In Iowa, Christie talks about education reform

DES MOINES, Iowa - As speculation about his presidential ambitions hung heavily in the hot Midwestern air, Gov. Christie called for peace in the battle over education at a summit convened Monday by the governor of Iowa.

Saying he did not come to Iowa "to throw down the gauntlet of the next battle," Christie instead spoke in lofty terms about the American promise and the need to save students in places such as Camden, where students fail despite a price tag of $20,000 per pupil.

Most notably, the governor known for calling out the teachers' union in visceral and unprecedented ways refrained from antiunion rhetoric before more than 1,000 educators and other Iowans.

"Maybe we can stop the arguing and bickering for a while," he said. "Maybe we can put aside the personal self-interests of unions and politicians and start to figure out what unites us, and start to take some risk."

Christie's Iowa visit drew national attention for reasons that have nothing to do with education. He touched down just two weeks before the Ames Straw Poll, the first unofficial test for the Republican presidential nomination, and six months before the first-in-the-nation GOP presidential caucus.

Since the Republican Party so far has no front-runner for the nomination - to the disappointment of some activists and fund-raisers - Christie's presence fueled a buzz that the Garden State governor is flirting with the idea of entering the race.

Christie has repeated time and again that he will not run for president in 2012, and he reiterated that Monday.

"I can't imagine that changing," he said. "We're pretty late in the game."

Then why come to Iowa at all?

"Every major news service in America will cover the fact that I'm here to talk about education reform, and it's the last of the big things I want to accomplish this year," Christie said in an interview before the speech. "In the end, what I'm going to get from coming out here is attention for our ideas and plans for New Jersey on a national stage and I think that's really advantageous for the state."

Whether the attention will influence New Jersey's Democratic Legislature, however, is unclear. It has yet to approve any of Christie's major education initiatives, and there are still bruises from the Christie budget cuts, which followed a landmark bipartisan agreement on benefits changes for the public sector.

Christie still has not spoken to Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who unleashed on the governor after the budget was signed June 30. Christie said he called Sweeney on July 3 after reading Sweeney's comments but has not gotten a return phone call.

Sweeney has the power to delay votes on all of the governor's proposals - including a seven-bill package he delivered to the Legislature in April and a series of changes to the charter school law that he proposed in January. Unlike their agreement on benefits, Sweeney is opposed to many of the governor's education plans.

Christie said his top priority was revamping tenure, which provides job protection for teachers after three successful years. Christie wants to upend the system, awarding it based on merit, not seniority.

Salaries would be based on performance, too, through a system of merit pay incorporating evaluations and student test scores.

Sweeney opposes merit pay and the elimination of seniority, but he supports a tenure overhaul - "though he feels there needs to be a careful examination of this issue before moving forward," according to Sweeney's spokesman, Chris Donnelly. Sweeney would be working with a Democratic version of the bill, Donnelly said.

Teachers and their unions argue that teachers' jobs cannot be entirely based on how their students perform, especially since other factors such as parental involvement is crucial to a child's well-being.

Christie seized on that argument Monday. "Are you really willing to live in a world that places failure as the only option at the feet of a child who can't pick his or her parent?" he asked.

Last month, Christie went to Camden to propose creating "transformation" schools in failing districts that would be operated by private companies or nonprofit groups, revamped, and then turned back into public schools. He wants that program piloted in Camden, but said in the interview that he had no plans to take over the district as the state did in Newark.

The most significant education proposal is the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which has been knocking around Trenton for years. Activists thought the bill might come up for a vote last month, but Democrats never brought it to the floor for a vote.

Donnelly said Sweeney opposes the bill but would post it when he sees a final version.

The act would provide tax credits to corporations that donate to a school-voucher program, allowing students in failing schools to matriculate elsewhere.

Christie frames his education agenda as part of a bipartisan fever for change that is spreading through blue and red states. He has praised President Obama on education (and little else), and at the summit Monday he referenced Obama's former chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Christie received a warm reception from the crowd. But in an indication of how the Christie name resonates on both sides of the education debate, some Iowan teachers told the Des Moines Register that they were boycotting the summit because of his presence.

Christie's invitation to the summit came from Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. In May, Christie met with Iowa fund-raisers allied with Branstad who begged him to run for president. After that dinner, Christie announced he would attend this summit.

One of the men at the dinner accompanied Christie after he arrived with his wife, brother, and two oldest children on a private jet Monday. After the education speech, Christie headlined a fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa).

The King campaign and the New Jersey Republican Party paid for the trip.

Branstad is a big fan of Christie's. He said in an interview last week that Christie's speech at his October fund-raiser was "the most inspirational speech I've heard since Ronald Reagan."