@NJSenatePres 's @Path2ProgressNJ & the 800lb Gorillas In The Room

Expert analysis and witnesses are essential to the successful outcome of a trial, but in the court of public opinion, politicians often fail to enlist experts who may raise red flags about the policies they're trying to sell to the general public. In my little corner of the universe—education—it happens too frequently. Analysis is done by study groups and commissions that often lack any real, working K-12 educators. 

The latest example is Senate President Steve Sweeney's 'Path to Progress', which touts, among other things, regionalizing many of the state's school districts and slashing (yet again) retired public employees' deferred compensation. 

Here is the complete list of the commission's members: 

MEMBERSHIP

Co-chairs:

• Senator Paul Sarlo – Chairman, Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee
• Senator Steven Oroho – Senate Republican Conference Chair
• Assemblyman Louis Greenwald – Assembly Majority Leader

Legislative Members:

• Senator Steve Sweeney – Senate President
• Senator Dawn Addiego – State Senator
• Senator Anthony Bucco – Senate Minority Budget Officer
• Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin – Chairwoman, Assembly Budget
• Senator Troy Singleton – Chairman, Senate Military and Veterans’ Affairs

Subcommittee Chairs:

• Dr. Ray Caprio – Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy; Bloustein Local Government Research Center
• Frank Chin – Managing Director, American Public Infrastructure
• Richard Keevey – Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
• Dr. Michael Lahr – Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy and Rutgers Economic Advisory Service
• Marc Pfeiffer – Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy; Bloustein Local Government Research Center

Non-Legislative Members:

• Dr. Henry Coleman – Rutgers University, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy
• Lucille Davy – Of Counsel, Mason, Griffin & Pierson
• Feather O’Connor Houstoun – Adviser for Public media and journalism at Wyncote Foundation
• Ray Kljajic – American Public Infrastructure Inc.
• Robert Landolfi – Business Administrator, Woodbridge Township (retired)
• Senator Raymond Lesniak – Chair, Lesniak Institute for American Leadership
• Jerry Maginnis – Rowan University, William G. Rohrer College of Business
• Dr. Donald Moliver – Monmouth University, Kislak Real Estate Institute
• Dr. Joel Naroff – President, Naroff Economic Advisers Inc.
• Peter Reinhart – Monmouth University Kislak Real Estate Institute
• Kurt Stroemel – President, HR&S Financial Services
• Ralph Thomas – CEO/Executive Director, New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants

While this list may read like a Who's Who of New Jersey public policy experts, notice the one highlighted name: Robert Landolfi. He is the only K-12 representative on the commission—and he's retired. There are no real K-12 voices here, and none from South Hunterdon Regional School District, the only district in the past 25 years to successfully consolidate.

While Sen. Sweeney exults in the plan's proposed successes at town hall meetings across the state, he and his cohorts fail to address the three 800 lb gorillas in the room: 

1. Public schools are not businesses:

While consolidation may bring about some savings in certain situations, we must not forget that school districts are not convenience store chains. We don't sell soda and lottery tickets; we teach children, each of whom comes with different needs, and each district strives to meet those needs. Before we go down this road, the study commission needs to understand that what may be good for one district, may not necessarily be good for all of them. Special services for low income, special needs and ESL students must be the same or better than what they currently have. And when consolidation means going from a district of approximately 3200 to a merged district with close to 10,000 students, as would be the case with my central Hunterdon County district, there will be no savings, and services will suffer. The commission should look closely at what happened in the southern part of Hunterdon County: 

In 2016, NJ Spotlight reported on the five-year process of merging four very small Hunterdon County districts into one regional district with a combined population of less than 1,000 students: 

South Hunterdon’s merger of four school districts in 2013 has proven to be an example of both the good and the difficult in school regionalization. 

The good news is that the merger appears to have worked... 

The more cautionary news is that this was a long and labor-intensive process in what was actually one of the simplest mergers: four districts that were essentially unified in practice, if not in name. 

There are no regrets, the officials said, but they acknowledged that it doesn’t happen overnight... 

[School Board President Dan Seiter said that] the process started as far back as 2008, with an initial resolution of all four boards of education to look at consolidation: South Hunterdon Regional High School, West Amwell, Lambertville, and Stockton. Each among the smallest districts in the state, they already served as feeder districts into the regional high school. 

