Pitchfork Patrol

Pitchfork Bob's on another rant:

The feds say New Jersey owes them $271 million it gave us for that stupid train line from Xanadu to Macy’s basement. The one Gov. Christie killed. And, we’re supposed to pay up in 3o days. My goodness, they’ve managed to stretch that project out for 15 years and now they want money back in 30 days. Predictably, the partisan pols chimed in. “In cancelling the tunnel, Gov. Christie claimed he was standing up for the people of New Jersey and looking out for their financial well being,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski who apparently has a problem with math.The governor cancelled the project because New Jersey residents were on the hook for cost overruns which were conservatively estimated to be between $2 billion and $5 billion. 

So, for Wisniewski, let’s say it in iddy bitty words and short sentences even he can understand — $271 million is a lot less than $5 billion.

Yeah, except even if the cost overruns (which were estimates anyway) came in, we'd still have a tunnel.

Now, we pay $271 million and get nothing.

And can we please drop the pretense of Bob Ingle being a "journalist"? Would anyone but a partisan hack write that last sentence?

Richie Rich

The poor little rich kid...

We've been hearing for a while about the plight of NJ's wealthy: those poor, poor souls who have no choice to flee the state because their taxes are so high.

Turns out it's total crap:

In New Jersey, opponents of progressive taxation, including Governor Christie, argue that tax rates are too high. Indeed, just a month before he filed his 2009 tax returns, the governor said he intends to lower income tax rates within two years in order to stimulate the economy and make New Jersey more competitive with neighboring states. 

But a full understanding of the state's tax structure shows that New Jersey is already quite competitive. And Governor Christie's own 2009 New Jersey income tax return shows the truth often isn't as simple as it seems. Even though their household income pushed them into the top bracket of 10.25%, the Christies actually paid just 6.2% of their family income to the state. 

[...] 

The 6.2% effective income tax the Christies paid to New Jersey is less than they would have paid to New York State if Mrs. Christie's job were there; less than they would have paid if she had worked in Philadelphia; and about what they would have paid if they had lived in Georgia.

It is absolutely essential to understand the difference between marginal rates and effective rates if you want to debate this stuff, but I'm convinced most people really don't get it. That's probably because, even before the advent of e-filing, most people used tax tables to calculate their taxes, which really don't show how you get to the number you get to.

Of course, our media, which has shown time and time again that it is innumerate, doesn't help. I used to think that it was a deliberate ploy of the corporate media to exploit this ignorance, so wealthy families could push the "Death tax takes half of your money!"meme.

But now I think it's that many of the reporters who cover this stuff just don't understand it. Scary.

By the way, NJPP - more like this, please!

Another Bill Collector for NJ

Another one is knocking on the door:

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey owes the federal government more than $271 million after canceling a rail tunnel connecting the state with New York, according to a debt notice obtained Monday by The Associated Press. 

The letter from the Federal Transit Administration's chief financial officer to NJ Transit's executive director demands payment of $271,101,291 by Dec. 24. 

It's money the government wants New Jersey to repay for work done on the Hudson River tunnel before Republican Gov. Chris Christie terminated the project. The notification follows a warning letter earlier this month estimating the charges.

So, $400 million lost from the botched Race To the Top application. $14 million from the charter school screw up. $600 million from the millionaire-friends-of-Christie giveaway. Lord knows how many millions from failing to do one blessed thing to hold down health care premiums.

And now $271 million from the ARC tunnel.

Can I ask all you suburban voters who voted for Christie in droves three questions?

1) Was this the kind of fiscal management you thought you were voting for?

2) Considering Christie took away your town's and your school's state aid last year, do you think there's any chance you'll be getting any state aid this year?

3) Is your property tax bill going to go up or down?

Hey, don't be surprised. All the signs were quite clear. After all...

Still Running Against Corzine

Sorry, Jon, but - even though you lost - the campaign continues:

TRENTON — Democrats and Republicans Monday blamed each other for New Jersey’s failure to get $14 million in federal charter school funding.

The state applied for $14 million through a competitive process to be used over three years to fund the start-up costs of new charter schools.

When the federal Department of Education denied the state’s application in August, it cited a lack of oversight to measure how successful current charter schools are. 

[...] 

Since the state received money from the same program four times before, Diegnan said it must have been a problem with the way the administration filled out the application. New Jersey received $6.2 million in 2006, the last round of federal funding.

"And what happened in the four intervening years?" Drewniak responded in an e-mail. "Governor Corzine sucked up to the NJEA, which holds a death grip on the education status quo and opposes expansion of charter schools at all costs."

