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(GSCS Take: Schools are beginning a new year. Let's meet the promise of the classroom with a sense of renewal, with the positive sense of optimism that NJ can move beyond the handwringing stage of controversy...Let's move on to getting New Jersey back on track with quality public education and outstanding issues that need to be addressed now, starting with how and how soon the $268M in federal aid will be distributed to school districts; when the toolkit will start to move through the legislature to help offset the reality of the 2% cap v. fixed costs beyond local district control; legislative waiver consideration for special education costs, and more...)
The Record ‘Fired education chief Schundler says his error cost N.J. Race to the Top grant’
Njspotlight.com ‘Role of Consultant Comes to Light as Schundler Admits Error’
Star Ledger, ‘Fired N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says he made 'Race to the Top' error’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Schundler: 'This was my error'
Asbury Park Press ‘Schundler firing was warranted’
The Record ‘Fired education chief Schundler says his error cost N.J. Race to the Top grant’
Njspotlight.com ‘Role of Consultant Comes to Light as Schundler Admits Error’
Star Ledger, ‘Fired N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says he made 'Race to the Top' error’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Schundler: 'This was my error'
Asbury Park Press ‘Schundler firing was warranted’
The Record ‘Fired education chief Schundler says his error cost N.J. Race to the Top grant’
Monday, August 30, 2010
Last updated: Tuesday August 31, 2010, 7:06 AM
BY LESLIE BRODY
The Record
Bret Schundler, who was fired Friday as education commissioner, said he learned Monday that he personally made the budget data error that helped the state miss out on a $400 million federal grant for school reform.
Schundler said one member of a team of consultants hired to help with the Race to the Top application found the former commissioner’s handwritten scribbles on a draft, on which he crossed out the 2008-09 budget data that were supposed to be included in the grant application.
“It’s appalling to me that I could have made such an error,” he said Monday. “We didn’t catch it.”
The consultant, Wireless Generation, was paid $179,750 to help develop New Jersey’s application. The contract promised that the firm would be “responsible for the quality, technical accuracy and timely completion” of the proposal.
Schundler’s scribbles solved one of the mysteries in an unfolding drama that has riveted the education world and outraged taxpayers who wished the state had the grants for school reform. Governor Christie fired Schundler on Friday, charging that the commissioner made misleading statements to him about whether he gave contest judges in Washington, D.C., the correct budget answer.
Schundler insisted Friday and again Monday that he did not hide anything from the governor.
“He terminated me saying I had not told him what happened at the interview and that is not true,” Schundler said Monday. “It hurt me to have him suggesting that I gave him false information.”
Schundler has repeatedly said he told the governor he did not supply the exact funding figures at the Washington presentation.
The governor’s office has not bought Schundler’s defense. On Friday, it issued a press release saying Schundler “continues to sully his own image by engaging in revisionist history.”
On Monday, Schundler called that press release “atrocious.” He also said that he has never discussed his dismissal with Christie. He said he got a cellphone message from the governor Thursday night telling him to call Christie’s chief of staff, who asked him to resign.
Schundler said he asked to be terminated so he could get unemployment benefits.
New Jersey lost the high-stakes contest by three points out of 500. It lost five points for failing to provide budget data for 2008-09.
Schundler had said Friday that the missing information was in a May 26 draft of the proposal circulating among department staffers, attorneys general and the consultant’s team for review, but that it was unclear how the budget data fell out of the draft. Schundler said Monday that he was “disappointed” to learn the mistake was his own.
The Wireless Generation contract says the company would provide “planning, communication, writing and advisory services” for the second round of the Race to the Top competition. The $179,750 fee was for its work by at least four full-time staffers in May and June, and the no-bid contract followed a previous contract for work in December and January for the first round of the competition.
Schundler said it made sense to hire the same team that handled the first round because it knew the material.