It took five years and “meetings after meetings after meetings” that led to a referendum to move toward a feasibility study, Seiter said, where voters in all four communities voted to proceed. (emphasis mine)

Voter buy-in is essential or the process will fail. We've seen this time and again. Whether the disastrous One Newark, or the Urban Hope Act in Camden, or other education 'reforms', shutting parents, taxpayers and local school officials out of the decision-making process is a recipe for disaster. Town halls are one thing; making sure taxpayers have a seat at the table is completely different. 

2. Charter schools:

Back in 2014, when Sen. Sweeney and then Asw. Donna Simon (R-LD16) were clamoring for municipal and school consolidation respectively, I wrote about the false narratives they were touting, and spoke with one of the state's preeminent school funding experts, Dr. Bruce Baker of Rutgers University, who had this to say about charter schools:

If consolidation is such a great idea, whether to promote integration, remove administrative redundancy, etc., then it would seem utterly foolish that we continue to expand charter schools. These schools tend to operate at inefficiently small size, further segregate our students, and when they do grow to a size where they operate as districts within our districts, they create significant administrative redundancy — a whole layer of "management corporation" siphoning district funds passed on to charters.  

We know, for example, from IRS 990 filings, that the administrative structure of Uncommon Schools has plenty of well paid admins—including their "managing director" for Newark Uncommon at about $200k in 2012. No doubt much higher now in 2014. So, in addition to Newark Public Schools, we've added, through this structure, additional governing layers that siphon resources, but don't show up on the traditional books. 

So, Newark has a superintendent with a $240k salary, but now has districts within it which use funds generated by management fees skimmed from the charter allocation (which passed through the district) to pay several entire additional administrative teams. (emphasis mine)

Consolidation without plans to end this redundancy is hypocritical. If charter schools are real public schools—as their supporters claim—they will survive the process, but the process will not survive if they are not included in it.

3. Another blow to retired public employees' deferred compensation:

Since 2011, when Gov. Christie signed the bill known as Chapter 78 into law, tens of thousands of public employees have seen their take home pay decrease every year as health insurance premiums and additional pension contributions have risen. Many have had to take on not only second, but third jobs to make ends meet. Others have simply left public service to make more money in the private sector. NJ public employees now pay the highest individual insurance premiums and the 10th highest family premiums in the country while earning less than their private sector counterparts. They will also have to work longer to collect their pensions and get less in return—if there's even a pension system left when they do retire. 

When Gov. Christie signed that law, he also instituted a cost of living adjustment (COLA) freeze on all retirees' pensions, and with the system on life support, that's not changing any time soon. Retirees are hurting.

Now, Sen. Sweeney wants "all new state and local government retirees to pay the same percent of premium costs they paid when working." I'm sorry, but that's not only unsustainable, it's downright cruel. 

Instead of proposing public employees pay more, why isn't the commission recommending a push for Medicare for All or some other type of universal healthcare? Why isn't the commission doing anything about containing the always-increasing cost of premiums? It's just so much easier to make the people who can least afford it pay more while you close the door on your mansion and forget about their struggles. And they can't even move out of state to save some money because Gov. Christie signed a bill into law that basically makes public employees indentured servants. We can't leave. 

I am not naive. The state's fiscal future is bleak. We have a projected $5 billion revenue shortfall for this fiscal year, the pension fund will run out of money in about 10 years, our credit rating is in the toilet, and property taxes are eating most of us alive. But all this isn't merely the result of Gov. Christie giving away billions in corporate tax breaks and in the Exxon settlement. No, there's plenty of blame to go around, on both sides of the aisle, and it goes back decades. Yet, some elected officials continue to put the burden of fixing the system they broke squarely on the backs of the students they purport to help and those of us who have been continually ordered to give more, do more, and receive less in return, with little thought of how we will be able to make ends meet. It's always the little guy who pays.

So, if Sen. Sweeney doesn't like it when people show up to his town halls and challenge these draconian measures, maybe he needs to remember what it was like to be a rank and file iron worker worrying about how to pay bills and keep a roof over his head. 

Teachers in eleven states have gone out on strike to protest draconian cuts to school funding, low pay and terrible working conditions—things that are not only sacrosanct to collective bargaining, but also make for excellent public schools, of which NJ has an abundance. If this commission pushes forward with their recommendations, I believe New Jersey may be next. 