Yes, how dare the NJEA demand that schools that use public money be held to the same oversight standards as all other public schools!

Again: I seem to remember a time not long ago when conservatives were very, very disappointed in how Barack Obama supposedly couldn't get past blaming George W Bush for all of his problems...

Why the 'Formers Drive Me Nuts

Here's Chief 'Former Arne Duncan:

And he urged districts to consider "modest but smartly targeted increases in class size." As a parent, Duncan said, he'd much rather have his kids in a class of 26 with a really excellent teacher, than in a class with 22 kids, lead by a mediocre teacher. And he said that in Asian countries that tend to do well on international benchmarks (like South Korea and Japan) average classes in secondary schools are 30 or more, as opposed to the U.S. average of about 25.

During a question and answer period, one teacher questioned that rationale, saying that if she took on additional students, that's asking her to do more for the same amount of money. Duncan said he'd like districts to consider reworking contracts so that effective teachers (particularly those who choose to work with more kids) can make a lot more money, say $80,000, or even $125,000.

First: we have a lot of good evidence that class size reductions work. And I mean a LOT of good evidence. Why we want to mess with charter schools and merit pay which don't have anything close to this amount of evidence backing them is beyond me.

But then look at Duncan's conflation: if we have better teachers, we could have bigger classes. And that would save us money. Except we'd have to pay teachers more, because there would be more work for each teacher, and that would cost us money.

Is it too much to ask for a cogent argument from these folks?

Here's Bruce Baker:

Interest in teacher quality over class size reduction has grown so strong that some are beginning to make the leap that we should simply increase class size to 30 or even 35 students per class in order to pay enough to get really good teachers. After all, who can argue with the logic that a good teacher with 35 kids is better than a crappy one with 20 kids.  Of course, this assumes falsely that every class of 35 would be taught by a better teacher, on average, than those teaching the classes of 20, because every teacher currently teaching the smaller classes is crappy. That said, we do have pretty consistent evidence that salary increases could increase teaching quality.

However, we also have at least some evidence that teacher quality and class size interact.  We may find that we are fighting a losing battle trying to recruit high quality teachers to teach classes of 35 kids even at the higher salary. This may especially be the case in schools and districts where large classes are particularly difficult to manage. Class size is a working condition and more desirable working conditions can reduce the need for paying higher salaries – another trade-off for which we have no good dollar to dollar estimates. [emphasis mine]

This is exactly right. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard frustrated colleagues tell me that they just don't have the time to work their magic because their class is just too damn big. This is especially problematic at the elementary level. You want good teachers to stay in your district? Give them smaller classes.

And let me add a tidbit about Korean education:

Alongside public elementary schools there are a number of private elementary schools in Korea, usually distinguishable by the uniforms their students wear (public elementary school students do not wear uniforms apart from PE kit). These schools follow a similar curriculum as public elementary schools, but often offer superior facilities, a higher teacher-to-student ratio, and extra programs. They also usually offer a higher standard of learning. Though highly desirable, they are prohibitively expensive for many Korean parents.

Bruce makes the same point about American private schools:

Yes, consumers of luxury schooling seem to have a pretty strong preference for small classes, despite modern wisdom that class size is clearly second fiddle to teaching quality. Imagine the teacher salaries one could pay by moving pupil to teacher ratios in independent schools from 8/1 up to the public school average of 16/1. Imagine the salaries that could be paid in affluent Westchester County and Long Island school districts by increasing class sizes from 16 or 18 up to 35? (see this post on just how high these salaries already are!)

For some reason these private schools and affluent public school districts – more specifically those who support these schools – exhibit a strong preference for small class size even when given wide latitude to cho0se differently. Perhaps they are on to something?

There's only one reason Duncan is pushing this: money. But let me ask this:

If and when that happy day comes, Arne, when all of your teachers are "really excellent"...

...will you be willing to pay ALL of them $125K? Or will we still have a system where there are some great teachers and some mediocre ones?

And how will you decide which students get which teachers?

Priorities

Christie's priorities, in his own words:

He says he wants to rein in wasteful spending when attacking school administrator salaries. But even last week, the governor said that Rutgers University – a state institution – has a right to determine how much it wants to spend on its football program and that it’s not his place as governor to question the multimillion-dollar salary and perk package given to Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano. When it comes to state-sponsored football the governor is shy?

Says it all, doesn't it?

