Christie Wants To Change Teachers' Pay

MOORESTOWN, N.J. - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is continuing to push for reforms to the state's education system, and he's taking direct aim at teachers' unions.

Christie held a town hall meeting in Old Bridge to talk about his plans in the Garden State, calling education reform "the great civil rights issue of our lifetimes."

The governor told audience members he wants to make teacher effectiveness and student achievement top priorities. He said he supports good teachers but also plans to demand accountability and results.

"I do not bash teachers. I bash stubborn, self-interested unions. That's who I bash," Christie said.

Christie wouldn't use the phrase "merit pay" during Tuesday's discussion but said teachers' pay should be based on how students do.

He says teacher pay scales based solely on seniority and graduate degrees should be changed. Instead, he says, teachers should be paid partly based on how well their students do on standardized tests.

He also wants to create "master teacher" and "master principal" designations to give more responsibilities -- and more pay -- to effective teachers and administrators.

"Just getting a masters' degree or a masters plus whatever should not be a way for you to boost your salary even higher if you are not showing performance in the classroom," Christie said. "Pay should be set to the performance."

The American Federation of Teachers feels differently. The organization claims unions don't protect under-performing teachers and that they're actually the first to want them gone. Union officials say a process for supporting and then weeding out bad teachers must be put in place.

The head of the state teachers' union has already come out against Christie's plan, saying it has been proven scientifically ineffective to base any kind of merit pay on student performance. She called it fatally flawed.

Christie's tenure change proposals and performance pay ideas would need to be approved by the state legislature but are likely to face opposition there from Democrats.

However, in a kind of surprise announcement a state senate Democratic spokesman said student achievement must be the most important factor in determining any kind of education reform in New Jersey.