Earlier drafts of the application, which included the later missing 2008-2009 budget, show that somehow - "poof" -the numbers in the final app disappeared.

Couldn't be further from the truth. The mistakes are all due to Christie's own personal actions. He rejected a union agreement that lost the proposal 14 points, and then personally appointed only a single clerk to re-do the entire 700 page proposal over the Memorial Day weekend. That's when the error crept in that that cost the proposal another five points.

Considering that NJ lost out by getting 11th place in the final tally, and thus being cut out of the funds, Christie's own aciotns caused the majority of the harm. He then tried to blame Schundler, but got caught lying when video showed that the error occurred after Christie rejected the original draft.

No need to lie to protect that fat jackass.

Edit,, Sorry about the profanity..

And as a further elaboration, the only reason I suggested that Christie should resign is because the suggestion that he fired Schundler out of some sense of accountability is laughable. It was a cover up. Plain and simple. Not illegal, just incompetent.

Christie is the Chief Executive, elected to do a job... he did admit fault with his adminstration when he fired the guy he hired to run the education process for the state.. and now he is taking steps to fix it... if the guy isn't going to be honest with his boss, especially when he knows it is being filmed then there is a problem, Christie fixed it... if he had not taken decisive action, it would have be only a matter of hours before the Christie opponents (NEA Unions) would be calling for Schundler's head, saying the Gov is protecting his political cronies... let's give the Gov credit; his appointee blew it; his actions have put everyone else in state goverment on notice that he won't tolerate finger pointing / deflecting / misleading behavior... unlike some other adminstrations that let bad situations spin out of control for days/weeks, this could not be swept under the rug and it wasn't. The Gov did nothing illegal that is cause for foolish suggestions like asking for his resignation.

OK, so now we have a deflection to the president. I don't even like Schundler, and think he was a complete douchebad as mayor here. At the same thime though, Christie should admit fault and not try to make a scapegoat out of him.

Edit: Where did the reply to my post go.?

So, that means Christie should resign, since he's more at fault and video has surface confirming his side of the story?

Gov. Christie did the right thing firing Bret Schundler... finally some accountability in goverment... people do not hate goverment, they just want it to understand its limitations dealing with citizen rights... education should be a local as opposed to federal responsiblity; and his guy screwed up trying to get 1/2 BILLION grant from the Feds (who are out of control spending/granting) and he needs to go... he would be gone in the private sector, it is a shame 'cause Schundler seems like a decent guy but his resume said he was a sharp guy with the education system... it will put the rest of Christie's directs on notice. These days NJ can't afford to have these kinds of screwups... there are plenty of them in Washington who are creating more problems then solving

Quote:

Can you say "FALL GUY".....

Quote:

BULLS EYE!!

NJ should be running away from any Federal bailout money as fast as possible. This cash is designed to ultimately prop up the education union as it delay the day of reckoning when school budgets will have to be cut drastically. There will be strings attached to the cash that will make it harder for NJ to get its fiscal house in order.

At some point, the Fed money WILL run out: Either by severe budget cuts or through inflation (the Fed can't monetize the debt without consequences). The sooner NJ learns to live within its means, the better off this State will be.

This is what happens when you run the government like you hate the government. These guys constantly let us know how government fails at everything, and then they make sure they fail in turn. These guys don't care about education, they care about all the limos, game tickets, cars, hotels, resorts and everything else taxpayers foot the bill for. They love the spotlight.

The loss of $400 Million + Budget Cuts = Disaster For Our Kids



Bottom line is you can't run a government well if you hate it.

The New York Times - New Jersey Schools Chief Fired After Grant Error The Wall Street Journal - After Christie Firing, Schundler Fires Back Bloomberg News - Christie Fires New Jersey Education Chief Schundler Following Grant Error Politico - Chris Christie fires education secretary CBS New York - Gov. Christie Fires N.J. Education Commissioner Salon.com - The sad, sad demise of a right-wing star WPIX.com - Chris Christie Cost NJ Schools $400 Million New video directly refutes Christie's claim that Feds didn't allow NJ to fix grant error   Star-Ledger - Gov. Christie, Schundler clash over who was wrong leading up to firing Star-Ledger Editorial Board - Bret Schundler had to go; N.J. education commissioner was out of sync with his boss