Things I Learn From Listening to NJ 101.5

Just before 8:00 AM this morning, on my way to work, Gearhart was talking about TSA searches (all paraphrasing):

Gearhart: Where does it say in the Constitution that you have a right not to be groped?

Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Gearhart: Where does it say anything about separation of church and state in the Constitution?

First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Gearhart: (Chuckling) I guess our founding fathers didn't have the foresight to think about x-ray machines when they wrote the Constitution in 1776! (ha, ha, ha!)

The Constitution was ratified in 1787.

As they are so fond of pointing out, NJ 101.5 is THE premiere source for news and information in NJ.

God help us all.

Laying Out This Tune

Work, family, house, new exercise plan...

Light posting until the weekend. Keep the faith.

NYC Schools Chancellor Gilda the Cat

Professor Lugg visits the comments and leaves us this gem:

Quite simply: If Cathie Black is qualified to run the NYC public schools, then my cat Gilda is as well. Let’s make the comparisons: Neither Gilda or Ms. Black have spent more than a fleeting moment in a school–much less worked in a public school or public school district. Neither has taken any of the licensure examinations that are expected for NYS leaders of public schools. Similarly, neither has taken the advanced graduate study to lead a public school district.

I’m being unduly harsh, as only a graduate of the Roseanne Barr School of Charm can be, but this is the last in a series of dubious appointments by various NYC mayors. Why do some pols believe that educational leaders don’t have to know a damn thing about the core technologies of public schools: Learning and Teaching.

At least Gilda has the good sense to flee when she knows she’s completely “out of field.” I’m not as hopeful for Ms. Black.

 Giuliani cleaned up the fish market years ago, so payment shouldn't be a problem.

Make sure to visit Gilda's mistress's blog. (Is "mistress" the correct term?)

The Book of Christie

Must read - no really, MUST read:

When Chris Christie first ran for Freeholder and was sued for defamation, it wasn't his fault and he did nothing wrong. 

When Chris Christie went from "not a candidate for US Attorney" to being appointed US Attorney after he was directly responsible for raising hundreds of thousands (and his brother donates hundreds of thousands) for Bush, the donations had nothing to do with it. 

And when many top NJ lawyers pointed out that Christie didn't have any experience in criminal law and his appointment was directly connected to the above hundreds of thousands in donations for Bush, that was just a coincidence. 

(but wait....there's more!)

Click through for the entire thing - it's worth it.

When this guy goes national - yes, it's going to happen - the record will need to be made clear. The NJ sector of Left Blogistan needs to document the atrocities right now in anticipation of that day.

Bravo to Adam L for a fine compilation.

You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party!

We all know the disdain Chris Christie holds for the NJEA convention:

“That’s right, in school, baby," the big guv said. "They would not be down there in Atlantic City having a party — because that’s what it is.’

I'm sure he will have similar harsh words for the League of Municipalities convention:

The event isn’t all business. With a long list of parties by special interests and politicians each year, it’s taken on a reputation as a raucous, booze-fueled bash. In his memoir, former Gov. James E. McGreevey compared it to a "huge frat party."

It’s also known for clandestine meetings in hotel suites where political deals are cut, and for undercover FBI agents snagging corrupt officials by handing them briefcases full of cash, all captured on hidden camera.

"This is really the Super Bowl of pay-to-play, because everyone gets together in the same place," said Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel, who’s been going to League conventions since the 1970s.

Governor? Condemnation for this "party"? You've got some, yes? Governor?

Hello?

Christie LOVES Slimy Videos

The secret taping of Special Ed teacher Alissa Ploshnick is not just a story about how low we've sunk in our national conversation; it's about how powerful people like Chris Christie are happy to use pieces of slime like James O'Keefe to do their dirty work:

O’Keefe made Ploshnick, a teacher who saved the lives of children, an unwitting star in a web-based movie, a phony exposé of nothing but the cynicism of ideologically driven pseudo-journalists. All O’Keefe managed to do was ruin the reputation of a woman who should be honored as a hero — and was, not only by Clinton but also by Montel Williams and Oprah Winfrey, a fan of Gov. Chris Christie’s.

Christie recently praised O’Keefe’s secret taping of Ploshnick and others and said: "If you need an example of what I’ve been talking about for the last nine months — about how the teachers union leadership is out of touch with the people and out of control — go watch this video.’’

Asked whether the stories of Ploshnick’s sacrifice and heroism changed his view, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak replied: "What do these stories have to do with recent events? What should they have to do with recent events? They are completely separate and have nothing to do with one another."

