N.J.'s Christie Takes Combative Tack on Education

Gov. Chris Christie talks about the need for salary caps for school superintendents during a town meeting in Toms River, N.J., last month, as Congressman-elect Jon Runyan, left, watches. The governor has pressed an aggressive fiscally conservative agenda on education, ruffling some feathers.

—Mel Evans/AP

By Stephen Sawchuk

Perhaps no other governor has caught the zeitgeist of fiscal austerity as well as New Jersey’s Chris Christie.

His aggressive, bare-knuckle style, cuts to public spending, and well-publicized clashes with the New Jersey Education Association have made the governor a media sensation and shoved his education reform ideas—which include expanding school choice options for students and overhauling teacher tenure, compensation, and pensions—into the national spotlight.

For now, such efforts appear to be paying off in a political sense. Mr. Christie, an effective draw on the campaign trail during the election season, was mentioned in an editorial in The Record , a newspaper that covers Bergen and Passaic counties, as a potential candidate...