NDNJ Poll Gives Murphy High Marks – But Remember that the NJEA Paid for It
Posted OnJuly 15, 2020 byToday the New Jersey Globe published an article on a new poll paid for by New Direction New Jersey (NDNJ) that showed Governor Murphy getting extremely high marks for his handling of COVID and just about everything else. The Globe correctly notes that NDNJ is run by Murphy allies and that it advocates for Murphy’s…Read More
NJLeftBehind Digs into Jazzman/NJ Policy Perspective’s Flawed Research
Posted OnJuly 14, 2020 byKudos and thanks to NJLeftBehind for a masterful critique of Mark Weber, Ph.D. (a.k.a., Jersey Jazzman) and New Jersey Policy Perspective’s (NJPP) latest piece of shoddy research. NJLeftBehind calls it like it sees it, and it sees Weber and NJPP as essentially paid lobbyists for the NJEA. After the two shoddy pieces of research Weber…Read More
NJ Education Aid Finds Gaps in Weber/NJPP Report on a Teacher Shortage
Posted OnJuly 13, 2020 byThe excellent New Jersey Education Aid provides facts and data (here)that expose gaps in Mark Weber, Ph.D.’s (a.k.a., Jersey Jazzman) latest report for New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) (here) on a shortage of teacher candidates in NJ. In other words, NJ Education Aid does what Weber does not do: provides sound, evidence-based research that supports…Read More
Success of New Healthcare Law Depends on Persuading Teachers: Will the NJEA Deliver?
Posted OnJuly 2, 2020 byAfter months of behind-the-scenes negotiation and to widespread acclaim, Governor Murphy signed into law S-2273/A-20, a healthcare reform bill that promises to reduce the cost of health benefits for both teachers and taxpayers. This widely praised new law aims to reduce school district (and thus taxpayer) costs by $640 million per year and teacher costs…Read More
Will the NJEA Let Schools Reopen? Will They Demand More Money?
Posted OnJune 30, 2020 byIn the June 30 Wall Street Journal, Daniel DiSalvo of the Manhattan Institute discusses the issues presented (see below). The NJEA has made clear that it expects greater funding to provide for COVID-related safety measures, but with tax revenues lower and budgets strained, where will the extra money come from? What will be the NJEA’s…Read More
Political Organizers Extend Domination of NJEA Leadership
Posted OnJune 23, 2020 byInsiderNJ reports that Al Beaver has been named head of the NJEA’s Government Relations Division, its lobbying and political operations arm. Beaver is a long-time UniServ political organizer, and brings yet another political organizer into the NJEA leadership ranks. As discussed in SPCNJ’s most recent report on teachers’ dues, the NJEA’s Executive Office is dominated…Read More
Truth In Accounting: If NJ Borrows $5 Billion, It Won’t Be Able to Pay It Back
Posted OnJune 11, 2020 bySheila Weinberg, CEO of Truth In Accounting, wrote an excellent op-ed in NJSpotlight (here). Weinberg cautions that if NJ borrows $5 billion to plug its current budget gap, it will be unlikely that NJ can generate the surpluses needed to pay the loan back in three years (the term of Federal Reserve loans). This is…Read More
New Report: NJ Teachers Pension Fund Insolvency in 7 Years. But It’s Probably Worse
Posted OnJune 10, 2020 byAs reported in BuryPensions, Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research (CRR) predicts that NJ’s largest public pension fund, the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), will see its funded ratio decline from 39.2% to 23.2% in the next five years, at which point TPAF will have enough money for just 19 months of pension payments….Read More
NJSpotlight Is Partly Right About NJ’s Meager Rainy Day Funds, Woeful Fiscal Condition
Posted OnJune 9, 2020 byNJSpotlight’s John Reitmeyer does a good job (here) of highlighting NJ’s deficient Rainy Day funds and how NJ has been reduced to borrowing $5 billion to plug a massive gap in the state budget. He also rightly notes that state public pension payments are eating up funds that might otherwise be used to build a…Read More
Updated Teachers Pension Report Sends a Warning for New Jersey
Posted OnMay 27, 2020 byThe State published the actuarial report for the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), New Jersey’s largest state pension fund. As of June 30, 2019 and using the more accurate measure that includes TPAF’s large unfunded liability (GASB 67), the TPAF had $22.7 billion in assets and $84.2 billion in liabilities, for an unfunded…Read More