Andrea Reibel, spokeswoman for Wireless Generation, would not comment on the contract’s declaration that the company was responsible for the accuracy of the application. She e-mailed that “Wireless Generation provided planning and advisory services to the New Jersey Department of Education in support of its Race to the Top application. At this point, any questions about the state’s application should be addressed to the New Jersey Department of Education.”
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the governor, would not comment on Wireless Generation’s role in the process and proofreading.
“I don’t think we have anything further to say on this,” Comella said. “The governor was pretty clear at the press conference [Wednesday] that he didn’t blame any one person for the error.”
The June proposal was revamped quickly over Memorial Day weekend after Christie threw out the first draft, saying Schundler had compromised too much with the New Jersey Education Association. The application lost points for lack of union buy-in.
Schundler said Mondaythat the “very tight time frame” may have contributed to the error.
E-mail: brody@northjersey.co
Bret Schundler, who was fired Friday as education commissioner, said he learned Monday that he personally made the budget data error that helped the state miss out on a $400 million federal grant for school reform.
Schundler said one member of a team of consultants hired to help with the Race to the Top application found the former commissioner’s handwritten scribbles on a draft, on which he crossed out the 2008-09 budget data that were supposed to be included in the grant application.
“It’s appalling to me that I could have made such an error,” he said Monday. “We didn’t catch it.”
The consultant, Wireless Generation, was paid $179,750 to help develop New Jersey’s application. The contract promised that the firm would be “responsible for the quality, technical accuracy and timely completion” of the proposal.
Schundler’s scribbles solved one of the mysteries in an unfolding drama that has riveted the education world and outraged taxpayers who wished the state had the grants for school reform. Governor Christie fired Schundler on Friday, charging that the commissioner made misleading statements to him about whether he gave contest judges in Washington, D.C., the correct budget answer.
Schundler insisted Friday and again Monday that he did not hide anything from the governor.
“He terminated me saying I had not told him what happened at the interview and that is not true,” Schundler said Monday. “It hurt me to have him suggesting that I gave him false information.”
Schundler has repeatedly said he told the governor he did not supply the exact funding figures at the Washington presentation.
The governor’s office has not bought Schundler’s defense. On Friday, it issued a press release saying Schundler “continues to sully his own image by engaging in revisionist history.”
On Monday, Schundler called that press release “atrocious.” He also said that he has never discussed his dismissal with Christie. He said he got a cellphone message from the governor Thursday night telling him to call Christie’s chief of staff, who asked him to resign.
Schundler said he asked to be terminated so he could get unemployment benefits.
New Jersey lost the high-stakes contest by three points out of 500. It lost five points for failing to provide budget data for 2008-09.
Schundler had said Friday that the missing information was in a May 26 draft of the proposal circulating among department staffers, attorneys general and the consultant’s team for review, but that it was unclear how the budget data fell out of the draft. Schundler said Monday that he was “disappointed” to learn the mistake was his own.
The Wireless Generation contract says the company would provide “planning, communication, writing and advisory services” for the second round of the Race to the Top competition. The $179,750 fee was for its work by at least four full-time staffers in May and June, and the no-bid contract followed a previous contract for work in December and January for the first round of the competition.
Schundler said it made sense to hire the same team that handled the first round because it knew the material.
Andrea Reibel, spokeswoman for Wireless Generation, would not comment on the contract’s declaration that the company was responsible for the accuracy of the application. She e-mailed that “Wireless Generation provided planning and advisory services to the New Jersey Department of Education in support of its Race to the Top application. At this point, any questions about the state’s application should be addressed to the New Jersey Department of Education.”
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the governor, would not comment on Wireless Generation’s role in the process and proofreading.
“I don’t think we have anything further to say on this,” Comella said. “The governor was pretty clear at the press conference [Wednesday] that he didn’t blame any one person for the error.”
The June proposal was revamped quickly over Memorial Day weekend after Christie threw out the first draft, saying Schundler had compromised too much with the New Jersey Education Association. The application lost points for lack of union buy-in.
