Donna Chiera | American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Christie’s ‘Pants on Fire’ and other Fact Checks from the State of the State

January 18, 2012

While Governor Chris Christie said positive things about teachers, but stayed silent about higher education in Tuesday’s State of the State address, PolitiFact and AFTNJ identified several snippets of harmful hyperbole from the Governor that earn him a “Pants on Fire” rating. AFTNJ President Donna M. Chiera addressed Governor Christie’s education reform agenda from her classroom experience and seat on the teacher evaluation and effectiveness task force.“It is unfortunate that Governor Christie continues to repeat misstatements about the Newark Public Schools that denigrate the students and teachers there,” said Chiera. “Since PolitiFact gave the Governor a ‘Pants on Fire’ rating for undercounting by more than half the percentage of Newark students who graduate from high school back in December, you would think he would stop using this misleading figure.”The claim has been debunked twice but Christie continues to repeat the erroneous statistic, according to PolitiFact, editorializing, “Consistently repeating a proven falsehood isn’t just wrong, governor, it’s ridiculous. Pants on Fire!”

The use of misleading statistics can only detract from a meaningful dialog about school reform, which is a genuine interest of committed educators, according to Chiera. She points out that even the state is not ready to truly start “measuring teacher effectiveness, both with professional observation, and objective, quantifiable measures of student achievement” since the two-year pilot study is on teacher evaluations is in its first year.

“The state has no evaluation system in place so legislation to reduce seniority protections and weaken tenure protections is premature at best,” said Chiera. “We also need to see teachers at the table with any discussion of reform so that classroom practitioners—not politicians—are driving real reform that will benefit students.”

While Governor Christie touts research to back his efforts to weaken teachers’ voice in guiding their profession, AFT national President Randi Weingarten called for are more global outlook. “Top-performing countries like Finland and Singapore place a high priority on recruiting and retaining talented teachers, investing in teacher preparation and continuous improvement, and respecting teachers’ input,” according to Weingarten.

Chiera also noted that Christie’s speech made no mention of his much-publicized task force created to propose merging higher education institutions and called for stakeholder and public input into the planning process.

Fact Checks

Pants on Fire

Says “kids who start in the ninth grade in the city of Newark this past September, 23 percent of them will graduate in four years.”

- Chris Christie on Thursday, December 29th, 2011 in a radio interview

Chris Christie repeats misleading statistic on Newark’s high school graduation rate.

Half True

Says “we’ve accomplished balancing two budgets without raising taxes. We’ve now created 60,000 new private-sector jobs. We’ve made government smaller.”

-Chris Christie on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 in a video

Chris Christie touts accomplishments in video previewing State of the State address.

For more, see
Chris Christie dredges up old claims in annual speech

AFT supports the American Jobs Act

October 24, 2011

AFTNJ Joins Suit Against Health Insurance and Pension Legislation

September 09, 2011

In conjunction with New Jersey public sector unions, AFTNJ is joining a legal challenge to implementation of June’s damaging pension and health care legislation. The union federation’s Delegate Assembly, its highest decision-making body composed of representatives from each local, voted unanimously to join the legal action.

The suit against Gov. Christie, a Republican, and the Democratic-majority Legislature, says parts of the legislation “impair the obligation of contracts and violate due process rights” by suspending cost-of-living adjustments in pension payments to retirees and continuing to underfund the state pension system.

The suit also charges that the law gives “unrestrained authority” to new pension committees to change benefits.

“I am proud of our members’ activism in opposing this legislation during the Spring,” said AFTNJ President Donna M. Chiera. She lauded members who wrote letters and signed petitions, met with legislators, talked to the media and demonstrated in Trenton to help beat back some of the worst provisions of earlier proposals.

Chiera said the legal challenge is one component of the 30,000-member union federation’s response to the legislation increasing health insurance costs for members. “As important as the legal challenge is now, that is in the hands of counsel,” she said. “What the rest of us can do is to view this as a reminder that elections matter. For the weeks leading to Election Day November 8, we need to talk to members about the importance of actively supporting progressive candidates who understand that protecting workers’ rights is good public policy, good for the economy and the right thing to do.”

