I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

For Those of You Who Think I'm Nuts:

I believe that the RTTT "mistake" was a deliberate attempt to disappear Christie's school aid cuts. Some of you may think I'm being crazy: how could he cover up his huge cuts? Why would he even try? Everyone knows he did it - he couldn't be this clueless.

You have to understand - it is a hallmark of the modern conservative mind that one disavow his or her most obvious sins, even as one continues to commit them. For George W Bush, it was looking us all straight in the eye and saying, "America doesn't torture" even as we we were waterboarding.

For Chris Christie, it's saying he is increasing funding to schools even as he's presided over massive cuts. He did it in the RTTT "mistake," and anything that contradicts this fairy tale must be cleansed at the Ministry of Truth:
A review of New Jersey’s state education spending is due Wednesday, but Governor Christie Tuesday said he has advised the education department not to release the report because it could hurt the state in a current legal challenge.

Though Christie stopped short of saying the state would not produce the report, due by law every three years on Sept. 1, he said he recommended delaying it while the state fights litigation filed in June by a New Jersey education advocacy group.

The Education Law Center filed a motion challenging New Jersey's budget, charging that school aid cuts "indisputably violated" the state's legal obligation to distribute funding based on a formula upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Christie said he wanted to wait for a determination from the court. Oral arguments have not been scheduled.

I’m not so sure that should come out tomorrow or that we should be putting forward any report until we get a resolution of the current legal challenge before we buy ourselves another one,” Christie said. “I’m going to [put] one legal challenge behind me before I buy myself the next one.”
Well, isn't that convenient! 

This is the same logic that leads you to say you won't make a pension payment because the system is broken (when it's broken because you won't make your pension payments!).

Why you can't just put out the facts as they are is absolutely beyond me - unless maybe you don't want to affirm you are the largest slasher of funding to schools in the history of forever.

Again, in the wake of a $1.3 billion cut in education, here is what Bret Schundler put in his "error" prone answer on the RTTT application:
In fiscal year 2011, despite huge budget strains, the Governor is proposing an increase in state revenue-based support for education by 2.2% ($238 million). As proposed, preschool-12 education spending as a percentage of the state budget will be 35.4%. Federal ARRA funding will not be available to school districts in FY 2011, but the Governor and the executive team remain committed to funding education even as state revenue-based support for most other areas of state spending has been cut. This demonstrates that, despite severe fiscal challenges, the leadership in the state of New Jersey remains committed to education. (emphasis mine)
I'm really not kidding about this folks - he really will try to tell you that he is increasing education funding. He's already done it. What's amazing is how many people will fall for it.

4 comments:

thinker said...

Isn't he a lawyer? How can he not know that the ELC will subpoena this info in a hot minute? Particularly since he has said it could "hurt" the state. That's as good as admitting that the information is relevant to the case at hand, no?

I'm convinced that this governor is either a bumbling fool, or so extraordinarily intelligent that he is playing a masterful game of chess where he is always three moves ahead. So far I'm leaning toward bumbling fool.

Duke said...

Here's both how old I am and what a geek I am:

Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock had this little room that connected their quarters (dear lord, how did I ever get a girlfriend in high school?).

They set up a chess board in there and played chess, each making a move whenever they had the time.

Except they played 3D chess; the board was on multiple vertical levels. Kirk would sometimes come in, drying himself off after a shower, look at the board a minute, then move a piece with that smug-bastard swagger only William Shatner can project so well.

Except - have you ever heard William Shatner talk extemporaneously? Do you think he could really play 3D chess? Priceline Negotiator?

My very bizarre and nerdy point is that I never give folks like Christie credit for extremely complicated political maneuvers; they just aren't up to it. They may swagger around like they know what they are doing, but they don't. It's all complete artifice.

Christie slashed school budgets so badly he has seriously affected the high-performing schools of this state. But he doesn't want to believe that, so he won't.

He's delusional about himself; he and Bush are exactly alike in this way.

thinker said...

Apparently, the state board of education has decided not to release the report, citing "legal concerns". Interestingly, this is buried in a mostly unrelated article about addressing high schoolers in danger of failing high stakes testing for graduation. Huh. I wonder why they would slap that little aside into this article and I suppose that is all the mention we, the public, are going to get.

I certainly hope those folks at the ELC are competent and plan to request the information that this report contained. This type of nonsense is why I left the legal field and CC is just the type of truth twisting attorney that I hated working for. Unfortunately, I probably should have chosen something other than education to go into, then I might actually have a job today.

thinker said...

Oops...forgot to link it.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_education_officials_look_to.html