To the everlasting shame of Gov. Murphy and New Jersey’s largest teachers union, the NJEA, it has been left to two New Jersey non-profits, JerseyCan and the Urban League of Essex County (ULEC), to address COVID-related learning loss.  It is simply outrageous that Murphy’s Department of Education has yet to fully release the 2021-2022 assessment scores from last Spring.  During that time, independent analysis has shown unprecedented educational decline throughout the state.  Yet our governor, who has the responsibility for educating our state’s children, and the NJEA, which always and everywhere professes its concern for New Jersey’s students, have remained silent on this urgent education issue.

Unwilling to stand aside and let New Jersey students stagnate, JerseyCan and ULEC have organized a forum entitled “Where Are Our Kids’ Test Scores: The Importance of Tracking and Addressing Learning Loss in New Jersey” with Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz and Senate Education Committee Chair Vin Gopal (along with other education and business leaders).  The forum will explore the importance of facts and data in creating successful student outcomes and discuss how key information has still not been shared with school districts, teachers, and parents.

THE FORUM WILL TAKE PLACE AT 7PM ON NOVEMBER 30. YOU CAN REGISTER HERE.

Sunlight has long decried the NJEA’s influence over Murphy, purchased with tens of millions of teachers’ dues.  Being Murphy’s biggest political supporters, the NJEA could count on Murphy to allow schools to remain closed for an extended period of time because that’s what the NJEA wanted — regardless of the learning loss for students.  There is no more poignant example of this than Montclair, where NJEA President/Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller allowed schools to be closed well after most other New Jersey schools had opened because that’s what the Montclair Education Association wanted.  Now the NJEA wants to bury the truth about the learning loss that it abetted, and Murphy is dutifully playing along.  After all, Murphy has his sights on the White House and no doubt has a similar interest in seeing these inconvenient facts buried.

Shamefully, it is New Jersey students and their families who will bear the cost for this dereliction of duty — with our least privileged students and families suffering the most. Thank goodness non-profits like JerseyCan and ULEC and courageous legislative leaders like Sen. Ruiz and Sen. Gopal, who are working to rectify this abominable situation.