TRENTON — A state Senate committee today voted to issue subpoenas to compel former education commissioner Bret Schundler and a consultant to testify at a hearing about New Jersey's failed application for federal "Race to the Top" education funding. The Senate Legislative Oversight Committee voted to call Schundler, fired by the governor in August, and the CEO of consultant...
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The Assembly Appropriations Commitee meeting takes testimony from individuals involved in the state's application for Race to the Top funding. Acting Dept. of Education Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks during her testimony.TRENTON — A state Senate committee today voted to issue subpoenas to compel former education commissioner Bret Schundler and a consultant to testify at a hearing about New Jersey's failed application for federal "Race to the Top" education funding.
The Senate Legislative Oversight Committee voted to call Schundler, fired by the governor in August, and the CEO of consultant Wireless Generation to fill in gaps about how the state fumbled its chance at up to $400 million by answering a question incorrectly.
The subpoenas were less far-reaching than the committee's chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), initially pushed for. But there was not enough support to send subpoenas to the governor's office to compel current Christie administration officials to testify or produce documents.
Buono has said the governor's office did not fully comply with her request for documents relating to the application, finished up over Memorial Day weekend. She said while it's unclear what was not being provided, the documents clearly showed gaps in some e-mail conversations.
Earlier today in the afternoon, the Senate voted 21-14 to grant subpoena power to the committee, which will meet to take testimony on Thursday.
The Legislature can grant subpoena powers to committees, but rarely does. The most recent subpoena went out in 1993, though subpoena power was last granted to a committee in 2003.
Gov. Chris Christie fired Schundler over what appears to have been a communication problem between the two strong-willed Republicans. Christie said Schundler misled him about whether the state tried to fix the error during a presentation of the application in Washington, D.C., in early August -- leading him to publicly criticize the Obama administration. Schundler denies Christie's version of events and says he did not mislead the governor.
Schundler later said he made the costly application error in the editing process in May -- long before the dispute with the governor. New Jersey submitted an application with data for the wrong year on one 5-point question. While the state lost many more points for items such as teacher support and advanced data systems, the error was magnified by the fact that New Jersey was the runner-up for funding by only 3 points.
Democrats say they want to know more about the process. The Assembly held a hearing later this month - without subpoenas - and questioned state Department of Education officials.