The @StarLedger, #FakeNews & the #PARCC Propaganda Machine

Years before 'fake news' became a household word, New Jersey's largest newspaper, The Star Ledger started its very own propaganda machine to bash teachers and prop up PARCC testing. 

With the flurry of PARCC testing bills posted in Trenton in the past couple of weeks, the state's largest newspaper and education 'reform' cheerleader has been shaking its pom-pons recently in favor of the deeply flawed test, tossing out wild claims with little evidence to back them up (all emphasis mine):

Phil Murphy has long strained to appease powerful critics of the PARCC, namely the teacher’s union, which prefers we let kids graduate without the kind of tests that hold teachers accountable. 

The idea that an invalid, poorly designed and un-vetted test can hold teachers "accountable" is simply illogical. The Ledger offers no evidence to support this far-fetched claim. Even the Christie administration wasn't so sure it would work because they kept changing the test's percentage of our evaluations seemingly at random.

But we need the PARCC because an A in Millburn is not the same as an A in Camden. We have to ensure that all kids succeed, not just those in affluent districts.

If the Ledger's only measure of success is the number of prestigious colleges and universities a school's students attend, then why aren't they raising a ruckus about all those students in Camden who have been denied rich, deep curriculums in the arts, humanities, foreign languages and technology (like they have in Millburn) because the state decided the best way to 'fix' their schools is to cut their funding, deny public input, silence parents and test the kids to death? That would never, ever happen in Millburn, and no test will ever close that disparity gap.

The PARCC and SBAC (Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium) tests were rolled out to assess student mastery of the Common Core State Standards that, along with carrot-and-stick financial incentives from the Obama administration, were supposed to level the educational playing field across all 50 states. The concept was that a child from New Jersey could move to Oregon and get the same education. Except that education reformers overlooked the fact that the United States is so culturally and economically diverse that a one size fits all education system is not appropriate. Schools in rural Central Oregon serve a very different student population—and have very different state funding—than students in Millburn NJ. Poverty plays a huge role in a child's chances for educational success. But The Ledger doesn't like to talk about that.

The Boston Globe recently tracked 93 local valedictorians and found that one in four failed to earn a college diploma in six years. Their high schools left them woefully underprepared. Some lost their scholarships. Others dropped out in frustration. We have the same problem in New Jersey. At Essex County College in Newark, 85 percent of incoming freshmen need to take remedial math. In 2017, only 13 percent graduated. While social promotion also happens in wealthier districts, those kids have a deeper safety net.  

I am not an education researcher, but from what I read in the Boston Globe study above, grade inflation—not standardized tests—is the main reason those students struggled in college. No educator with a lick of professionalism supports that, but sadly, it does happen, and 'reformers' themselves have been caught in the thick of some of the most controversial as we saw in the Washington, DC and Atlanta testing scandals.

And as for the remedial math and graduation rates at Essex County College, The Ledger assumes the PARCC test will fix those too, despite no mention of how long it had been since those students actually took a high school math class. And the fact that the school has been embroiled in turmoil, turnover and fiscal mismanagement for a few years—which was actually mentioned in the very same link—was apparently overlooked.

But The Star Ledger forges ahead!

This is why we need an objective test. Yet because the PARCC is such a powerful diagnostic tool that can trace a student’s learning problem right down to a particular teacher’s lesson, it ran afoul of the union. 

As Joe Biden would say, "What a load of malarky!" Sometimes I ask myself why I bother to respond to these sophomoric tropes, but as an educator, I believe I have an obligation to facts. And here are a few facts from a post I wrote back in 2016:  

1. The PARCC test is not diagnostic. In order for any test to accomplish this, it must have at least 25 questions per assessed skill. The PARCC does not. Bari Ehrlichson, Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Education, admitted this last year in a panel discussion on the PARCC.

2. The PARCC does not consistently assess grade-level skills. Rider University Professor and reading expert Russ Walsh analyzed some of the sample language arts questions and found many of them to be several grade levels above the tested grade. This is not only unfair to both students and teachers; it is also demoralizing to students. How can anyone be expected to succeed at something when the odds are heavily stacked against them from the start?

3. Research has shown that student designed projects and research are far more effective and meaningful ways for both teachers and students to assess deep learning and understanding. Standardized tests in general are meant to show trends, and as such, PARCC falls far short on the assessment continuum.

4. The American Statistical Association has warned that standardized tests should not be used to assess educator effectiveness because the methods being used are simply not reliable. And with the enormous emphasis now put on data in teaching, teachers should not be evaluated based on a flawed test that provides flawed data.

5. Out of the 24 states originally in the PARCC consortium only seven plus the District of Columbia will be participating in the 2016-2017 testing. This should be a red flag warning to every parent and educator.*

6. PARCC is not a reliable predictor of 'college and career readiness'. Recent research shows that high school GPAs are the most reliable predictor of college success. Yet all across this state—and country—related arts classes that help build those GPAs are being scaled back or eliminated to make way for more Common Core study and PARCC prep.    

7. A recently released study published in the School Superintendent Association's Journal of Scholarship and Practice concluded that a higher percentage of the 2009 New Jersey high school core curriculum content standards in English language arts and math prompted higher-order thinking than the 2010 Common Core State Standards for those same subjects and grade levels. We are dumbing down our students. 

8. The amount of testing students will be subjected to starting with the graduating class of 2020 is not only against current law, it’s just plain cruel. Starting with this class, in order to graduate high school, students will have to take and fail the PARCC not once, not twice, but three times before any real assessment of their academic progress can be used. What educator in their right mind thinks this is best practice?

9. There are big problems with scoring. Officials from PARCC have admitted there are discrepancies in scores between students who took paper and pencil tests vs. those who took the test online, with the former group scoring on average higher than the latter. And, despite PARCC's promise of leveling the playing field for all students in all states, the PARCC consortium states have the option to change their cut scores. This is nuts.

10. The fact that in its recently released report, the Study Commission On The Use Of Student Assessments in New Jersey failed to honor and recognize the hundreds of people who testified against this test, and instead recommended a marketing campaign* to crush the Opt-Out movement and brainwash parents and the general public into thinking it will solve all the world’s problems is proof that this test cannot stand on its own merit and should be thrown out.

* The PARCC consortium is now down to two states: New Jersey and New Mexico.

In a 2015 interview, Shani Robinson, one of the teachers caught up in the Atlanta cheating scandal had this to say about all that testing:

Who should really be held accountable for cheating the children? Our children have been cheated by those who have willfully torn apart black communities through displacement and gentrification, underfunded and privatized public schools, and then have criminalized black educators for a dysfunctional system that was designed to fail. ... I feel like this case is extremely important because public education is under attack, as we've seen in places where teachers are striking, and the cheating scandal was used to portray public education as a failure and justify privatizing schools.  

Privatizing public schools... that is the story The Star Ledger should be covering.

@GovMurphy Promised To Ditch #PARCC. Is He Going Back On His Word?

What's harder than navigating 'Spaghetti Junction' on the Garden State Parkway? Figuring out what it takes to graduate high school in New Jersey. We thought we had it fixed, but not so fast...

Parents, educators and education activists cheered last month when the New Jersey appellate court struck down the requirement that high school students must pass the PARCC Algebra 1 and English Language Arts 10 tests in order to graduate high school because it violated state law requiring students to take only one exam in 11th grade to graduate. 

There was plenty to cheer about. The test is awful, and was never designed for its current use. From its inception under Gov. Christie, it was met with sustained and vociferous pushback from parents, educators and testing experts. And it has turned our public schools into test-prep and data-collection factories, gavage-feeding our students more and more grade level inappropriate info lest educators be found sleeping at their desks. This despite the fact that New Jersey consistently ranks in the top two or three states in the country for quality public education. The test is so bad that out of the 24 states originally in the PARCC consortium, only one other remains: New Mexico, which consistently finishes at or near dead last. In its first year of administration, we had the second highest opt-out rate in the nation, bested only by New York. But Gov. Christie and his buddies down at the DOE (with plenty of help from some powerful state Democratic lawmakers) couldn't have that egg on their faces, so they forced it on our kids as a graduation requirement.

State graduation requirements have changed so many times in the past five years, that it's clear the DOE has no idea what it's doing. And it's hurting kids. Here are just two of the many, ever-changing grad requirement charts on their website. Want to bring a high school kid or their parents to tears? Have them take a look at all of them and figure it out.

Confused yet?

Gov. Phil Murphy made dumping PARCC one of his signature campaign issues. We grudgingly gave him a pass when he said he couldn't eliminate it for this school year because too many wheels were already in motion. But, when the appellate court rendered its decision, there was much cause for celebration. Until...

A bill introduced... in the state Senate would change state law to accommodate rules created by former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration rather than repealing or revising those rules to comply with state law. The proposal would allow the state to keep in place the current graduation rules, which include the controversial requirement that students pass PARCC exams...

State Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said she introduced the bill after discussing the ruling with attorneys for Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. The state no longer gives a standardized test to all 11th grade students, so its options were limited.

 “The easiest way to go about it, we all decided, was to have a legislative fix," said Ruiz, chair of the Senate’s Education Committee. (emphasis mine)

At least she admits it was a back-room deal. But, sorry Senator, you're wrong. Here's "the easiest way to go about it", courtesy of Julie Larrea Borst, Executive Director of Save Our Schools, NJ:

The governor should move immediately to announce an emergency suspension of the graduation testing requirement for the class of 2019. The Legislature then should extend that temporary suspension for a few years, to protect students in subsequent classes and create an opportunity to review New Jersey’s exit testing policy. (emphasis mine)

This review should include representatives from all stakeholder groups, including—and especially—educators, parents and testing experts.

Borst continues: 

Assemblywoman Mila Jasey and Sen. Nia Gill have introduced bipartisan legislation (A672/S558) that would accomplish that, suspending exit testing without interfering with the federal accountability testing requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). 

A review of New Jersey high school exit testing is long overdue. New Jersey adopted exit testing 40 years ago, when the idea was first gaining traction nationally. Over the subsequent four decades, however, multiple studies have documented that exit testing produces no educational benefits; increases high school dropout rates; and feeds the school-to-prison pipeline. Exit tests are particularly damaging for low-income students, students of color, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities. (emphasis mine)

The very students Sen. Ruiz calls "her kids" are the same students most hurt by PARCC testing, but even more so by a high school exit test, and yet, she's introducing S-3381 to the Senate Budget Committee next Monday instead of the Education Committee. 

What is the rush? Since its inception, the call for slowing down, reflecting, analyzing and studying has been loud and clear, but has fallen on many deaf ears on both sides of the aisle in Trenton. To whom are elected officials beholden, and why isn't it the students and parents of New Jersey?

High school exit exams are not federally mandated. In fact, only 12 states require them. And they come at a cost. At a time when the state is strapped for resources, we do not need multiple PARCC tests administered to high school students when the law only requires one.

Never mind the fact that the Murphy administration's own attorneys are in on this fix, presumably with his blessings. If Ruiz's bill passes, Gov. Murphy must veto it or face serious backlash from everyone in this state who voted to end the Christie reign of error. Parents, educators and concerned citizens must call our state representatives and the governor's office and demand an end to the nightmare of standardized testing.

What can you do?

• Call Gov. Murphy at 609-292-6000 and tell him to veto S-3381
• Comment at the governor's Facebook page.
• Tag @GovMurphy on Twitter. Tell him to #KeepYourWord. 
• Call your state representatives and tell them to support the Jasey/Gill bills. Click here to find contact info for yours. 
• Tag your state representatives and members of the Senate Budget Committee on social media. Those members are:

  Sarlo, Paul A. - Chair  Cunningham, Sandra B. - Vice-Chair  Addiego, Dawn Marie      Andrzejczak, Bob     Cruz-Perez, Nilsa      Diegnan, Patrick J.  Greenstein, Linda R.  O'Scanlon, Declan J.  Oroho, Steven V.     Ruiz, M. Teresa  Singleton, Troy  Thompson, Samuel D.

• If possible, attend the Senate budget committee hearing on Monday, 1/28 at noon, committee room 4, and share your concerns. 

Where Have All the Democrats Gone? Part I

This post is the start of a series. I don't know how many parts it will eventually be. Guess that depends on how long Democratic elected officials at the state and federal levels continue to make bone-headed moves like this...

Guest post by Susan Cauldwell Carlsson, Executive Director of Save Our Schools NJ. 

