Governor Christie Talks Teacher Tenure Changes
NEW YORK (CBS) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is so committed to changing tenure rules in public schools that he told a New York audience on Thursday that he has been meeting secretly with teachers to develop and sell his plan, bypassing their union in the process.
"Good teachers in our school system today don't need a union," Christie said at a forum sponsored by the Brookings Institute.
Christie said he wants teachers to evaluate their own using a standard split evenly between classroom performance and student achievement.
If you get three good reviews, you get tenure. If you get two bad ones, you lose it. Really bad teachers could be gone in as little as a month.
"The union will have nothing to do with developing these rules. The teachers in the individual districts will have to do it. The union will play no role," Christie said.
Don't tell that to the union says NJEA spokesman Steve Baker.
"Teachers and school employees are the union. The union is teachers and school employees. You can't separate the two," Baker responded.
Baker says he labels the Governor's tenure reform plan, "A disaster for public education in New Jersey".
Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio
