On August 25, 2010 it was announced that New Jersey had lost out on $400 million in federal Race to the Top education grants due to a clerical error in the application by an unidentified mid-level state official.
d three points higher than New Jersey.[67]
In response to the decision, Christie criticized the Obama administration by saying,
This is the stuff, candidly, that drives people crazy about government and crazy about Washington... the first part of it is the mistake of putting the wrong piece of paper in, it drives people crazy and, believe me, Im not thrilled about it. But the second part is, does anybody in Washington, D.C. have a lick of common sense? Pick up the phone and ask us for the number... thats the stuff the Obama administration should answer for. Are you guys just down there checking boxes like mindless drones, or are you thinking? When the president comes back to New Jersey, hes going to have to explain to the people of the state of New Jersey why hes depriving them of $400 million that this application earned.[68]
On August 26, the U.S. Department of Education released a video showing that the budget issue had been specifically raised at a meeting with Christie's Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, contradicting Christie's claim that the federal government had not informed them of the error. In response, Gov. Christie asked for Schundler's resignation, saying that Schundler had misinformed Christie of the facts of the situation.
Schundler maintains that he told Christie the truth, and that Christie is misstating what actually occurred.[69]
The New Jersey Education Association rebuked Governor Christie by suggesting that the Governor's rejection of a compromise worked out by Schundler with the Teacher's unions on May 27 was to blame. The rejection of the deal with the teachers union meant that the state had little more than three days to complete the grant applications, which were due on June 1. By Christie's own accounting, the state lost 14 points due to the lack of widespread union support for the reforms.[66]