Can Dems Make Education Pivotal Issue in Governor’s Race?

Even with backing of both teachers unions, Buono faces challenge to articulate how she differs from Christie

By John Mooney

It’s taken a while, but Gov. Chris Christie’s aggressive school reform agenda — and the Democrats’ counter to it — could be emerging as a big issue in the 2013 gubernatorial election.

Christie’s very public involvement in the public schools — especially in some of the state’s most troubled districts — has been one of the hallmarks of his education agenda for the past three-and-a-half years.

To recap some of the governor’s political — and personal — initiatives: appointing a reform-minded superintendent in Newark, and playing a large role in hammering out a new teachers contract there; opposing Abbott v. Burke school-equity decisions; pushing for private school vouchers; blocking the surrender of state control in both Newark and Paterson; and, most recently, launching a takeover of Camden schools.

In the past few weeks, the Democrats in general and their presumptive candidate in particular — state Sen. Barbara Buono — finally started countering with what they would do differently. But it’s still too early to tell if they can make a case for it being different enough.

Buono, a Middlesex County Democrat, on Thursday accepted the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers in New Jersey, the smaller of the state’s two teachers unions, but one that represents Newark and a few other urban districts.

The senator already has the backing of the state’s larger teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association. There’s been little question that she would gain the support of both unions, given that Buono was one of the few prominent Democrats to stand with them when Christie overhauled public employee pensions and benefits.

But Buono also used the press conference announcing the AFT endorsement as an occasion to chide Christie’s often-antagonistic relationship with the teachers unions and said she would move to work alongside rather than against them.

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The president of the AFT-NJ, Donna Chiera, said it wasn’t a hard call for the union to back Buono. But she knows the challenge now is to draw clear distinctions in both the process and the results.

“I don’t think she would be as top-down heavy as the governor,” said Chiera, a Perth Amboy schoolteacher. “This administration is looking to do things to us, instead of with us.”

“I think Barbara recognizes that to truly have things done and to have the education system changed, those who are doing the job have to be involved,” she said.

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