Leave it to a hack like Drewniak to denigrate the heroism of Ploshnick, who threw herself in front of a van to save a dozen kids back in 1997 and still suffers pain from the act today.

What O'Keffe does is disgusting and immoral and anyone who is granted high office should immediately distance him or herself from his filth. A sitting governor has an obligation to protect his citizens from outrageous intrusions like this, whether or not those intrusions are legal or aid his cause.

Christie, of course, couldn't care less about the coarsening of our culture and the breakdown of standards of decency in our society; in fact, he THRIVES on this swill. His endorsement of O'Keefe speaks volumes about his lack of character.

Some of you may think it's hypocritical for me to take such a harsh tone with Christie; that the invective I launch at him is no better than what O'Keefe is doing.

Bull. Chris Christie is a powerful man who asked for this job. He is using his platform to vilify an entire profession. He needs to be held to account for what he says and what he does. He needs to be held to account for the tone he gets to set by virtue of the office he holds.

Allissa Ploshnick holds no power; she simply does a critical job that we used to hold in high esteem, back before our governor decided he could make political hay by going after her and her colleagues across the state. There is no equivalence.

Kudos to Bob Braun for pointing this out.

Looking For A Few Good Men

More Y chromo needed in our schools:

Male teachers made up just 24 percent of all certified teachers working in New Jersey public schools in 2009-10, state Department of Education statistics show. That percentage has remained constant during the past decade even as the number of teachers has increased. In 1999-2000, 23,750 men were among the state’s 94,415 teachers. Last year, men made up 27,063 of 114,705 teachers working in public schools.

Bryan Nelson hopes that trend is shifting a bit. The founder of MenTeach said there was a slight increase in male teachers nationally last year, likely related to the recession and a shortage of other jobs. He said the last increases in male teachers were in 1929 during the Great Depression and in 1944, when the G.I. Bill gave more men the opportunity to attend college.

He said men face three major roadblocks to becoming teachers: the stereotyping of teaching as a feminine profession, especially in lower grades; a fear of pedophiles preying on children; and the relatively low status and pay.

“It’s just still considered a more feminine culture, and that takes a long time to change,” Nelson said.

Hey, I know how to solve this problem: let's cut teacher pay and benefits, demean the profession, chastise the teacher's union, and gut the pension! That will bring LOTS of men in!

For the male teachers interviewed, teaching is a calling. Some gave up more lucrative jobs in private industry to become teachers.

“You have to go into it accepting that you’ll never make a six-digit salary, unless you go into administration,” said Jerome Taylor, who has taught for 15 years. “It’s frustrating to me to see male teachers working two jobs to support a family.”

But, but, but... GOLD-PLATED BENEFITS!

Potosnak 2012

Ed in NJ7!

In the case of Blue America endorsed candidate Ed Potosnak who challenged Wall Street shill Rep. Leonard Lance in NJ's 7th District he pushed back against the Red Tide mightily to match the Democratic performance in 2008. Ed spent less than 10% of what Democrats dumped into the race during the last cycle with approximately the same results. What could his campaign have accomplished with 20% of '08? Simple: a victory. His campaign was a winning campaign: well run, consistently on message, grass roots, and energized. As a candidate, Ed was articulate [View his first debate here], knowledgeable, engaging, and hard working. Equally important, he was on the right side of the issues that matter most: jobs and the economy, healthcare, education, financial reform, and improving America's competitiveness.

The lack of engagement by the DNC and DCCC in Ed's race and races like his across the country, may have cost us control of the House of Representatives. They turned their backs on true progressives to support losers (literally) who ran campaigns (and ads) promising to fire Speaker Pelosi and who have been trashing the Democratic brand for years. Good job DCCC; your strategy sucked! Here at Blue America we have not only been critical of their model we stepped up and worked actively to support the right candidates.

May I add that the NJEA - which is actively calling for teachers to run for political office! - did not endorse Ed in the NJ-7 race against Leonard Lance. Even though ED IS A TEACHER AND A MEMBER OF THE NJEA!!!

To give you a sense of the enormous lift Ed accomplished with our help you need not look far to other races in New Jersey. Ed received over 70,000 votes, this is nearly the same number of votes as his 11th term incumbent Democratic neighbor, Congressman Frank Pallone in NJ's 6th. In 2008 Rep. Pallone pulled 67% and this year that dropped more than 10 points to 55%. Rush Holt's performance was also significantly diminished by 13%. Further down state, Rep. Adler (a very conservatove Democrat who voted no on Heathcare) went down by 3% and lost to Tea Party candidate John Runyan.

