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1-10-11 Governor Christie State of the State Tuesday
Nj.com ‘Gov. Christie says no surprises planned for State of the State address this week’

njspotlight.com ‘Educator Evaluation Expected To Be Part of Christie's State of the State’ Full implementation of teacher evaluation system could be two years off

Wall Street Journal ‘Christie, Year 2: 'Stay the Course'

(GSCS apologizes for unformatted articles within, it is due to Apple hardware issue and will be temporary...thanks for your patience.)

Nj.com ‘Gov. Christie says no surprises planned for State of the State address this week’njspotlight.com ‘Educator Evaluation Expected To Be Part of Christie's State of the State’ Full implementation of teacher evaluation system could be two years offWall Street Journal ‘Christie, Year 2: 'Stay the Course'Nj.com ‘Gov. Christie says no surprises planned for State of the State address this week’Published: Sunday, January 09, 2011, 1:00 PM Updated: Sunday, January 09, 2011, 6:02 PM By Statehouse Bureau Staff TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie, who was full of surprises in his rookie year, insists he won’t have any in his State of the State address on Tuesday.Instead of rolling out a list of new goals, Christie said he is sticking with the ones that have already turned Trenton upside down: Revamping education, reforming benefits for public employees, getting tough on state finances.The Republican governor said his speech will have no "laundry lists" of programs, no "pandering" to every constituency. He wants his second year to build on the first."We’ve seen great progress, and why would we want to stop?" Christie said in an interview with The Star-Ledger on Friday. "I’m for accomplishing big things, and the only way you can accomplish big things is to strive for them and to talk about them constantly, and even then it’s a difficult task."The governor said the state probably can’t afford any tax cuts because of the tough economy, and the pending loss of about $900 million in Medicaid funding could pose big problems. He wants concessions from state workers in what is expected to be tough contract negotiations.Christie, who gained national attention with his unconventional town hall exchanges, will participate in one of the most conventional requirements of a governor: Delivering his first State of the State address before a joint session of the Legislature at the Statehouse.In preparing for his speech, he read the first addresses delivered by ex-governors back to Tom Kean in 1983."They’re laundry list speeches," Christie said. "They want to get something for every department mentioned. They want to touch on every potential issues. That’s not the way I’ve governed, and that’s not the way I’m going to give the State of the State."Christie said his biggest mistake of his first year was his inability to understand the pace of the legislative process. Aware the Legislature will break in the fall for elections, leaving less time for working in Trenton, Christie said he will keep the pressure on lawmakers to finish his agenda."I have an idea and a plan for where I want to lead the state. If I’m not the person who keeps it on course, no one will," Christie said. "That’s my job, to keep it on course."Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said that with government in crisis, Christie is smart to stay the course."The main problem with state government is we’re out of money," he said. "If he doesn’t push along these lines, the state won’t survive the economic crisis."Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said Christie is sacrificing other important issues with his focus on pension reform. Instead, she said, the governor should be pushing job growth."I don’t agree that by revamping the pension system for state employees, that improves the economy," she said.While governors try to set the agenda in their State of the State address, some things are out of their control."It snows," Christie said, acknowledging the fallout after the December blizzard that blanketed the state while he was in Florida on a family vacation to Disney World.One of the biggest issues will be state employee contract negotiations. Christie signaled that he’ll seek concessions, pointing to this year’s 7 percent raise.Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey area director for the Communication Workers of America, the largest state worker union, said she hopes negotiations will proceed professionally. However, attempts by the CWA to have an informal meeting with the governor have been refused, she said."We have a very respectable and remarkable record of collective bargaining and reaching these good creative approaches," Rosenstein said.Medicaid programs will become a new focus, Christie said, especially because the state is losing $900 million in federal funding for the program. Many of the current Medicaid services are federally mandated as a result of the state accepting stimulus money in 2009.Christie said he’ll be working with a bipartisan group of governors to seek a repeal of those mandates."It’s just crippling states’ abilities to innovate and manage their own budgets," he said.Christie said he will renew his call for an overhaul of the teacher tenure system, a merit-based pay scale and the expansion of charter schools. Christie said he hopes to combat the notion that more money equals better schools."The system we have now has failed," Christie said. "Every day we’re wasting (by) not acting, we’re wasting kids’ lives, which to me is just obscene."He said pension negotiations between his office and the Democrat-controlled Legislature will start this month. He has called for a raising the retirement age, increasing employee pension contributions and a structural change in funding health plans. Currently, employees in the state health system pay a portion of their salary for insurance. Under Christie’s proposal, employees would pay a portion of the cost of the plan, boosting their contributions.Mirroring the federal system, he said, this would make employees choose between the expensive plans and moderate offerings that save the state money.When it comes to the overarching issue — making the state more fiscally responsible — Christie said he