Teachers Union Head: Christie Not Solving Problem

The president of the Madison teachers union today said that he didn't really see anything new in the budget plan presented Tuesday by Gov. Chris Christie.

"The Governor siad he's going to give some money back to schools, it looks like less than a third of what he took away last year," said Bob Grundfest, president of the Madison Education Association. "It might amount to a couple of hundred thousand dollars, that might save a program or two or keep a few teachers' jobs, I don't know. Everything else seemed to be the same lines he’s been giving, that public employees have to give back, give back, give back."

Grundfest, a teacher at , said it's time for Christie to talk about bringing money in, not just cutting what's there.

"If you're not going to find other surces of revenue—a millionaires tax or some other source where people can certainly pay it—than how seriously am I going to take you? You can't just cut because pretty soon, you’re cutting education and police and firefighting. They are the food and fuel of a healthy society. To only speak of cuts is ideology, and is not addressing the problem."

"Both the left and the right are saying our competitveness is at issue," Grundfest said. "In education, if we're going to prepare people to be competitive, we need need to invest, in technology, in other programs, not cut."

On Tuesday one Madison borough council member said Christie's plan amounted to some relief by increasing state aid to municipalities.

"On the revenue side, I was relieved to hear that there will be no reduction in municipal aid," borough council member Jeannie Tsukamoto wrote in an e-mail to Madison Patch. "[That follows] an 18% reduction in 2010 and assuming a 25% reduction in the proposed 2011 budget."

Tsukamoto said Christie's pledge to boost aid to schools will help Madison's Board of Education budget, which received zero state aid 2010.

But she pointed out that state aid accounts for half the story where municipal budgets are concerned.

"Madison has reduced the size of the workforce, frozen salaries and asked employees to contribute toward their healthcare," Tsukamoto wrote. "Employee costs are 58% of our spending (30% of which are health and pension costs).

"Public health and pension reforms are necessary for Madison to control spending," she wrote.