The BuryPensions blog tells it like it is. Based on some excellent new research by New Jersey Education Aid entitled “New Jersey Policy Perspective Misleads on Pensions,” Bury had this to say:
“But when a think-tank getting similar NJEA money puts out worse propaganda it gets accepted by other media outlets that choose to disseminate it as factual. That is the case with New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) which put out several reports arguing that New Jersey’s teacher pensions are “modest” and that the pension reform proposals supported by Steve Sweeney, Chris Christie, and other politicians are inappropriate because NJ’s teacher pensions are already among the “least-generous” in the United States.”
And further: “A New Jersey Education Aid post calls out the NJPP reports as highly misleading because pensions are just one part of a big enchilada of benefits and privileges that retired teachers get, noting:
- NJ teachers get Social Security, not all teachers do.
- Pensions are a lower percentage of salaries than in most other states but NJ salaries are higher.
- NJ teachers get post-retirement healthcare; not all retired teachers do.
- NJ teacher pensions are untaxed.”
The bottom line is that this is just more shoddy research from NJ Policy Perspective. As SPCNJ revealed with previous NJPP reports on a supposed teacher pay-gap, a shortage of teacher candidates and its case for COVID funding for schools, NJPP starts out with its desired conclusion and then cherry-picks research to support it. As Bury notes, this is not bona fide research, it’s propaganda to benefit one of NJPP’s big donors, the NJEA.
Both NJ Education Aid and Bury make the important point that despite the shoddiness of its research, NJPP continues to be cited by the media as some sort of respectable research think-tank. But it is not. With pseudo-researchers like Mark Weber (a.k.a., Jersey Jazzman) issuing reports, as both NJ Education Aid and SPCNJ found, when you dig into the NJPP reports, you find that NJPP does not live up to its own “evidence-based standards.”
When will NJPP be held accountable for its sub-standard, shoddy research?