By Jessica Calefati
(From NJ.Com, December 19, 2010)
TRENTON — They would seem an unlikely pair: Gov. Chris Christie, who has bashed teachers for the past year, and his new education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, who has spent his career supporting them.
But Cerf said their goals are the same and he shares the governor’s concerns about inequity in public education today.
“New Jersey has one of the best education systems in the country, which can only mean it’s being led by a dedicated group of educators,” Cerf said Saturday at his Montclair home. “At the same time, there are certain communities in this state where we should all be ashamed about the gap between children who are rich and poor and black and white.”
In an exclusive interview with The Star-Ledger, Cerf said he considers teaching a craft for which he has the “highest imaginable respect.” It’s an opinion he formed in the late 1970s while leading class discussions about the American Revolution and grading papers on women’s suffrage as a high school history teacher in Ohio.
“Teachers are some of the most unbelievably hard-working people in the country,” Cerf said. “Everyone went to school, so everyone thinks they are an expert, but they don’t understand how hard it is to be a good teacher.”
Christie will nominate Cerf as the state’s next education commissioner at a news conference in Trenton on Monday, said a person briefed on the appointment but not authorized to speak publicly about it. Cerf would not confirm his pending nomination.
The Illinois native who grew up in Washington, D.C., and Boston currently serves as CEO of Sangari Education, a global math and science technology company, and he previously worked as a deputy chancellor of the New York City public schools under outgoing Chancellor Joel Klein.
If approved by the state Senate, Cerf will use his 30-plus years of public- and private-sector experience to lead the state Department of Education.
Cerf, who is married and has three children, is a registered Democrat who has donated at least $7,750 to party candidates for national and state offices since 2002. His list of recipients include President Obama, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and Democrats for Education Reform.
His name and résumé are not new to the Christie administration, said a member of the governor’s transition team not authorized to speak publicly. Cerf first became a contender for the state’s top education post in November 2009, following a recommendation from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As a senior campaign advisor, Cerf helped Bloomberg win an election that hinged on his education reform record.
“He was an incredibly strong candidate in that initial process,” the transition team member said. But the job instead went to Bret Schundler, who was ousted in August following the state’s loss of $400 million in federal education aid.
In New York City, Cerf worked alongside Klein, the schools chancellor and his longtime friend, to transform one of the country’s largest, lowest-performing school districts — with 1.1 million students, 1,500 schools and 80,000 teachers — into a national model for reform.
“Zip code was destiny in many respects,” Cerf said of the public schools before Bloomberg and Klein assumed control. “If you went to a neighborhood school back then, it was typically inferior.”
From 2006 to 2009, he closed 90 failing schools, broke up overcrowded public schools into 400 smaller academies and opened 100 charter schools. He strengthened the requirements for teacher tenure, promoted school choice and created accountability for student achievement at the school level.
He also compromised with the city’s powerful teachers union, something Christie has refused to do in New Jersey. With support from New York City teachers union president Randi Weingarten, Cerf offered bonuses to schools whose students excelled in the classroom.
“Chris may not have agreed with us, but he always listened,” Weingarten said. “Our union was constantly at the table with the Department of Education discussing what teachers need to do their jobs well.”
Communication and compromise are skills Cerf honed during nearly a dozen expeditions to Canada’s Labrador and Quebec provinces with groups of public school students from across the country. During these 50-day summer adventures, Cerf taught “scholarship kids” and students from Philadelphia’s inner city how to survive in the woods with a compass and how to cook over a campfire.
“They learned how to engage the wilderness and support those not having a good day,” Cerf said of the expeditions. “After rafting through rapids, we would have to carry all our gear — the heavy canoes included — around a waterfall. We had to support each other because there was no other way.”
New Jersey was not the only state pining for Cerf’s expertise. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Cerf’s name “topped a list” of candidates the federal Education Department created last month for states seeking new schools chiefs. Duncan and Cerf have known each other since Cerf’s days in New York, when Duncan was Chicago’s schools czar.
“Chris’ level of creativity and innovation and entrepreneurship are very refreshing,” Duncan said. “He really wants to do the right thing for children, and he’s someone I’ve watched closely for a while now.”
Staff writers Ted Sherman and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
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