Schundler said Mondaythat the “very tight time frame” may have contributed to the error.
E-mail: brody@northjersey.co
New Jersey’s doomed Race to the Top application that led to the ouster of the state’s education commissioner last week had another quiet hand involved: a Brooklyn consultant that was paid nearly $180,000 to assist in the bid.
According to public records obtained by NJ Spotlight, Wireless Generation Inc. also worked on the state’s first Race to the Top application last winter under a separate but similar contract. That bid also fell short in the first round of the federal competition, in which states applied for more than $4.3 billion in federal funds.
But the failure of the second-round application, and who or what was to blame, has caused a furor in Trenton, leading to Gov. Chris Christie’s firing of Bret Schundler as education commissioner on Friday and Democratic legislators holding hearings next week.
Less known has been the role of Wireless Generation, which though hired as a consultant to help steer the state through the process also apparently failed to catch the critical mistake over missing information that is at the center of the political storm.
"This just raises more questions about the application and how it was done," said state Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), the Assembly majority leader. "We certainly look forward to hearing from the consultant next week, and getting their version of events."
Schundler Takes Responsibility
In what Christie described as a "clerical error" but what Schundler today acknowledged may have been his own, the state failed to provide readily available information about its education funding in 2008 and 2009, costing the state five points that could have made the difference. The state fell short of potentially winning $399 million by just three out of a maximum of 500 points.
After days of conjecture over how the mistake was made, Schundler said in an interview last night that it was he who inadvertently dropped the necessary language from the application. "It turns out I was responsible," he said.
He said that in the back-and-forth of writing and rewriting different sections of the application, including working with Wireless Generation’s staff, he left the required information out of the working copy.
As to whether the consultants or anyone else should have caught the error in a final edit, Schundler said he would not blame others.
It is not unusual for the DOE -- or for any department -- to have outside consultants work on such applications, especially those as complex as the Race to the Top. Several other states also hired consultants to help in their bids.
Consultant's Contract Won Waiver
According to a contract signed on May 18, Wireless Generation was hired to "provide planning, communication, writing and advisory services" for New Jersey’s second-round application. The total amount was a fixed $179,750 for work through June.
The contract was not put out to competitive bid, instead receiving a waiver from the state treasurer’s office. But Wireless Generation had won the first-round contract through a competitive bid process conducted under the administration of then-Gov. Jon Corzine, according to the waiver request. The amount of that first contract was not disclosed.
"Because Wireless Generation developed New jersey’s first application, we believe they are uniquely qualified, and it would be most advantageous and in the state’s best interest to request this Supplement Waiver of Advertising to continue to provide the required services," read the request from Willa Spicer, the deputy commissioner at the time and now an assistant commissioner.
Schundler said much the same last night, describing the company as having a "solid foundation about both our application and New Jersey’s education system."
Wireless Generation is a 10-year-old company of about 300 employees, headquartered in Brooklyn and with offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Washington, D.C.
The company is best known for its education technology services, including a high-profile project in New York City developing customized instructional services for students through the use of technology.
It said in its agreement with New Jersey that it would deploy four full-time staffers to work with the state "for the duration of the project," as well as other experts, including its president, Larry Berger, and Lauren Resnick, a noted education psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh.
"We look forward to assisting New Jersey in winning the Race to the Top," wrote Wireless Generation vice president David Stevenson at the conclusion of the agreement.
Reached yesterday, the company’s vice president for communication, Andrea Reibel, would not comment beyond saying it had advised the state on the application.
"Wireless Generation provided planning and advisory services to the New Jersey Department of Education in support of its Race to the Top application," read a prepared statement. "At this point, any questions about the state's application should be addressed to the New Jersey Department of Education."
A department spokesman would not comment further.
Star Ledger, ‘Fired N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says he made 'Race to the Top' error’
Published: Monday, August 30, 2010, 9:32 PM Updated: Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 8:09 AM
Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau
TRENTON -- Former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler admitted today he made the crucial error that cost New Jersey up to $400 million federal education funds, saying he inadvertently removed crucial data from the state’s application.