Let's stop being losers. Let's get behind our best candidates. Let's take the fight to them.

Zombie Lies

They don't die at the Bergen Record, thanks to Al Doblin:

Alissa Ploshnick attended a New Jersey Education Association-sponsored conference this summer and had the misfortune of speaking with an apparent minion of James O’Keefe. If Ploshnick had known she was speaking with someone who was secretly filming her, she might have walked away. 

O’Keefe, who first made a name for himself by going undercover and exposing abuses inside ACORN offices, fancies himself a journalist. There’s no law against self-delusion. I’m not sure that there isn’t one that protects average citizens from being recorded and videoed without their knowledge while relaxing in a bar.

Al - there were no abuses inside ACORN offices:

Echoing the recent report of the Kings County, NY, District Attorney who completed a five-month probe finding "no criminality" seen in video tapes secretly taken of low-level ACORN and ACORN Housing workers last year in New York, California's Attorney General has now reached a similar conclusion regarding videos recorded in three different cities in the Golden State last Summer, according to a report released today which finds the workers "committed no violation of criminal law." 

While describing "highly inappropriate behavior" by some of the workers caught on secret video tapes made by Rightwing activists, CA AG Jerry Brown's report finds that "the evidence does not show that the ACORN employees in California violated state criminal laws in connection with their conversations" with activists posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend.

Breitbart is a journalist... Breitbart is a journalist...

Another Insult to Educators

The nomination of Cathie "Hearst" Black to lead the NYC schools is an insult to educators everywhere:

Mayor Bloomberg nominated Cathie Black to replace Klein after a secret search that was so secret no one in the New York City Department of Education or the New York State Education Department even knew that Klein was leaving. No real search was ever done and no effort was made to find a candidate with the credentials to run a major school system. Bloomber described Black as "a superstar manager who has succeeded spectacularly in the private sector." Black is the chair of Hearst Magazines, which publishesEsquire, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, and Good Housekeeping. What Bloomberg neglected to mention was that this world-class manager was demoted over the summer from president of Hearst Magazines, the position where she actually managed things.

If anything, when it comes to operating a public school system, Black's life experience makes her even more clueless than Joel "Clueless" Klein. As a girl she attended Catholic private schools in Chicago, and she later went to a religious college. She owns two homes. A ten million dollar co-op on Park Avenue in Manhattan and a Connecticut estate where her children attend boarding school. Her husband is a lawyer and wealthy Republican donor.

Suspiciously, Black continues the Murdoch connection. Since this summer, she has served on the advisory board of a well-financed Manhattan charter school. Murdoch is co-chair of the board.

There is an online petition to New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner demanding that he deny the waiver needed to appoint an unqualified candidate as the new School Chancellor. You can sign the petition at petitiononline.com/DenyWaiv/.

It's like charter school boards have become the new country clubs: the wealthy join to expand their networks.

I do not think it is a good idea for non-educators to run schools systems, but I'm not prepared to completely dismiss the idea out-of-hand: I imagine there are good hospital administrators who are not doctors.

But if you are going to run a system - especially one like NYC - without having been a teacher and/or principal, you'd better bring some other unique experience to the table. Black clearly has none.

Why should any teacher, principal, or supervisor listen to her about curriculum? About testing? About merit pay? About evaluations? Has my profession fallen into such disrepute that we don't even consider it a profession anymore, where supervisors must be at least conversant in the field they work in?

And, once again: schools are NOT businesses. They should not be run like businesses. When a business unit fails, you shutter it and stop providing the product. You can't stop providing education to a child.

Bloomberg has been a joke, and the results of his tenure - the parameters of which he set for himself - prove it. When people talk about him as president, it's almost as laughable as when they talk about Chris Christie as president.

Out Of Control?

Nice to see someone standing up to our bully of a governor:

PARSIPPANY — The war of words between Gov. Chris Christie and the Parsippany Board of Education over the contract extension for school Superintendent LeRoy Seitz continued Wednesday, as board president Anthony Mancuso said that if Christie wanted to help school districts, he would not have cut vital state aid.

“Considering the amount of money that the school district lost in state aid last year, it seems to me that the middle-class school districts are being squeezed while we still see large sums of money going to the Abbott districts,” Mancuso said.

Parsippany’s education aid for the 2010-2011 school year was cut 85 percent to $1 million. During the previous school year, the district received $7.3 million.