The NJ Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Senator Nick Scutari (pictured with Senate President Steve Sweeney), conducted two very shady hearings on Governor Christie’s nominees to the State BOE. These hearings exposed how broken our legislative process is, and how power is concentrated in just a few legislators, like the Senate President. The public, rank and file legislators, and democracy are the losers in Trenton. Accountability and transparency are nearly non-existent.

On May 25th, the Judiciary Committee, upon the recommendation of the Governor, voted to remove State Board President Mark Biedron, and State Board VP Joe Fisicaro. Their replacements are the Governor’s former law partner, who has no background in public education, and a Moorestown BOE member, an ally of the Senate president. This nominee apparently did not understand that she could not keep her local board seat while serving on the State BOE! A third member, former teacher Edie Fulton, was also scheduled to be removed, but an incredibly sloppy background check on her replacement scuttled that for now. To date, no explanation has been given for their removal. We can only posit that this is retribution for these members' independent actions, that have obviously not pleased the Governor and/or Senate President.

Three SOSNJ members questioned the timing of these actions, given that the very unpopular governor has just seven months left on his term and is no friend of public education. We suggested the existing State BOE remain in place until the next Governor is seated. We also questioned why nominees are not being interviewed publicly, as has been past practice. 

All our requests were denied. Chairman Scutari twisted himself into a pretzel trying to explain why he did not need to interview nominees publicly, all under the watchful gaze of Senate President Sweeney, who just happened to be sitting on the dais for the hearing.

Last Thursday, it was deja vu all over again. This time, the Judiciary Committee voted to approve Governor Christie’s request to give five current members of the state board new 6-year terms. The Senate President again dropped into the hearing. Senator Scutari DECLINED to take public testimony and called for a vote on the nominees, even though two SOSNJ members had signed up to testify. The voting had begun and was nearly concluded when one of our members requested to be heard. Reluctantly, Senator Scutari agreed to hear us. We again questioned the timing of these appointments and requested that nominees be required to appear in public and be interviewed by the Committee.

Our testimony caused two Senators to change their vote. Unfortunately, several Judiciary Committee members had left the hearing early, and did not hear our testimony. In the wacky world of Trenton politics, members can let the committee chair know their vote on a matter if they are not present when the vote is taken, and the vote is counted and entered in to the record. We wonder if our testimony would have changed others' minds.

We thank Senators Gill, Weinberg, and Pou for listening to and considering our testimony.

Do you think State BOE members should be interviewed in public? Does the public deserve to hear the qualifications and beliefs of a board that is responsible for the education of more than one million school children? We think so. We urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to take its responsibility seriously and call on the full Senate to reject all nominees until a new Governor is seated in January 2018.

Happy Anniversary! NJ Pension Meltdown Hits Milestone

Happy New Year! But, more importantly, Happy Anniversary!

Who doesn't love an anniversary celebration? Well, let's get out the hats and noisemakers 'cause NJ's got a big one!

In exactly 10 years the lousiest pension fund in the United States—that's been raided for everything from plugging holes in state budgets to financing the construction of a now bankrupt casino during the height of the recession—the New Jersey public worker pension fund is scheduled to run dry! Yippee! See the counter on the right side of this screen.

But there are a couple of rays of hope:

1. Lawmakers in both houses voted unanimously to approve a bill requiring the state make quarterly payments to the pension system
2. Senate President Stephen Sweeney unveiled bi-partisan legislation that would allow the newly funded Transportation Trust Fund to beef up its ability to sell bonds directly to the pension fund

I do not claim to be a pension expert, but this does sound promising given that last November, NJ voters approved a constitutional amendment dedicating the gas tax to the transportation trust fund: 

Currently, the State Investment Council has a 10 percent cap on pension investments for any single bond sale. The proposed legislation would only remove the cap for TTF investments. 

Sweeney (D-Gloucester) argued it would give the state greater flexibility on a "risk-free return on investment." If, for example, the TTF borrowed $1.2 billion at a 5 percent interest rate, then the $60 million would go to support the pension fund, Sweeney said. 

"We're lifting the cap on investing in New Jersey," Sen. Dawn Addiego (R-Burlington), the bill's Republican co-sponsor, said. 

Both also argued putting TTF debt with the state's pension fund would save the state bond underwriting fees. 

