Stuff in the ‘The Taxpayer-Funded Political Machine’ Category
Deb Cornavaca, the NJEA and Gov. Murphy: A Revolving Door of Special-Interest Influence
Posted On05/18/2022 byWell, well, well, as night follows day, a NJEA political organizer cycles into the Murphy administration as a senior officer and then cycles right back to the NJEA. Murphy’s Deputy Chief of Staff Deborah Cornavaca is leaving to become the NJEA’s Director of Government Relations. Recall that Cornavaca was an NJEA political organizer before she…Read More
The NJEA Proudly Boasts About Its Quid Pro Quo Relationship with Gov. Murphy
Posted On04/22/2022 byAs our readers are well aware, Sunlight’s mission is to shine a light on the special-interest-domination of New Jersey’s political system, led by the most powerful special interest of them all, the NJEA. Sunlight has also highlighted Gov. Murphy’s strong and unbending ties to the NJEA: the NJEA supports Murphy’s campaigns with millions of dollars…Read More
NJEA’s 2021 Financials: Leadership’s Pensions Very Secure; Super PAC Awash with Dues Money; Membership Declining
Posted On04/19/2022 bySunlight had a chance to look at the NJEA’s latest financial statements (for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2021) and there were some interesting nuggets of information: NJEA Leaderships pensions continue to be gold-plated and very secure. Sunlight did an extensive report on the NJEA leadership’s gold-plated, well-funded pensions – as contrasted with the…Read More
The Data Shows School Closures Led to Learning Loss, but the NJEA Pretends It Did Not Happen
Posted On03/24/2022 byIn an article entitled “In-Person Classes Boost Test Scores,” the Wall Street Journal reports that American students are scoring lower on reading and math tests than last year, indicating that there was indeed learning loss resulting from school closures during the pandemic. (It’s behind a paywall, so we cannot link to it.) Renaissance Learning analyzed…Read More
Congratulations to Montclair’s Two New, ELECTED School Board Members: the Repudiation of Mayor Spiller Continues
Posted On03/15/2022 byHearty congratulations to Phaedra Dunn and Melanie Dysher, the winning candidates in Montclair’s first school board election. Dunn and Dysher were part of the Vote Montclair slate and bested seven other candidates. Remember that Vote Montclair, a grassroots parent/citizen group, was behind last November’s referendum that changed Montclair from a mayor-appointed school board to an…Read More
Even the faraway Washington Post Sees Gov. Murphy’s Blocking of Charter School Expansion as Appeasing the NJEA
Posted On03/01/2022 byA Sunlight subscriber sent us a Washington Post article by Jay Mathews entitled “N.J.’s education chief blocked growth of state’s best charter schools. Why?” Sunlight does not typically opine on charter schools because they are for the most part outside our purview. But insofar as New Jersey’s charter school policies reflect Governor Murphy’s subservience to…Read More
Like Sunlight, ELEC’s Brindle Warns About Special Interest Domination of NJ Politics Via Shadowy Super PACs
Posted On02/24/2022 byKudos to Jeff Brindle, executive director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), for calling out the danger to NJ’s electoral system from shadowy, special interest Super PACs (political action committees). Brindle has frequently decried the influence of dark money and Super PACs in NJ elections, but Sunlight is happy to see that Brindle…Read More
How Many Members Does the NJEA Have? And Did It Just Lose 3,500 Members?
Posted On02/17/2022 byProbably no one knows more about the inner workings of America’s public employee unions than Mike Antonucci, author of the valuable and informed Education Intelligence Agency website. Antonucci recently wrote a piece for The 74 about the decline of public employee union membership, and particularly the decline at the local government level, where most school employees…Read More
The NJEA Irresponsibly Undermines Respect for the Law and Sends a Harmful Message to Students
Posted On11/22/2021 byMore evidence that the NJEA is a thoroughly politicized – and radical – organization that is more interested in stoking political fires than educating students. The NJEA leadership came out with a truly radical statement on the not-guilty verdict in the Rittenhouse trial. The statement – signed by the NJEA president, vice president and secretary-treasurer…Read More
The Evidence Is Mounting: Teachers’ Unions Drove School Closures, Which Harmed Kids
Posted On11/15/2021 byMultiple research reports show that teachers’ unions, including the NJEA, put the interests of their members over the interests of the kids by pushing to keep schools closed during the pandemic It is widely recognized that school closures harmed kids, both in terms of substantial learning loss – especially in minority communities – and in…Read More