However, Schundler, who was fired from his post last Friday, continued to maintain he did not lie to Gov. Chris Christie when describing what happened during the state’s Race to the Top presentation to judges in Washington, D.C., earlier this month
In a telephone interview with The Star-Ledger, Schundler said he’s learned the Education Department has found a draft of the Race to the Top application with edits, in his handwriting, that remove the data federal officials requested.
Schundler told The Record one member of a team of consultants hired to help with the application found the draft. The consultant, Wireless Generation, was paid $179,750 to help develop New Jersey’s application. The contract promised the firm would be "responsible for the quality, technical accuracy and timely completion" of the proposal.
Still, Schundler blamed himself.
"I was responsible," he said. "What can I say? ... I screwed up."
A spokesman for the Department of Education referred calls to the governor’s press office, which declined to comment.
Andrea Reibel, spokeswoman for Wireless Generation, would not comment on the contract’s declaration that the company was responsible for the accuracy of the application.
"Wireless Generation provided planning and advisory services to the New Jersey Department of Education in support of its Race to the Top application," she wrote in an e-mail to The Record. "At this point, any questions about the state’s application should be addressed to the New Jersey Department of Education."
The series of events last week roiled the state’s education community and prompted both houses of the Democrat-controlled legislature to call for hearings. It also led to the first high-profile departure from the Christie administration.
Schundler said that as late as Friday, he was still unsure about the source of the error, which Christie, during a press conference on Wednesday, attributed to a mid-level staffer. The governor also blamed Washington bureaucrats who he said would not let the state correct the error during an in-person presentation in Washington, D.C. on June 1.
But on Thursday, a video released by the U.S. Department of Education contradicted Christie’s claims and showed the state did not try to correct the error.
The governor then asked for Schundler’s resignation.
Previous coverage:
• Future of N.J. school reform remains uncertain without federal funds, permanent education chief
• Tom Moran: Christie faces ugly political ramifications of 'Race to the Top' error, Schundler firing
• Gov. Christie, Schundler clash over who was wrong leading up to firing
• Biography of Bret Schundler
• N.J. lawmakers have mixed reactions to education chief Bret Schundler's firing
• Schundler requested firing instead of resignation so he can collect unemployment
• Gov. Chris Christie fires N.J. schools chief Bret Schundler
• Background: After decades on the rise, Schundler has a quick fall
• Read the NJEA statement
• Editorial: Bret Schundler had to go; N.J. education commissioner was out of sync with his boss
Schundler was let go Friday morning after he asked to be fired rather than resign so that he could receive unemployment benefits. He continues to maintain he did not mislead Christie about the state’s presentation.
The state committed the error on a 5-point question in which it provided budget information for the wrong year. The application asked for data from 2008 and 2009. Instead, the state provided numbers for 2011. The mistake cost the state 4.8 points on a 500-point application. The state missed out on the grant by 3 points, placing 11th behind Ohio.
In the end, nine states and the District of Columbia split about $3.3 billion on Race to the Top funds, which reward states for aggressive and new approaches to improving schools.
Schundler said today he "must have" edited out the previous years’ information because he didn’t have the question in front of him — just the answer — and assumed the federal government would want current information.
"That’s the thing I can’t understand. That’s so fundamental and such a big screw-up," he said. "It’s amazing to me that we screwed up in this regard. It’s amazing to me that I screwed up in this regard, and that others — that we screwed up as a team."
Schundler said a bevy of lawyers, consultants and education department employees were editing and fact-checking the application throughout the week before it was due June 1. He said he spent much of last week trying to piece together the edits before the deadline, checking through his computer files, but could not pinpoint when the error was made.
