Candidate Daggett presents N.J. education platform

Independent New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett laid out his education platform yesterday, pledging to eliminate tenure for public school teachers and tighten high school graduation standards.

Daggett said he also would support charter schools while holding them more accountable. And he reiterated a proposal to allow students in failing schools to attend charter schools, public schools outside their home districts, or private schools. Their tuitions would be paid by businesses, which, in return, would receive tax credits.

Education is "arguably the most important issue before us," said Daggett, a former environmental administrator who is polling in the single digits behind front-runners Christopher J. Christie, a Republican, and incumbent Democratic Gov. Corzine.

"It is time for a change - a change that focuses on accountability and performance - and that reexamines fundamental assumptions about such institutions as high school graduation tests, tenure, and the public education monopoly," Daggett said at a statehouse news conference. The speech was Daggett's most detailed policy announcement to date.

In calling for the elimination of tenure, Daggett took on the powerful 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association, which represents teachers, support staff, and retirees.

Instead of tenure, Daggett said, teachers, principals, and other administrators should receive five-year performance-based contracts with opportunities for merit pay. Daggett's plan would not affect already tenured teachers, but would apply only to recent hires without tenure and new employees.

"We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on teachers' salaries and benefits, but we do not do an effective job in supervising and evaluating them," Daggett said.

NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer said that the vast majority of teachers in New Jersey were highly qualified and that tenure did not guarantee a job for life, but rather was a process for dismissing teachers.

"What Mr. Daggett is proposing is to do away with a system that has prevented unfair dismissal," Wollmer said. "Before there was tenure, anyone could throw a teacher out a window so their Uncle Charlie could get a job."

The NJEA has endorsed Corzine, noting that he increased education spending in a year when the budget was slashed dramatically.

Daggett also wants to all but eliminate the "Special Review Assessment," an alternative route to a high school diploma for students who fail the state's proficiency exam. Daggett said that while the state boasts of having the highest graduation rate in the nation, nearly 20 percent of the state's graduates receive their diplomas through the assessment, which may not prepare them for the workforce or college.

"Children know how the current system works; if you don't work hard and fail, you can still get your diploma," Daggett said.

The state Department of Education recently tightened standards for high school graduation, including adjusting the alternative assessment process.

Daggett supports allowing students in failing school districts to use vouchers to attend alternative schools.

A widely debated school choice bill sponsored by Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union) would establish a five-year pilot program to help students in eight urban school districts, including Camden, to be able to attend alternative schools.

Under that bill, public schools would not lose any funding if students leave their districts for other schools. Daggett, however, is proposing reducing state aid to schools that lose students.

Corzine does not support school vouchers, but Christie does.

The issue has gained resonance with some urban minority voters frustrated with failing schools.

Patricia Bombelyn, cochair of the education committee of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, said that while the group has not endorsed a gubernatorial candidate, "we do commend Daggett for adopting an education platform that embraces these types of reform and advances in the interest of bringing children to the forefront."

The Rev. Reginald Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers' Council of New Jersey, said he would support Daggett's version of school choice. "I have no problem with the money following the student to the other school," he said.

While Daggett was expected to raise the prominence of the environment in the race, education also could turn into a key issue.

Daggett holds a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts, and his pick for lieutenant governor, Frank Esposito, is a longtime administrator at Kean University in Union County. Esposito also worked on school choice programs in Gov. Thomas Kean's administration, and on the state's charter school legislation approved under Gov. Christie Whitman.