Gov. Chris Christie fires N.J. schools chief Bret Schundler Published: Friday, August 27, 2010, 1:00 PM Updated: Friday, August 27, 2010, 6:29 PM Statehouse Bureau Staff TRENTON ? Gov. Chris Christie fired state education commissioner Bret Schundler this morning after Schundler refused to resign in the wake of the controversy over the state's loss of up to $400 million in federal school funding. "I was extremely disappointed to learn that the videotape of the Race to the Top presentation was not consistent with the information provided to me," Christie said in a press release. "As a result, I ordered an end to Bret Schundler?s service as New Jersey?s Education Commissioner and as a member of my administration." A deputy commissioner will be named acting commissioner while the governor searches for the next person to fill the $141,000-a-year position, two officials briefed on the situation said. Rich Bagger, Christie's chief of staff, asked Schundler to resign on Thursday evening because he "misled" the governor and senior staff about what happened during a presentation in Washington, D.C., the officials said. On Wednesday, Christie publicly said Schundler had tried to give the correct information to a bungled question during the presentation, but video from the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday proved that did not happen. ?As I have said before, I never promised the people of New Jersey that this would be a mistake-free administration," Christie said. "However, I did promise that the people serving in my administration would be held accountable for their actions.? Christie asked Schundler to walk him through the details of the mistake before the governor came out to defend him earlier this week, according to a source. But after Christie and other top officials on Thursday watched the video of Schundler and other officials' presentation to the U.S. Department of Education, and the video contradicted Schundler's explanation, the governor said, "He can't lie to me," the source said. He directed Bagger to ask for Schundler's resignation Thursday afternoon, but it took several hours for Bagger to reach the commissioner. Then, Schundler at first said if the governor wanted his resignation, he would give it, according to the source. By this morning the resignation had not been received, and word started circulating in Trenton that Schundler was resisting. Christie grew tired of waiting, and ordered Schundler fired, the source said. Schundler said today he asked to be fired rather than resign because he said he needed the unemployment benefits. ?I thought we had put together a brilliant plan for New Jersey," Schundler said. "I thought the governor and I worked well together. I don?t think education commissioners are interchangeable any more than governors are. We had tremendous potential for putting together a plan for education reform that would dramatically increase the learning of children.? The state lost a competitive grant contest for education funding by 3 points. While the state lost points across a number of areas for substantive issues, a blunder on one 5-point question has caused an uproar in Trenton. The state lost 4.8 points by seemingly misreading the question, which asked for information from 2008 and 2009 budgets. The state provided information from 2011. The error was first reported Tuesday evening by The Star-Ledger. On Wednesday, Christie blamed Washington bureaucrats for their inflexibility to fix what he described as a clerical error. Christie said Schundler had provided the correct information during a presentation of the state's application in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11. But on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education released a video of that presentation that showed neither Schundler nor the other four people from New Jersey's delegation were able to come up with the information for the correct budget years. Before the video was released, Christie had said he would not fire anyone over a paperwork mistake made by a "midlevel" staffer. It's still unclear how the error was made. The New Jersey Teachers Association produced a version as of May 27 of the bungled answer ? from a draft including compromises later jettisoned ? that included information for the correct budget years. The NJEA said the paper proved the administration had changed it in the process of re-writing the application to take out the compromises with the state's largest teachers union, which has been Christie's most vocal combatant during his first year as governor. The application was submitted June 1. Like Christie, Schundler was once hailed as a rising star in conservative circles. He served as mayor of Jersey City, a Democratic bastion, for more than two terms between 1992 and 2001. Although he was a Republican, the city has non-partisan municipal elections, and he was able to forge alliances with Democrats there to help win reelection. Schundler ran for governor in 2001, upsetting the Republican establishment-backed Bob Franks in the primary but losing badly to Democrat Jim McGreevey in the general election. He attempted another run for governor four years later, but came in second out of seven candidates for the Republican nomination, behind Doug Forrester. Schundler taught public policy at The King?s College, a Christian school in Manhattan, before becoming its chief operating officer in 2009. By Josh Margolin and Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau. Leslie Brody/The Record contributed to this report.

Bret Schundler comments on firing as education commissioner

Actually, firing Schundler is cover for Christie's own stupidity. NJ lost 14 points for not having a union agreement in place. Christie rejected Schundler's agreement out of partisan hackery. he also assigned only one clerk to re-do the entire application over a weekend, which resulted in the mistakes that resulted in a few more points being lost.

Heckuva job Bret!

"Schundler said he was asked to resign, but he requested to be fired instead so he could collect unemployment insurance.

"I have a mortgage to pay and a daughter about to start college," he said ".


I say, simply a disgrace!

Christie Fires Schundler