By Geoff Mulvihill
Mar. 24, 2010
Associated Press
Source - (
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SOMERVILLE, N.J. - Gov. Christie said yesterday that he has a way for school districts to avoid layoffs even after their state and federal funding is slashed.
His solution: Get all public school employees to agree to salary freezes for the coming year, and to contribute to their health-insurance costs.
Christie laid out his plan before a friendly audience at the library of a Somerville elementary school. He said he would lay out details in a letter to the New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey Education Association.
"We should put the children first, and that means we will have to sacrifice," said the governor, who has often criticized the raises educators routinely received. The increases usually were more than 4 percent.
Shared sacrifice has been a theme for the governor since he took office two months ago and began proposing cuts. Last week, he proposed a state budget with cuts in nearly every department to close a projected $11 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
One increase was in aid to schools, but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for more than $1 billion in lost federal funding. Christie called for aid to school districts to be cut by $820 million.
Many districts found their specific cuts were far bigger than the 15 percent they say they were told to expect. More than 50 districts would lose all their state funding for their main programs.
For the past week, school boards have been holding emergency meetings to rework their budgets before April 20 up-or-down public votes on budgets in most communities.
Deep layoffs are common in districts across the state, as are less painful cost reductions such as delaying replacement of aging computers for a year. A handful of teachers unions - including those in West Windsor-Plainfield and Montclair - have agreed to renegotiate parts of their contracts in hopes of preserving jobs.
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said yesterday that most teachers unions were declining when school boards suggest reopening contracts.
The state does not have authority to force contract changes, but it is offering incentives.
Christie and Schundler said the wage freezes and contributions to health-coverage costs by all employees - including nonunion administrators - would save districts enough to make up for nearly all aid cuts.
It wouldn't be enough for every district.
But the officials said they could adjust the aid to avoid layoffs in every district where the concessions are made - if there's broad buy-in.
Contributing to health-insurance costs soon will become a reality for school employees anyway.
On Monday, Christie signed into law a measure that would require all public employees to pay at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health coverage. The payments begin kicking in as current contracts expire for employees covered by collective bargaining.
Christie's suggested salary freeze was not warmly received by the NJEA, the state's largest school union and one of Trenton's most powerful lobbying forces. Its president, Barbara Keshishian, issued a statement saying in part: "NJEA members will not be bullied by this governor into paying for his misguided priorities. . . . It is wrong to ask the women and men who work in our schools to take a hit to their incomes while he refuses to ask the same of the wealthiest people in the state."