Christie goes to court over school funding, teacher tenure

Governor Chris  Christie is asking New Jersey’s Supreme Court to reopen the Abbott school funding case and allow the state education commissioner to bypass collective bargaining agreements to change teacher contract rules.

Increased school funding should be tied to student outcomes and claims teacher tenure rules are obstacles to a quality education, Christie said.

New Jersey Education Association President Wendell Steinhauer said Christie wants to rob teachers of the right to help create learning conditions necessary for children to succeed.

“This is just another political ploy by the governor to take away from attention from Bridgegate.He’s tried this before. He tried it in 2010. It didn’t work,” Steinhauer said. “It’s just more of the same old stuff.”

The trial of a former Christie top aide and appointee to the agency that operates the George Washington Bridge is set to begin next week.

The Education Law Center called the governor’s court filing a blatant end-run around the Legislature and the established process for changing existing laws.

The governor is also asking the state’s high court to freeze the amount of money going to the state’s struggling districts while he works to enact a new funding formula.