Opinion

Grade-A governor

Say this for Chris Christie — when he draws a line in the sand, he doesn’t quickly erase it in the name of political expediency.

Unlike another local governor we could name.

New Jersey’s chief executive made it very clear last week that he’s committed to genuine educational reform, and he’s not about to let anyone stand in the way.

Not even his own education commissioner.

Christie publicly upbraided Commissioner Bret Schundler for making excessive concessions to the Garden State’s teachers union in return for its valuable support for New Jersey’s application for federal Race to the Top funding.

Those concessions included areas in which Christie insists he has no intention of compromising — like merit pay and abolishing seniority-based layoffs.

Unfortunately, Schundler agreed to the compromises without checking with his boss — who, to put it mildly, wasn’t pleased. “Those things that Commissioner Schundler suggested would be appropriate compromises to make, concessions to make, I rejected,” Christie said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The governor said he was so committed to the items on his reform agenda that “they should not be compromised to achieve a contrived consensus among the various affected special-interest groups.”

Good for him.

Actually, it’s pretty ironic that Christie should find himself at odds with Schundler, who — as mayor of Jersey City — was one of the nation’s earliest political innovators on, and advocates for, education reform.

Moreover, in his few months as commissioner, Schundler helped craft one bill that would strengthen charter schools and another pushing school vouchers.

In other words, Christie and Schundler are pretty much on the same page when it comes to education.

We suspect that the commissioner just got a little carried away in his eagerness to get the union on board for all that Race to the Top money.

But it’s refreshing to see a politician who not only understands the need for serious education reform but is wholly committed to it — in action as well as words.

Well done, governor.