"Why are we letting other people make interest off of us?" Sweeney asked at the Statehouse news conference announcing the legislation.

Both the TTF and the pension fund are on life support. If they can help each other—and we can pass a constitutional amendment to fund the pensions—this may just be a win-win situation. But, as Hetty Rosenstein, State Director of CWA NJ said: 

"CWA supports quarterly pension payments. However, unless the full amount due to the plan is appropriated, quarterly payments are meaningless... 

"When it comes to this state's pension, history shows we simply cannot rely on the word of the governor or legislature. So, without a constitutional amendment requiring payments, New Jersey's working men and women could be getting quarterly payments of nothing."

Last August, after promising state workers he would do so, Sen. President Steve Sweeney failed to post the Constitutional Amendment bill that would have given the voters the power to write pension payments into the state constitution. 

We must continue to demand that our state legislators to fight like hell to get that question on the ballot this year. 

ICYMI: check out this video from NJ.com. It gives a brief overview of how we got into this mess, and although it rightly claims that Gov. Christie has put more money into the pension system than the previous 6 governors combined, he has never made the full payments as required by law, and vetoed 2014 legislation requiring quarterly payments, which would go a long way toward fixing the problem. 

Pensions Politics & Those Pesky Public Employees Pt.2

Back to School & The #RightToWork For Less

Note: This post is long overdue, but sometimes I just gotta take a break and re-charge my batteries.

You can read Part 1 of this series here.

On Labor Day we honored the American middle class. Once the backbone of this country, labor unions helped lift vast numbers of American workers out of poverty, gave them safe, well-paying jobs, allowed them to live their American Dream while building the American landscape, and set our economy firing on all cylinders.

But the backbone of this nation is now bent and weak. Many unions are no more, and wages are down in direct correlation. The US is now a majority 'right-to-work' nation. The American middle class is shrinking. And despite a report released last month showing we had our "best year of economic improvement" in decades, it "did not fully repair the damage inflicted by the Great Recession." Some of us will never fully recover. 

Makes me all giddy inside.

****

September is always rough on education professionals. Contrary to 'reformy' rhetoric, I was not sunning myself on the beaches in the South of France all summer. No, I was on unpaid furlough. Granted, I did work this summer at an amazing job (more on that in another post). But, while many people are enjoying barbecues with family and friends over Labor Day weekend, many of us are digging through sofa cushions and raiding our kids' piggy banks to make September's mortgage payment.

This is my 15th year in the teaching profession and 14th as a proud NJEA member. I have a masters degree and graduated summa cum laude from college, and I have finally reached point in my salary guide where I feel like I'm earning a respectable wage for the work I do. I'm not complaining. I knew going in that I would never be a millionaire, but when I looked at that pay stub, I must admit that I was disappointed once again. 

Despite a decent raise, I'm only taking home about $44 more a week. I guess I shouldn't complain. There are many public employees still stuck in the mire of Chapter 78 and are still seeing their paychecks decrease every year—a phenomenon we call "net negative" return. And there are education professionals in other states who fare far, far worse (more on that below). My local is one of the lucky ones. We bargained out of Chapter 78, but that doesn't mean we're rolling in dough. Soon, $44 a week won't even buy me a tank of gas.

So, where does all my money go? The biggest deductions outside of the standard state and federal taxes are—contrary to what 'reformies' would have you believe— not for union dues. No, they're for pension and health benefits—those 'Cadillac' benefits Gov. Christie loves to accuse us of lolling in while he lolls here:

Chez Christie

... or scopes out pricey real estate at the Jersey shore for life aprés politics.

Those vital health care benefits and deferred compensation that—thanks to Ch. 78—I now pay more for, work longer to receive, and get less of in retirement. But my dues deduction for that big, bad 'ole union that is sucking the life out of me and preventing me from taking home oodles of dough is less than 1/7 of what I contribute for pension and benefits combined. 

But, 'right-to-work' (for less) 'reformies' like the National Right to Work Committee, funded by the likes of the Koch Brothers and molded by countless hours in ALEC meetings, would have the general public believe that, if it wasn't for those damned greedy unions and the outrageous dues they fleece from their members, business would flourish! Workers would do fantastically, wonderfully well on the open market! We would suddenly command 6-figure salaries! Our careers and lives would be magically transformed for the better!

