New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in the news again. Today, he announced more reforms in education, in the area of tenure and pay based on merit and not seniority. The reform also gives new requirements for elementary teacher testing in reading and math. It remains to be seen how this will progress, considering there is a Democrat Legislature with which he must contend, who will certainly be influenced by the NJEA leading up to the 2011 New Jersey Midterms. I was not expecting him to announce these reforms this early, but I give him credit for it and as I said earlier, he leads and governs confidently and acts as though he is a one-termer, something so seldom seen in politics.
I would like to offer the Governor some advice: In these reforms, make sure administrators' personnel decisions are based on the facts laid out in front of them; whether evaluations, student test scores or parental input, and not politics or a personal agenda. Despite the NJEA's (and AFT's) claims, I have observed many incidences how they do not consistently protect and defend their teachers against the dirty politics in education and it is my hope these new reforms do what the union refuses to do. I do believe these reforms have the potential to make sure good teachers are in the profession and the classroom, and the bad teachers are either retired or in another profession.
I will closely be watching how this plays out as I guarantee we'll be hearing the NJEA react to Christie very soon. Early predictions are this will not be a quick process, but again, I'll be watching closely.
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