Christie Discusses Education in Westfield

Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie brought his campaign to Westfield High School Thursday afternoon for an event trumpeting his education and higher education policies.

Christie, joined by running mate Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno for a roundtable with parents from Westfield and other suburban communities, touted what he said is his commitment to public higher education in the state. Christie said there is a “brain drain” going on in New Jersey, with the state sending more students to college out of state than any other state in the union. He cited a statistic showing that 35,000 New Jersey students left the state for college last year. He claimed this was because of a lack of affordability of schools in the state.
 
Christie said the movement of students to colleges outside of the state would cause a variety of societal and economic impacts in New Jersey.

“Many, if not most of those young people, don’t come back,” he said. “They get a job there. They fall in love with the place. That’s a tremendous brain drain.”

Christie, in comments similar to those of politicians in economically struggling communities in the nation’s Rust Belt, said the brain drain has caused jobs to leave New Jersey and will impact the state’s economy long term with more people leaving to join children and grandchildren in other parts of the country. 

Christie placed the blame for what he sees as the problems with public higher education at the feet of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine. He said Corzine has not focused on the issue and he, along with former Democratic Govs. Jim McGreevey and Dick Codey, have underfunded the state’s financial commitment to higher education with a two percent cut in overall funding from the budget over an eight-year period. He said the state ranks last in aid going to colleges from the budget. 

Christie said he would place higher education at the forefront of his administration, including having a chief advisor on education in his office, which he said has not been done since the administration of former Republican Gov. Tom Kean in the 1980s. He also said he would meet with college presidents once a semester to discuss issues, saying that Corzine has not held a similar meeting during his term. Christie also said Guadagno will be including college presidents, along with business leaders, in the panel she will be chairing on economic development and business regulation issues.

“Kim and I say we will do no worse,” he said.

The roundtable was organized by Councilwoman Joann Neylan and former Summit Common Council President P. Kelly Hatfield and featured a predominately female panel asking the Republican ticket a variety of education-related questions. The panel discussion strayed from the higher education issues to a segment on urban education.

Christie said he plans to focus on creating more charter schools in urban centers, saying they are the area of education he will have the most control over as governor. He said existing charter schools in Newark have shown a significant increase in test scores than public schools in the city. Christie said he would also work to stress changing the quality of education in urban schools instead of throwing more money at the system.

He said a change in the schools financing laws could lower property taxes for suburban communities like Westfield. In the area of K-12 education, Christie echoed U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in noting there will be a growing call for longer schools days and longer school years in the future.

Christie said the longer school days will help urban education, along with lowering crime rates. Guadagno said she has seen an increase in crime in Monmouth County this summer with students being out of school and the county's summer work program being eliminated. She said the crime increase has been felt in her county's urban centers, primarily Asbury Park.

"I have gang warfare," she said. "Kids killing kids with guns."

The Corzine camp was quick to refute Christie’s claims with Democratic State Chairman Assemblyman Joe Cryan, D-Union Township, holding a press conference on the high school lawn an hour before Christie’s roundtable in the high school library. Cryan, who chairs the Assembly education committee, said Corzine’s higher education record has worked for the state and took shots at Christie’s education plans.

Cryan said the governor has increased education spending while cutting the overall budget along with establishing a cap on raising tuition and fees at public colleges by three percent. He also said Corzine has increased the amount of students receiving state tuition aid grants, along with establishing the NJ Stars program, which allows the top 15-percent of a high school graduating class to go for free to a community college. Cryan also said Corzine has signed legislation allowing students to freely transfer community college credits to four-year colleges in the state.

“There is a big difference in the policies of Chris Christie and Jon Corzine,” Cryan said. “One stands with students and one doesn’t.”

Cryan was joined by Allen Gannett, the president of the state’s Student Democrats, and several recent Westfield High School graduates. Gannett said that he has problems with Christie’s announcement that he would have rejected federal stimulus money from the Obama Administration, which Corzine has announced will be used on higher education construction issues. 

“The fact that Christie wants to turn down millions in higher education money is ridiculous,” he said.

WHS alums joining Cryan at his press conference said they believe that the governor has a better higher education plan than his challenger.

“The plans Corzine has are far and above Christie’s plan,” said Ravi Tamboli, a 2009 WHS graduate, who will be attending NYU in the fall.

Cryan also took issue with Christie’s plans regarding a brain drain, noting that many of the students Christie is referring to are attending schools in Manhattan and Philadelphia, which are just over the border from New Jersey.

Christie, in a press conference following his round table, said he does not have a problem with students attending college out of state, saying that they can see more areas of the country. He said his issue is with students having to leave the state because of affordability issues.

Christie said he has heard from high school guidance officials that many students are choosing to attend schools in the State University of New York system because they have found it cheaper, as an out-of-state student, than in-state tuition at Rutgers. When questioned about circumstances in the SUNY system, including accusations that former New York Gov. George Pataki has underfunded the system, and tuition and fees have risen in the New York system, Christie said that those issues have still caused the SUNY system to be cheaper than Rutgers.

“You still have to pay more to go to Rutgers than SUNY Albany or SUNY Binghamton,” Christie said.