Former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler’s release of emails between his department and a governor’s spokeswoman shows that three days before he was fired, Schundler told at least one administration official that he had not provided federal officials with correct budget information during the Race to the Top application interview.
The email exchange appears to back up Schundler’s contention that Gov. Chris Christie went too far when he said Schundler told him he had given the federal education officials the correct information and blamed bureaucrats in the Obama administration for the state’s failed application.
The exchange, released by Schundler as part of a chronology of his firing, shows Schundler clearly telling spokeswoman Maria Comella that it was too late to turn over the correct information once it was discovered. Other Christie press officials, including Mike Drewniak, were copied on the email chain.
“When did we realize the error? Did we not notify DOE of the error before we did our in person presentation,” Comella asked.
Schundler replied: “We didn’t let the DOE know we had made the error because we didn’t know we had made it ‐ not until a panelist asked us about the Fiscal Year 2008 budget data. When we were asked us about it, we checked our appendices. All we could do
was confirm that we had erred ‐‐ the 2008 data was not included. We had instead given them FY 2010 vs FY 2009 data, when what they sought was FY 2009 vs FY 2008 data.”
Comella’s question is at the heart of the firing as Christie said Schundler was terminated when video surfaced proving the commissioner did not give the missing budget information to officials during the one-hour in-person interview. In a seven page chronology, which included the e-mail chain with Comella, Schundler said he never told Christie he had given them the correct information and even warned the governor off saying so.
Later Schundler told Christie and others than he had told the reviewers that New Jersey had met the funding criteria called for in the application but that the conversation must have happened off camera.
The exchange is dated August 24, three days before Schundler was fired for allegedly lying to Gov. Chris Christie on that point.
Wednesday, the Christie administration stuck to its guns over Schundler’s firing, reiterating its stance that the former education commissioner lied about his exchange with U.S. DOE interviewers.
“Once again, Mr. Schundler acknowledges that he told both the Governor and the U.S Secretary of Education that he verbally confirmed for Race to The Top judges that New Jersey satisfied spending criteria on education for the period 2008-2009,” said Spokesman Mike Drewniak in an e-mail. “However, video of the presentation revealed that this was not the case. This indisputable fact was the basis for Mr. Schundler’s dismissal, no matter how much he attempts to cloud the issue or redirect responsibility for his own conduct.”
Another interesting exchange occurs earlier in the email string as state education officials point fingers at the teachers union as they looked to explain the failed application.
DOE spokesman Alan Guenther sought to ensure the state teachers union received its share of the blame for the failed application, saying the state lost 17 points for not gaining the union’s buy in on its application.
Later in the exchange, a Star Ledger reporter asks for clarification on the error at the heart of the debacle: the inclusion of incorrect budget data. At that point, administration spokeswoman Maria Comella asks for an answer from the DOE and Guenther again tries to spin the conversation back to the union’s lack of support.
“Moreover, the real story is the major reforms in our plan that the peer reviewers praised heartily for their sensibility and boldness ‐ reforms which the NJEA refused to support,” Guenther said in an email to Comella.
Here is a link to a print-out of the entire exchange.
