Sandy Blew Away Christie's Sense of Irony

Governor Chris Christie tweeted the following during Sandy, with no apparent sense of irony:

Governor Christie ‏@GovChristie

Commissioner Cerf is strongly encouraging all superintendents and charter schools across the state to cancel school tomorrow.

Governor Christie ‏@GovChristie  

We respect that decisions need to be made at local level, but it's most important that we consider the safety of our students & staff. [emphasis mine]

This is the administration that:

• Imposed a pay cap on district superintendents.
• Forced local districts to budget for payments to charter schools that had no local oversight.
• Is forcing a testing regime and teacher evaluation system on all districts that will cost millions.
• Hatched secret plans to take over Camden's schools.
• Appointed a superintendent in Newark who overrode the duly elected school board's decisions on charter schools.
• Secretly met with some school board members in Jersey City as a prelude to installing a favored superintendent there.
• Continues to string along Paterson on regaining local control.
• Overrode the decisions of the duly elected school board in Perth Amboy.
• Wants to create a "super district" of schools from all over the state based on the failing post-Katrina New Orleans model.
• Wants to override county superintendents and local control through a system of Regional Achievement Centers, funded by out-of-state money.

Let's be very clear: when it comes to education policy, the Christie administration and Chris Cerf's NJDOE do not respect local control of schools. They never have; they never will.