I must tell you that watching a sitting governor - who is the current daring of the Republican party and a prospective presidential candidate - go after a school superintendent in such a personal way is very disturbing. The video is really unlike anything I can recall in modern politics. It's one thing to rip into a political enemy or someone who is corrupt - but a superintendent? Making $225K? And you're the governor?

Again: I'd like to see some of that ire directed against William Marino, who made $8.7 million as the CEO of Horizon Blue Cross, the company that administers the School Employees Health Benefits Program. Think that'll happen any time soon?

"But, but, but... he's in the private sector!" Yeah, like Halliburton.

What we have here is a barely controlled fury that is designed solely to get as many taxpayers as possible to take their eyes off of the money flow. It's the same mendacious performance that leads Christie to tell Trenton teenagers that they don't have school supplies thanks to the NJEA.

And, yes, it is a performance - but I also think it's like method acting. After a while, you really start to believe in this nonsense. You really start to get angry about the wrong things. You really start to believe your own lies.

I have been slipping into amateur psychology lately, and that's probably not good on my part. But it's really becoming intertwined into the story of our state's politics: there is something not quite right about our governor. He is not a healthy person. He may have been playing a part before, but it's getting beyond that.

This will not end well.

Pick a Poll, Any Poll!

Bad news for Christie!

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.

Great news for Christie! 

Gov. Chris Christie is winning the hearts and minds of New Jerseyans in his continuous verbal battle with the statewide teachers union over how to improve public schools while cutting costs and unloading bad teachers.

Why doesn't the media just flip a coin next time? It would save a lot of money and be just as accurate.

What A Tangled Web We Weave

There are times, gentle reader, where I just don't even know where to begin. Maybe with a recap:

Bruce Baker, Rutgers professor, runs a blog where he analyzes education policy. Baker has posted data that questions the idea that charter schools are the answer to all of our woes.

A columnist for the Star-Ledger, Bob Braun, quoted Bruce in a article about charter schools doubters. To get the other side, Braun asked for a rebuttal from the NJ Charter School Association.

What he received back was a screed that called into question Baker's integrity as an academic:

New Jersey Charter School Association, responded to requests for comment by questioning the reliability of Baker’s work. He said he "seriously questions the credibility" of "biased data" provided by Baker. He charged Baker is "closely aligned with teachers unions, which have been vocal opponents of charter schools and have a vested financial interest in their ultimate failure."

He linked Baker to the Think Tank Review Panel operated out of the University of Colorado’s National Educational Policy Center. Tedeschi says the panel is "bankrolled" by teacher unions. Baker is, in fact, a fellow at the center, which receives funding from a variety of sources, including the Ford Foundation and the National Education Association. The panel, which includes professors from throughout the country — including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia and Berkeley — writes reviews of reports published by political think tanks.

Click through to read Bruce's very funny response. But OK, fine, another hack who can't deal with reality - big deal.

Well actually, yeah, it is a big deal, considering who the hack is: Bruno Tedeschi. Let's do the Google, shall we? Start with a Facebook resume:

Employers	Jaffe CommunicationsJune 2009 to present Principal Westfield, New Jersey Principal in public relations firm with a wide variety of clients. The North Ward CenterNovember 2008 to June 2009 Director of Communications Newark, New Jersey Established a public relations presence where none had existed before in a large, multifaceted non-profit organization...

The North Ward Center is the parent organization of the Robert Treat Academy Charter School. You know, the school Chris Christie visited the day after his election.

The Star-LedgerNovember 2006 to November 2008 City Editor Newark, New Jersey The Star-LedgerNovember 2002 to October 2006 Middlesex County Bureau Chief Piscataway, New Jersey The RecordJune 2000 to November 2002 State House Bureau Chief Trenton, New Jersey

Gee, I wonder if Tedeschi kept any of his old contacts with the Star-Ledger? Must be, since they've given him his own blog at the nj.com Newark Live site.

Here's where we enter the Twilight Zone. Tedeschi doesn't work for the S-L per se; he just blogs for them. These are unpaid positions, but they are under the nj.com banner, and they use the imprimatur of the Star-Ledger to give the bloggers a certain credibility.

So, what does Tedeschi blog about? Surprise - charter schools!

Robert Treat Academy Students Spend Summer on College Campuses 

Lady Liberty Academy Charter School Shines in Newark  

The North Ward Center Celebrates Halloween

And so on. All under the aegis of the Star-Ledger and nj.com.

