Governor Christie has indicated in an interview that he would consider defying a ruling by the NJ State Supreme Court should it decide that his cuts to school funding during 2010 and 2011 school years were unconstitutional.
The New Jersey Constitution requires under Article VIII Section IV, “1. The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.” There are many advocates that indicate his drastic reduction in school funding is denying students this guarantee especially in poorer areas where state funding is critical. Amongst these advocates is Paul Tractenberg, founder of the Education Law Center, which brought the lawsuit.
It goes without saying that while a ruling against the constitutionality of the Christie school cuts would be a windfall victory for Christie’s opponents, including the NJEA whom the governor has been at war with since his election, it will leave both the state (financially) and the governor (politically) in a very precarious position.
The question that immediately comes to mind when contemplating this ruling is with a 10 billion dollar budget deficit where is Governor Christie going to come up with the money? Christie has indicated that a variety of drastic cuts to hospitals and townships would be in order but in light of recent events one shouldn’t rule out a continued attack on state public worker pay and benefits.
More disturbing is the indication from the Governor that he may just ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling placing the state in a Constitutional crisis.
Should the Governor choose to flagrantly deny the Supreme Court’s ruling it will only show him to be a petty tyrant and not the elected leader of a democracy.
The checks and balances of our democracy are critical to its continued existence and one of the only things that separate us from an autocratic dictatorship. Even indicating that refusal to obey the court’s decision is a possibility leads me to believe that the Governor is behaving like a spoiled child whose parents just told him he had to give back the toy he stole and not an intelligent elected official of a representative democracy.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/if_nj_supreme_court_orders_sch.html
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/lawsconstitution/constitution.asp
"intelligent elected official"????? You might want to re-think that choice of adjective!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't believe Christie is dumb but I do think he is misguided in many ways. Stating that he is going to ignore a Supreme Court ruling is another example of him speaking without thinking. Does this mean the rest of us can ignore rulings and laws...afterall I Governor does it.
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