We know that the only entities right-to-work laws benefit are corporations. According to the IBEW:

"Right-to-work is part of a national anti-worker agenda that won't bring one job to the state or help a single family put food on the table," said Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. 

Right-to-work laws weaken workers' ability to collectively bargain by making it harder for unions to collect dues, driving down wages and benefits. The average worker in a right-to-work state makes $1,500 less a year than his counterpart in union-friendly states. 

Employees in pro-worker states are also more likely to have job-based health benefits. (emphasis mine)

How bad is it in right-to-work states? Consider Wisconsin. WEA members now face this every day:

• No due process protections
• No right to collectively bargain anything
• Teachers resigning in droves
• Schools of education enrollments plummeting
• Gender-discriminating dress codes that force female teachers to wear longer skirts and closed-toe shoes

And in right-to-work-for-even-less, North Carolina, lawmakers have taken it a step further, eliminating salary increases for post bachelors degrees. How would you like to go to bed at night with these stats invading your dreams?

So, what do I get in return for those dues which Gov. Christie—in his $4,000 Cartier gold cufflinks—and some of his GOP cronies in the New Jersey state legislature call outrageous and outlandish? Well, for less than what I pay for my cell phone bill every month I get this:

• Due process protection. The reassurance that, if a whistle needs to be blown, a student needs to be protected, a wrong needs to be made right, or an administrator just doesn't like me, there is a legal process through which I can state my case. Contrary to 'reformy' spin, it won't provide me with a job for life.
• Professional development. The NJEA Convention is one of the largest and most comprehensive professional development conferences in the country. And yes, I do attend, and if you're an NJEA member, you should, too.
• Equal pay for equal work. Union salary guides guarantee that I won't make 70¢ on the dollar simply because of my gender or my age; and my credentials and experience—not my cronyism—drive my compensation.
• Support. Like any family, my union brothers and sisters and I don't always see eye-to-eye, but when push comes to shove, we are all on the same page when it comes to providing our students with one of the best public education systems in the country. And no, that system didn't come from Christie, Cerf, Hespe and Company. It came from us—200,000 strong—doing our jobs every single day, despite sometimes overwhelming odds and under tremendous pressure to solve all the ills of the world.
• Help. Education professionals know there are no 'failing' districts in this state. We know
  
  the issues some schools face go far deeper than a 'pass/fail' label. We know that the solution isn't to close schools and disrupt communities. And we know that our union provides help that is SMART—not some rhetoric-filled, pie-in-the-sky mumbo-jumbo devised by people who've never set foot in a classroom.
• Political Power to endorse candidates and affect election outcomes. And, more than anything else, that's something 'reformy' folk desperately want to take away from us, because once they control the vote, they control everything.

There ain't no 'reformy' organization that will ever provide any of this (and more) to people who work in right-to-work-for-less states. The only things you are guaranteed are job insecurity and less take home pay.

So, when Gov. Christie and Co. make stupid comments like this:

"What we know now is, more money alone does not translate into a better education," Christie said. "Better teaching methods, more instruction time and improved educational programs make the difference."  

Allowing the status quo to continue would be "criminal," Christie said. 

... I can say true, more money alone—without an evidence-based plan—won't make a difference. And neither will less. And neither will the 'status quo' which is not what Christie accuses us of perpetrating. Quite the opposite. These days the 'status quo' is the cockamamie schemes he and his puppets at the DOE come up with to cut that money from school budgets—especially those most in need. The 'status quo' is drill and kill, punish students, punish teachers, close schools, flip 'em to charters, and hold us all accountable for their failures.

The status quo is not professional educators being given the resources and support to do great things in the classroom. No, the status quo is Gov. Christie telling the world how horrible our poorest and neediest schools and students are, how "greedy and selfish" their educators are, and us fighting him tooth and nail.

The only things standing between Gov. Christie and the complete annihilation of public education in New Jersey are the unions— NJEA and AFT—and the sensible and reasonable elected officials in Trenton who know that he is nothing more than a shill for the corporate 'reform' movement.

So, when I look at my paycheck and see that dues deduction, I know it's a small price to pay for the continued welfare of our students and our state's future.

402 more days until Gov. Christie's reign of terror comes to an end. We can do this.

Wishing you all a successful and fulfilling 2016-2017 school year.