Christie Says Higher Ed Will Get Cash Once the Economy Starts to Improve

 

Trentonian

January 5, 2011

 

Gov. Chris Christie said yesterday that higher education will be the first area to see increased spending once New Jersey's economy turns around.

 

Christie made the promise as he announced recommendations of a task force studying ways to help the state's colleges and universities.  The announcement came on the heels of the Republican governor's decision not to renew the contracts of seven county school superintendents that his predecessor hired.

 

The task force chaired by former Gov. Tom Kean made some 70 recommendations.  They include giving college presidents more autonomy, folding Robert Wood Johnson Medical School into Rutgers University and stemming migration of New Jersey students to out-of-state colleges.

 

Kean said the schools also are in desperate need of help maintaining their buildings.  He suggested creating a revolving loan fund for short-term fixes and borrowing for capital improvements when the state is in better fiscal shape.

 

"We don't have to do any of this," Kean said, "but if we don't do this, we're going to see a continuing decline -- not only in higher education but in the state as a whole and in its job picture."  Christie seemed receptive to the task force's ideas.

 

"We need to make a greater commitment and investment to higher education in New Jersey," he said.  "This is not something that is going to happen overnight.  The report that was issued by the task force acknowledges that, in part because of the fiscal situation that the state is in and in part because of the complexity of some of these issues."

 

Christie also urged the Legislature to allow college and university presidents to control their labor costs by negotiating their own union contracts and by allowing them to be exempt from civil service rules.

 

Christie cut $181 million in aid to higher education this year and cut $820 million in K-12 aid.

 

The state's 31 public and 32 independent higher education institutions enroll 429,000 students.  They've been hampered by a lack of state capital investment and increased costs.  New Jersey loses about 30,000 college-bound students each year who leave to attend college elsewhere.  Many do not return after earning their degrees.

 

Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt, a Camden County Democrat who chairs the Assembly Higher Education Committee, said she hopes the report signals a commitment on the part of the administration to making college more affordable.  Christie also is seeking changes to the status quo in the public schools for younger children.

 

Seven education chiefs for Jersey counties were off the job this week after Christie's administration declined to renew their expiring contracts.

 

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said the seven were holdovers from Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's administration and would be replaced by Christie appointees.

 

The positions pay $120,000 a year.  County superintendents see that state Education Department policies are carried out at the local level -- including reviewing the pay of district superintendents.

 

Superintendents in Burlington, Cape May, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Ocean and Somerset counties did not have their contracts renewed, along with the Middlesex superintendent who was also acting superintendent for Bergen County.

 

Source:  Trentonian, January 5, 2011, page 13