Sunlight Blog
Memo to NJEA President Spiller: NJ Is Not #1 When it Comes to Student Success, Especially for Disadvantaged Kids
Posted On01/14/2025 byNJEA President Sean Spiller has often claimed that New Jersey’s public schools are the best in the nation, and now as a candidate for governor, he’s touting this claim as part of his qualifications for the office. In a recent interview with InsiderNJ, Spiller once again stated: “We have the number one schools in the…Read More
Florida Public Schools Get Better Results — Especially for Disadvantaged Kids — for Less than Half the Price
Posted On01/07/2025 byA wake-up call for New Jersey: New Jersey public schools are not nearly as good as the NJEA and Gov. Murphy claim. Florida 4th graders have better academic achievement in both math and reading than New Jersey — especially for disadvantaged children — while spending less than half the money. The NJEA frequently claims that…Read More
Voting With Their Feet: A Million People and $91 Billion of Income Have Fled NJ For Other States
Posted On01/03/2025 byWe’ll start the new year with a look back at just how serious New Jersey’s outmigration problem has been, which portends a bleak future for our state. Thanks to Edward Pinto’s research* in Newsweek, we learned that over the span of three decades (1990-2021) New Jersey has experienced the 4th-worst domestic outmigration of people and…Read More
As Predicted, NJ’s Fiscal Cliff Arrives. Will Gov. Murphy Do the Bidding of His Government Union Pals and Raise Taxes Again?
Posted On12/06/2024 byAs many, including Sunlight, have long warned, New Jersey is approaching a fiscal cliff. Gov. Murphy is now ordering departments freeze salaries and hiring and reduce budgets by 5%. Murphy claims that he has been a good fiscal steward, but remember that he has increased state spending by over 60% and the current state budget…Read More
Attorney General Platkin: We Must Care About the Rule of Law and Political Corruption ALL THE TIME. But What About Gov. Murphy’s Pals Sean Spiller and Brendan Gill?
Posted On12/03/2024 byMore strong, unequivocal words about the rule of law and political corruption from New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin. According to the New Jersey Globe, Platkin had this to say about President Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter: We can’t care about the rule of law some of the time. We can’t care about corruption…Read More
Strong Words About Politicians and Corruption from AG Platkin and Rep. Sherrill. Will They Apply to Spiller and Gill?
Posted On11/20/2024 byTwo of New Jersey’s leading public officials, Attorney General Matt Platkin and Rep./Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill, had some strong words about New Jersey politicians and corruption. At a press conference, Platkin stated (as quoted by Politico): It’s time for people in positions of authority in this state to spend a little more time questioning…Read More
Once Again, Insider NJ’s Fred Snowflack Flacks for NJEA-Funded Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman and NJPEC.
Posted On11/18/2024 byInsider NJ‘s Fred Snowflack continues to flack for Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman and his NJ Public Education Coalition’s (NJPEC). Once again, Snowflack’s piece reads like a NJPEC press release, and once again he studiously avoids the fact that Gottesman and NJPEC are funded by the NJEA. We ask for the fourth time; why…Read More
Will NJEA-Funded Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman Remove the Names of School Children from His Open-Records Request?
Posted On11/14/2024 byWhat say you, Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman? Will you remove the names of the 82 Cherry Hill school children from your open-records request so that they are no longer visible to the public? Sunlight was alerted to a recent blog post that accused Gottesman and his New Jersey Public Education Coalition (NJPEC) of…Read More
NJEA Leadership Caught Red-Handed Trying to Deceive Their Members and Hide the Truth from Them.
Posted On11/12/2024 byWe’ve caught NJEA leadership red-handed trying to deceive their members and hide the truth from them. They could have told teachers the truth but they did not. Again. During last week’s NJEA Convention, Sunlight texted this message to teachers attending the convention: It told them the following facts: As reported in the Montclair Local, NJEA…Read More
Young Teachers Are Forced into a Lousy Pension System. There Is a Better Alternative.
Posted On11/08/2024 byAs our readers know, Sunlight has opined on New Jersey’s public pension crisis, particularly the woeful condition of the teachers’ pension plan, the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF). A recent report puts TPAF’s funded ratio at 39% (39 cents set aside for every dollar owed), the “most underfunded in the nation.” We would add…Read More