will remain diligent in keeping the state’s budget in order.Christie said he will take a new approach to budgeting, moving toward a "zero-base budget" that requires agencies to justify every expense. He will deliver a budget address in February.While he promised cutting taxes as a candidate, Christie said he won’t approve any unless the state can afford less revenue."We cannot have a dual-track system any more where you say, ‘Okay, here’s what we’re doing on the spending side’ and you say, ‘Okay, we’re going to pursue these tax cuts as well,’ pretending those two tracks don’t intersect," Christie said. "You have to pay for things." By Ginger Gibson and Chris Megerian/The Star-Ledger njspotlight.com ‘Educator Evaluation Expected To Be Part of Christie's State of the State’ Full implementation of teacher evaluation system could be two years offBy John Mooney, January 10 in Education Whatever recommendation comes out of Gov. Chris Christie’s Educator Effectiveness Task Force in the coming months, don’t look for a new system for evaluating school teachers and principals to go statewide for at least a couple of years.Christie is expected in his State of the State address tomorrow to press his proposals for more tightly coupling teacher and principal performance with student achievement, a plan that could change how educators are tenured, promoted and paid.But away from the rhetoric and into the details, a number of factors and obstacles point to a painstaking process that even the strongest advocates say will take time to accomplish.Pilot TestsThe leader of the governor’s task force, which is charged with recommending a statewide evaluation system by March, said this weekend that it would make sense to start with a few pilot districts to test the evaluation tools, assessments and data analysis that will be needed.“I can’t see how we wouldn’t pilot it,” said Brian Zychowski, the superintendent of North Brunswick schools who was chosen by Christie to chair the task force.An outline by the education department from early in the process also laid out a two-year timeline that would start with a half-dozen pilot districts in 2011-2012.Written before the task force began its work in November, the plan included independent research of the new system during the pilot, new sets of student assessments and surveys, and possibly even video observations in the classroom.No DecisionsZychowski would not comment on the department’s plan, although he did confirm its validity. Still, he said no decisions have been made as the task force continues to meet and work toward its March deadline.“We have another meeting on Monday,” he said. “And we will continue to bring in national people and local districts.”Zychowski said some models have stood out in the review, including those developed in Colorado, Delaware and Washington, D.C. And he didn’t rule out that new testing, including at the start of the school year to determine baselines for students, may even require a longer school year.“We can’t have a system that requires more assessments and evaluations and a curriculum that’s already loaded without needing more days,” he said. “Without real meat in the system, we’re wasting our time.”A big hurdle remains in developing the state’s own data analysis system that would track student achievement by teacher.In a presentation to the state Board of Education, the department director in charge of the system known as NJ SMART laid out the progress made so far in the program, showing sample reports that break out different subgroups of students and track achievement levels over multiple years.“For most districts, to be able to look longitudinally or load a record like this, it is nothing they have been able to do,” said Bari Erlichson, director of the department’s Office of Research and Evaluation.But when asked by board members about linking such achievement levels to specific teachers, Erlichson said that was at least 12-16 months away.“What we have to do is collect the information of this student being assigned to this teacher,” she said. “That’s the heavy lift for us. ”Wall Street Journal ‘Christie, Year 2: 'Stay the Course' By LISA FLEISHER Gov. Chris Christie took New Jersey by storm in his first year as governor, thrilling Republicans by taking on entrenched Democratic power centers in the name of fiscal responsibility.But with the state still slogging through the dregs of the recession and finances as precarious as ever, Mr. Christie says not to expect radical shifts this year, and he plans to "stay the course."In his first State of the State speech on Tuesday, Mr. Christie will focus on three issues: education, public pensions and benefits, and fiscal discipline."I don't think there's going to be any new ground broken, in terms of proposals," he said. "We've done well, we've made great progress in the first year, let's continue to push and tackle the really big issues."Mr. Christie's blunt, unapologetic style marked his first year in office. He loudly bashed those who stood in his way, notably the state teachers union. In November he called a superintendent and school board members greedy and arrogant, and last week he went after a mayor who complained about the state's response to the blizzard.The governor sees himself continuing to focus on the education system and cost-cutting in the coming year, then shifting his emphasis in the final two years of his term. "If we deal with the big issues in the first two years, that's going to free us up then—economically and substantively—to be able to expand and grow our ability to be able to improve the state in the second two years."Though Mr. Christie and his aides have been foreshadowing tax cuts, they won't be announced in his Tuesday speech, he said. Any tax cuts would have to be matched by spending cuts, he said. "We are not the federal government."The state's budget, funded mostly by income and sales taxes, will be about the same size or slightly smaller than this year's $29.4 billion spending plan, Mr. Christie said.A particular challenge will be a $1.4 billion deficit in Medicaid, blown open by the disappearance of $900 million in federal stimulus funds, he said. "Our Medicaid spending is growing out of control," he said. "We have to figure out a way to be more efficient and effective."