His solution: Get all public school employees to agree to salary freezes for the upcoming year, and to agree to start contributing to their health insurance costs.
Christie laid out his plan before a friendly audience at the library of a Somerville elementary school and said he would lay out details in a letter to the New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey Education Association.
"If we really want to put children first," said the governor, who has often been critical of the raises of more than 4 percent routinely received by educators. "We should put the children first, and that mean we will have to sacrifice."
Shared sacrifice has been a theme for the governor since he took office two months ago and began proposing costs cuts. Last week, he proposed a state budget with cuts in nearly every department to close a projected $11 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
One increase in state money was aid to schools, but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for more than $1 billion in lost federal funding. He called for aid to school districts to be cut by $820 million.
Many districts found that their specific cuts were far bigger than the 15 percent they say they were told to expect. More than 50 districts would lose all their state funding for their main programs.
For the past week, school boards have been holding emergency meetings to rework their budgets before April 20 up-or-down public votes on budgets in most communities.
Deep layoffs are a common in districts across the state, as are less painful cost reductions such as delaying replacement of aging computers for a year. A handful of teachers unions - including those in West Windsor-Plainfield and Montclair - have agreed to renegotiate their parts of their contracts in hopes of preserving jobs.
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said Tuesday that most teachers unions were declining when school boards suggested the measure.
The state does not have authority to force contract changes, but it is offering incentives.
Christie and Schundler said that the wage freezes and health coverage costs for all employees - including nonunion administrators - would save districts enough on the aggregate to make up for nearly all aid cuts.
It wouldn't be enough for every district, though.
But the officials said they could adjust the aid to avoid layoffs in every district where the concessions are made - if there's broad buy-in.
The cost of health insurance soon will become a reality for school employees anyway.
On Monday, Christie signed into law a measure that would require all public employees to pay at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health coverage. The payments begin kicking in as current contracts expire for employees covered by collective bargaining.
A spokesman for the NJEA, the state's largest school union and one of Trenton's most powerful lobbying forces, did not immediately return a call on Tuesday. But in recent days, the union has been cool on the idea of reopening contracts, saying it's up to individual locals, and reminding them that it's not guaranteed to avert layoffs.
