Question: Why would the Assembly Education Committee release two bills that increase costs for local school districts?

Answer: NJEA

New Jersey School Boards Association put out a press release yesterday on two bills from the Assembly Education Committee. “With little advance notice,” says NJSBA, the Committee “released two union-backed bills that would increase costs to taxpayers and undermine efforts to improve the quality of education.”

Bill A-4140 makes it “virtually impossible” for local districts to cut costs by outsourcing food services, maintenance, and transportation. As budgets get tighter, privatization of these services becomes financially attractive so districts can keep cuts away from the classroom.

Bill A-4142, sponsored by Joseph Cryan, is a whopper. According to NJSBA,

It would place many decisions not to renew the contracts of non-tenured teachers into arbitration, driving up legal costs and making it even more difficult for school districts to remove under-performing staff. The change would take place at a time when the state is penalizing school districts for non-classroom expenditures.

In addition, under the bill, determinations over disciplinary actions, such as withholding a teacher’s increment, would be made by labor arbitrators, who have no educational expertise. Moreover, even if the increment withholding were allowed, the amount of the increment would still count toward the teacher’s pension—an unusual provision, considering current concerns over the financial health of the state’s public employee pension system.

So, in other words, A-4142 would disallow local districts from dismissing teachers before they have tenure. And the tiny bit of leverage administrators have with under-performing teachers, withholding an increment (not giving them an automatic salary increase because of one more year of seniority, though they would still get a raise based on bargaining agreements), would be put in the hands of labor arbitrators “who have no educational experience.”

Huh? We’ve got reams of pages of Accountability Regulations from the D.O.E. on creating efficiencies and cutting costs, but the State Legislature is entertaining bills that create inefficiencies and raise costs? How could this be?

New Jersey Education Association has a publication called “Legislative Programs,” which lists the union’s stand on various issues. From their most recent blast:

NJEA opposes:
Privatization: NJEA opposes any legislation that would permit school board or institutions of higher education to contract with outside organizations for educational management services.

Mystery solved.