had taken the opportunity to correct information before the panel. And as you guys (in the media) know, he subsequently offered varying explanations for when that might have occurred, including after the tape stopped rolling. So we’ll have to leave that for others to interpret."
Schundler also said that while the state, as a "first runner-up," was drafting a letter to the federal education department seeking leftover Race to the Top funds, he asked Richard Bagger, the governor’s chief of staff, not to say Schundler had given federal officials the 2008-09 data.
"I now feared I was being set up," Schundler said. "Rich probably cringed when the governor misspoke, just as I did when I read the transcript. The governor’s statement could easily become an embarrassment. I feared they were setting me up as a scapegoat."
Acting Education Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks, who took over the post after Schundler was fired, and who led her first state board of education meeting Wednesday, declined to comment on the chronology.
"Not at this time," she said, leaving the meeting. "I know there might be (legislative) hearings. We will share what we know at this time."
By Jeanette Rundquist and Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger
Staff writers Peggy Ackermann and Lisa Fleisher contributed to this report.
Previous coverage:
• Gov. Chris Christie says it's 'time to move on' from Race to the Top error
• Fired N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says he made 'Race to the Top' error
• Future of N.J. school reform remains uncertain without federal funds, permanent education chief
• Tom Moran: Christie faces ugly political ramifications of 'Race to the Top' error, Schundler firing
• Schundler requested firing instead of resignation so he can collect unemployment
• Gov. Chris Christie fires N.J. schools chief Bret Schundler