Urban Institute: NJ Teachers’ Pension Plan Still in Deep Trouble, Projected to be Insolvent in 20 Years
Posted On03/29/2023 byAs Gov. Murphy proposes to pump another $7 billion of the state budget into New Jersey’s unreformed public pension system, Sunlight thought it would be a good time to highlight this reality check from an Urban Institute report entitled “Addressing and Avoiding Severe Fiscal Stress in Public Pension Plans.” The authors examine the 2021 data…Read More
NJEA President Spiller Confirms Membership Is Below 200,000, Causing Dues Revenues to Lag Increase in Dues
Posted On03/24/2023 bySo we finally have official confirmation: the NJEA’s membership is in fact below the 200,000 it advertises on its website. NJEA President (and Montclair mayor) Sean Spiller testified to the legislature that the NJEA’s current membership was “nearly 200,000 active and retired members.” Sunlight can provide only a rough estimate of current membership levels because the…Read More
“New Jersey Politics at their Worst:” Gov. Murphy Seeks to Remove Head of Independent Elections Watchdog
Posted On03/22/2023 byAs the Bergen Record‘s Charlie Stile sees it, Gov. Murphy’s move to weaken New Jersey’s independent elections watchdog (ELEC) amounts to “New Jersey politics at their worst.” There’s a lot not to like about the Orwellian-named “Elections Transparency Act” but the weakening of ELEC is the most consequential. The bill looks like it will be passed by…Read More
The Shadowy NJ Public Education Coalition Strikes Again, Seeks State Help in Intimidating School Boards
Posted On03/16/2023 byThe shadowy New Jersey Public Education Coalition (NJPEC) strikes again. Is it a NJEA dark-money front? The Star-Ledger reports that NJPEC sent a letter to Gov. Murphy and the DOE asking them to crack down on school boards that are not implementing Murphy’s controversial sex ed guidelines the way NJPEC thinks they should. NJPEC has…Read More
New ELEC Report: All-Politics-All-the-Time NJEA Spent the Most on Lobbying. By Far.
Posted On03/14/2023 byThank goodness, Gov. Murphy wasn’t able to gut the independence of the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC)! The invaluable ELEC has come out with another of its reports, this time on lobbying expenditures from 2000-2022. Because ELEC deals in hard data, these reports reveal the true state of political spending in New Jersey: once again, New…Read More
Governor Murphy, Your Learning Loss Tutoring Plan Is Failing. What Are You Going To Do About It?
Posted On03/09/2023 byWe already know that, due to COVID-related school closures, New Jersey had some of the worst learning loss in the nation. Fewer than half of New Jersey students were proficient in ELA and only 35% in math on last year’s state tests. As a result, tens of thousands of New Jersey high school students are…Read More
NJ Public Education Coalition: the NJEA’s Dark Money and Shadowy Network of Allies Try to Intimidate School Boards
Posted On03/07/2023 byThe plot thickens. Now we see two shadowy progressive organizations join together to fight parents who have challenged the NJEA’s progressive agenda, especially those parents elected to school boards. All signs point to the dark money behind this combined effort coming from the NJEA. Apparently, unable to get teachers involved in its school board fights,…Read More
Gov. Murphy’s FY2024 Budget: Nice Talking Points for a White House Run, But Not Much More
Posted On03/03/2023 byWith Gov. Murphy’s proposed budget in the news, Sunlight thought we should provide our brief take on it. We thought columnist Charlie Stile had it about right: Murphy’s budget is “less about New Jersey and more about polishing his White House appeal.” Just so. Record state government spending. Again. Murphy’s FY2024 (July 2023 to June…Read More
NJEA Continues to Pump Millions of Teachers’ Dues Into Dark Money PACs Supporting Gov. Murphy
Posted On03/02/2023 byKudos to Ashley Balcerzak and northjersey.com for continuing their excellent work on Gov. Murphy’s dark-money Super PAC, Stronger Fairer Forward, widely believed to be aimed at a potential White House run. Not only have they scoured federal records, they apparently have someone who has access to the NJEA’s contribution records and is willing to leak them. This…Read More
A New NJEA Executive Director Takes Over: Large HQ Staff Cuts, Boosting Membership Is Top Priority
Posted On02/27/2023 bySunlight learned some interesting facts from the NJEA’s interview with incoming Executive Director Kevin Kelleher: NJEA headquarters staff has shrunk dramatically; Kelleher and the NJEA’s first priority is boosting membership; and, relatedly, a continued focus on member’s values and priorities. All arrows point to declining NJEA membership. NJEA Headquarters staff cut by -27%: The NJEA’s…Read More