By Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist
A recent grant from a California-based foundation includes this unusual stipulation: Gov. Chris Christie must stay in office in New Jersey.
What passes for educational reform in New Jersey has relied heavily on private foundation money — millions from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, among others — and a common complaint of critics is that the public is rarely made aware of the conditions of those grants. One recent grant from a California-based foundation includes this unusual stipulation: Gov. Chris Christie must stay in office in New Jersey.
“That’s astonishing,” says David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark and a frequent critic of the Christie administration’s policies. “It is highly unusual, maybe precedent-setting — to require that an elected official remain in office as a condition for a grant.”
Sciarra, whose organization forced the disclosure of the terms of the grant from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, has called for an independent review of the $430,000 award. It was Sciarra who gave The Star-Ledger a copy of the grant papers.
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