And then there's this:

Every year, Jaffe Communications accepts a small number of political candidates as clients who share our vision if creating a better America. We will direct an aggressive, high-profile PR campaign for political candidates and will work closely with you to develop the critical messages your team needs to win.

And who just opened the Newark office of Jaffe Communications? Why, none other than Bruno Tedeschi! Care to tell us who your clients are, Bruno?

I could go on with this - peeling back each layer of the onion - but I think you get the point: Bruno is a "player" in the media and political scene, he is speaking on behalf of charter schools, he is impugning an academic who comes to a conclusion counter to the interests of his clients, and he's doing so through a news organization where he has extensive personal contacts.

What are we to make of all this?

Well, let's start with Braun. Is it not reasonable to ask that he disclose Tedeschi as a former editor at the S-L? That he publishes articles regularly extolling the virtues of charter schools on the same website where Braun publishes? Especially since Tedeschi is impugning Baker by pointing out his alleged "connections"? Sauce for the goose, right?

Next: does anyone else have a problem with Tedeschi having a blog under the S-L and nj.com brand? I am nearly certain that the fine folks at Advance Publications would tell me I'm being naive: that news companies are looking for new revenue streams, and that there is a clear way for the reader to distinguish between the "news" from the S-L and the "content" from parties with their own vested interests.

But if that's the case, why doesn't the NJEA have their own blog at nj.com? Would that fly? Would the S-L still feel they were an objective news source if the union were blogging a message that casts doubts about charters under the Advance web umbrella?

In addition: tax money goes to charter schools. Do they use that money to pay their dues to the NJCSA? It costs a school $10 per student to join the organization; is that fee paid out of tax funds? And, if so, is it at all appropriate that those funds be used to hire a media mercenary like Tedeschi to attack a sitting professor at the state's premier public university for publishing objective analyses of government data?

And, a larger question: should your tax money be used to promote charters at all?

Finally: even if tax money is not being used, Tedeschi's attack was personal. Charter schools deserve better representation that this.

This is yet another example of how the media fails us when it come to informing our citizens about policy. Again, I have no problems with charters; I started my teaching career at a charter. But the public deserves a clear, focused, and truly unbiased discussion of these schools if they are to make informed judgements about their role in our school system.

Ledger Logic

The S-L editorial board LOVES the Catfood Commission's plans:

With that in mind, let’s hear it for the bipartisan debt commission appointed by President Obama. Its co-chairmen, Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles, released a draft plan yesterday that could save the nation from that fate. And they met the first standard of fairness by spreading the pain to every corner. 

[...] 

This is a litmus test for politicians, a perfect way to identify the blowhards on both sides of the aisle. They are the Republicans who rule out any tax increases and Democrats who rule out spending cuts on sacred cows like Social Security. They deserve each other. And if they carry the day, as most expect, then we will take a few more steps toward the cliff, bickering all the way.

Perhaps someone in the S-L news division should tell them the commission's plan LOWERS taxes:

Republicans were more open to the proposals, because much of the $1.1 trillion saved by eliminating tax breaks — including for children and mortgage interest — would be used to reduce individual income tax rates. Six tax rates ranging from 15% to 35% would be shrunk to three — 8%, 14% and 23%.

There are far better bloggers than I who will tell you how massively stupid this entire thing is. I just wanted to point out, again, how the S-L editorial board never seems to get around to reading their own paper.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Oh, dear:

The inspector general at the U.S. Justice Department issued a report Monday criticizing Christie as "the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government (travel-expense) rate without adequate justification" and for offering "insufficient, inaccurate or no justification" for most of the excessive costs in 2007 and 2008. 

[...] 

Christie was one of "several U.S. attorneys (who) repeatedly authorized their own lodging at hotels charging more than the government rate, without documenting that the rate was actually unavailable at another hotel." 

Inspectors singled out a stay at the Four Seasons in Washington that cost more than double the approved rate of $233 per night, and took issue with Christie’s decision to pay $236 round trip for a car service in Boston instead of taking a taxi for four miles.

