NJ Voters Oppose Christie Education Cuts, Merit Pay Plan

What do you know - New Jersey voters oppose many of blowhard Christie's education "reforms":

A majority of New Jersey voters oppose Gov. Chris Christie’s hefty state aid cuts and his plan to link teacher pay to student test scores, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released today.

Fifty-nine percent of registered voters said the state is underfunding education and 63 percent oppose merit pay, one of the key education reform proposals Christie unveiled at a town hall meeting in late September.

A large majority — 70 percent — of those surveyed do, however, support the governor’s intentions to overhaul teacher tenure, responding that tenure impedes the removal of bad teachers.

"New Jerseyans generally support their schools and want to see them better funded, even while they want the state to cut back on funding in other areas," said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and a Rutgers University political science professor. "While they question tenure, they do not necessarily support the governor’s plans or his spending cuts."

The governor’s office could not be reached for comment on the poll.

You ever notice how Christie can never be reached for comment when things don't go his way but won't shut up when he is on the offensive?

So New Jersey voters want tenure overhauled, and that's clearly a problem in my opinion.

That will give administrators who may be as vindictive as Chris Christie the power to fire teachers for any old reason they want. They won't have to justify removal in a legal process and this will lead to many good, veteran teachers getting canned.

But it's good to see that they do not support the merit pay program or the education cuts and do not agree with the governor that the NJEA is the biggest problem in education today.

The Newark Star-Ledger reported last September that education experts agree that Christie's merit pay/testing proposals would be very harmful to New Jersey schools.

It's good to see the public agrees.