With a new poll showing New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine with a 9-point lead with eight days to go, GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie spent yesterday at a Hoboken charter school to highlight his education-reform plans.

“We need to . . . force the public schools to change the status quo,” Christie said at the 15-year-old Elysian Charter School.

The poll, conducted by Boston’s Suffolk University over the weekend, has Corzine getting 42 percent of the vote, Christie 33 percent and independent candidate Chris Daggett 7 percent. The lead is the governor’s biggest to date.