AFTNJ Leadership Changes

August 09, 2011

Perth Amboy Federation’s Chiera New AFTNJ President; Skeete-Carey and Tardi EVPs

Moving up to a new challenge is always exciting. In late June Perth Amboy teacher Donna M. Chiera had her hands full being elected President of AFTNJ while serving as chair of the legislative crisis team battling in Trenton to protect collective bargaining. Chiera is a recently-retired classroom teacher with more than 30 years in the district, 22 years as local President and had been AFTNJ Prekindergarten through 12 Executive Vice President. She currently sits on the AFT national Program and Policy Committee and recently served on the Governor’s New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force.

The AFTNJ Executive Committee elected Chiera to complete the term of former President William Lipkin, which expires in June, 2012 after elections at the next AFTNJ convention.

The AFTNJ Delegate Assembly elected Prekindergarten through 12 Vice President Cheryl Skeete-Carey to fill Chiera’s vacated Executive Vice Presidency. Subsequently, Skeete-Carey’s election created a vacancy for a Prekindergarten through 12 Vice President to which Chiera appointed Margaret Roberts from North Bergen Federation of Teachers pending confirmation at August’s Delegate Assembly.

The Delegate Assembly also filled the Higher Education Executive Vice President position, electing William Paterson University Professor Susanna Tardi, a nine-year AFT WPU Local President.

Education union files unfair labor practice charge

July 17, 2011

[...]
Donna M. Chiera, president of AFTNJ, suggested the administration was engaged in union busting.
She asked, “Why would Ocean County College refuse a settlement proposed by a neutral third-party based on an independent analysis of an institution that continues to grow in every area other than salaries for unionized workers?”

Michael Putnam, president of the OCC Federation of Professional Administrators, said in a prepared statement that his union had offered several different contract proposals and each was met with a resounding “No” from the administration.

“Yet even in these poor economic times the college has forged new partnerships, launched new programs and continues to expand its main campus,” Putnam said. “We are asking that management return to the table with a negotiating team empowered to enter into an agreement that is mutually satisfactory and will allow us to face the future of OCC together.”

Jul. 17, 2011. Erik Larsen, Staff Writer. Asbury Park Press
Read full article at http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011307170047

Ocean County College Staff Standing Up as Management Fails to Bargain

July 14, 2011

Unfair Labor Practices Charge Filed: 51-member unit passed over for raises executives award themselves

EDISON…The largest higher education union in New Jersey has filed unfair practices charges against Ocean County College (OCC) faulting resistant management there for ignoring an impartially recommended contract settlement while continuing to take raises for themselves. Despite having the highest paid community college president in New Jersey in the $222,200 Jon Larson, OCC management rejected the recommendation of an impartial factfinder that suggested the school grant modest increases in a three-year contract and maintains an inflexible position.

More…

Donna Chiera and Sue Tardi

June 23, 2011

Grading teachers must be year-long process

December 12, 2010

Donna Chiera

Donna Chiera is one of nine people chosen by Gov. Chris Christie to serve on a task force that will revamp how New Jersey teachers are recruited, hired, compensated and fired. Christie has been in a heated showdown with the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, over ideas such as merit pay and tenure reform.

The governor excluded the NJEA from his task force, but included Chiera, an executive of the American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents teachers in Newark. She spoke with editorial writer Julie O’Connor about teacher evaluations.

More>>

Donna Chiera named to panel tasked with evaluating ways to assess N.J. teachers

October 28, 2010

Donna Chiera, a special education teacher in Perth Amboy who is also executive vice president for pre-K to 12 for AFT NJ, said she asked for the post because, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Chiera said evaluations should be tools to help teachers hone their skills. She said she believed in using multiple measures of student growth – such as reviewing classwork – and not just scores on yearly state tests. She said it’s also important to consider whether teachers have proper materials, how often students switch schools, and other variables that can affect learning, including parent engagement.

“Many teachers in the classroom are afraid this process is going to be used as a ‘getcha’ instead of as a process to truly improve teacher effectiveness,” she said, but added that she hoped to ensure it helped the profession.

From Christie names panel tasked with evaluating ways to assess N.J. teachers  at http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/102810_Christie_names_panel_tasked_with_evaluating_ways_to_evaluate_NJ_teachers.html

LESLIE BRODY

The Record,  STAFF WRITER