I think we can all agree that this is obviously:

- A politically motivated use of the Justice Department, the sort of which Chris Christie would NEVER have engaged in during his tenure there:

Christie was similarly criticized for his 2007 recommendation of the appointment of The Ashcroft Group, a consulting firm owned by Christie's former superior, the former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft, as a monitor in a court settlement against Zimmer Holdings, an Indiana medical supplies company. The no-bid contract was worth between $28 million and $52 million.^[24][25] Christie defended the decision, saying that Ashcroft’s prominence and legal acumen made him a natural choice. Christie declined to intercede when Zimmer's company lawyers protested the Group’s plans to charge a rate of $1.5 million to $2.9 million per month for the monitoring.^[20][26] Shortly after the House Judiciary Committee began holding hearings on the matter, the Justice Department re-wrote the rules regarding the appointment of court monitors.^[27]

- Little more than living in the past, something Chris Christie NEVER does:

Speaking before a Republican crowd of about 1,000 in Indianapolis, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie calls his New Jersey predecessor - Jon Corzine - the "quintessential limousine liberal democrat" and he offers more detail about how Christie says Corzine used wire transfers at 10:30 on the morning of Christie's inauguration to give some presents "Jersey style" to friends in Democratic strongholds across the state and help turn a $500 million surplus into a $2.2 billion deficit.

- Lots of worry about a relatively small amount of money, which is something Chris Christie NEVER engages in:

Dolan said Christie's call to cap superintendent salaries, which would result in a roughly $20,000 pay cut, would not deliver savings to local taxpayers or plug the budget gap caused by Christie's decision in March to cut state aid to Westfield by $4.22 million.

"With all of the tools in the toolkit, when I look at them with the budget being cut by $4.2 million, I am looking to find $4.2 million," Dolan said. "This would give us $20,000."

I think I speak for all the trolls at nj.com in saying that it is completely unreasonable to ask a man of Chris Christie's obvious talents and stature to stay at a hotel of lesser quality than the Four Seasons. He has obviously earned the right to have you and I pay for his chocolates on the pillow. It's very hard work vilifying the people who guide our youth and make less than $60K a year doing so; he needs his beauty sleep.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Oh, dear:

The inspector general at the U.S. Justice Department issued a report Monday criticizing Christie as "the U.S. attorney who most often exceeded the government (travel-expense) rate without adequate justification" and for offering "insufficient, inaccurate or no justification" for most of the excessive costs in 2007 and 2008. 

[...] 

Christie was one of "several U.S. attorneys (who) repeatedly authorized their own lodging at hotels charging more than the government rate, without documenting that the rate was actually unavailable at another hotel." 

Inspectors singled out a stay at the Four Seasons in Washington that cost more than double the approved rate of $233 per night, and took issue with Christie’s decision to pay $236 round trip for a car service in Boston instead of taking a taxi for four miles.

I think we can all agree that this is obviously:

- A politically motivated use of the Justice Department, the sort of which Chris Christie would NEVER have engaged in during his tenure there:

Christie was similarly criticized for his 2007 recommendation of the appointment of The Ashcroft Group, a consulting firm owned by Christie's former superior, the former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft, as a monitor in a court settlement against Zimmer Holdings, an Indiana medical supplies company. The no-bid contract was worth between $28 million and $52 million.^[24][25] Christie defended the decision, saying that Ashcroft’s prominence and legal acumen made him a natural choice. Christie declined to intercede when Zimmer's company lawyers protested the Group’s plans to charge a rate of $1.5 million to $2.9 million per month for the monitoring.^[20][26] Shortly after the House Judiciary Committee began holding hearings on the matter, the Justice Department re-wrote the rules regarding the appointment of court monitors.^[27]

- Little more than living in the past, something Chris Christie NEVER does:

Speaking before a Republican crowd of about 1,000 in Indianapolis, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie calls his New Jersey predecessor - Jon Corzine - the "quintessential limousine liberal democrat" and he offers more detail about how Christie says Corzine used wire transfers at 10:30 on the morning of Christie's inauguration to give some presents "Jersey style" to friends in Democratic strongholds across the state and help turn a $500 million surplus into a $2.2 billion deficit.

- Lots of worry about a relatively small amount of money, which is something Chris Christie NEVER engages in:

Dolan said Christie's call to cap superintendent salaries, which would result in a roughly $20,000 pay cut, would not deliver savings to local taxpayers or plug the budget gap caused by Christie's decision in March to cut state aid to Westfield by $4.22 million.

"With all of the tools in the toolkit, when I look at them with the budget being cut by $4.2 million, I am looking to find $4.2 million," Dolan said. "This would give us $20,000."

I think I speak for all the trolls at nj.com in saying that it is completely unreasonable to ask a man of Chris Christie's obvious talents and stature to stay at a hotel of lesser quality than the Four Seasons. He has obviously earned the right to have you and I pay for his chocolates on the pillow. It's very hard work vilifying the people who guide our youth and make less than $60K a year doing so; he needs his beauty sleep.