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Schundler: 'This was my error'
By Beth DeFalco
Associated Press
TRENTON - New Jersey's fired education commissioner said Monday he learned he had made a mistake that might have cost the state a $400 million federal education grant even though he did not remember doing it.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday night, Bret Schundler said he had just been informed the Department of Education discovered a draft of the state's application with notes in his handwriting removing key information.
Although he said he didn't recall making the error specifically, he didn't dispute it.
"This was my error," Schundler said. "It's clear that it happened during editing."
The Star-Ledger of Newark first reported that Schundler made the mistake.
Republican Gov. Christie fired Schundler on Friday, days after the state learned it had lost out on the coveted Race to the Top grant. The state was a top runner-up in the competition, missing by only a few points.
Last Tuesday, it was revealed that the state lost crucial points in reporting budget figures for the wrong years in one section of its application.
The next day, Christie defended Schundler and blamed the U.S. Department of Education for considering form over substance. Christie said Schundler gave the federal government the missing information during a meeting in Washington this month. But a video released Thursday by the federal Department of Education shows that wasn't the case.
Expressing frustration that Schundler had given him the wrong story, Christie asked him Friday to resign. Schundler preferred to be fired so he might be able to collect unemployment insurance.
On Friday, Schundler said he told Christie what really happened but Christie still explained it incorrectly to the media. Schundler insisted Monday he had not misled Christie about what had happened.
"I think if he fired me on this, for making the error, I would have understood it," Schundler said. "But what he did was to fire me for supposedly giving him the wrong information about whether we tried correcting the missing information."
A spokesman for Christie declined to comment Monday night.
Schundler said he must have assumed the federal government wanted the most recent state budget information. The application asked for 2008-09 data, which was in earlier versions of the application.
"I remember thinking we should put in current data, but I didn't remember taking out the old data," Schundler said.
Many people fact-checked and edited the application in the days before it was turned in, he said. After the mistake was realized, the administration tried to figure out how it happened.
Schundler said a consultant for the Department of Education had been on vacation and just discovered the handwritten notes from Schundler upon returning.
Both chambers of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature plan hearings next month to examine the error and have invited Schundler to testify.
Asbury Park Press ‘Schundler firing was warranted’
Bret Schundler had to go. His recent bungling of an application that potentially cost New Jersey its share of $400 million in Race To The Top federal grant money was the last straw and clear evidence he was unfit as education commissioner.
Christie had already given Schundler the proverbial second chance after the debacle in May in which he exceeded his authority and negotiated an unapproved deal with the NJEA over the state's Race to The Top application.
Schundler, without authorization from Christie, had reached a compromise with the NJEA on reforms to be included in the application. Christie rejected the compromise and forced a hasty rewrite of the paperwork on deadline. That sloppy rewrite left out required information that ultimately cost New Jersey any share of the federal education grants.
Related
· Superintendents taken aback by events in Trenton
· Schundler statement about dismissal draws rebuke from governor's office
· Compilation of statements by NJ officials on Bret Schundler's firing
· Schundler invited to testify before Senate panel
· Christie fires New Jersey education commissioner Bret Schundler
· Race to the Top: A $400M blunder
· NJ didn't have corrected figures for grant application, video shows
It doesn't matter, in the end, just who left the proper figures off the forms. Schundler was the point man for the process, and he bears responsibility for the costly blunder. He was justly fired for the error. The subsequent bickering between the governor and his fired education chief provided interesting political theater. Christie's assertion that he was "misinformed" by Schundler about federal officials not accepting the correct figures — especially in light of video contradicting that assertion — or Schundler's claim that Christie misunderstood his explanation, shouldn't obscure the fact that Schundler showed on more than one occasion that he simply wasn't up to the job.
The honorable thing for Schundler to do would have been to resign rather than demand the governor fire him so that he could collect unemployment.
Whether you agree or disagree with Christie's education policy and proposals, he has every right to appoint people to cabinet-level positions who will faithfully execute those policies with a high degree of competence.
Schundler failed the governor on both counts. More than once.
It was time for him to look for a new job.
