NJEA’s officers, President Sean M. Spiller, Vice President Steve Beatty and Secretary-Treasurer Petal Robertson, released this statement following Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2024 State of the State address today:

“Gov. Murphy’s State of the State address showed why New Jersey remains on a path toward progress and prosperity. He remains deeply committed to students, educators, families and organized labor in New Jersey and has an agenda that will improve the lives of all New Jersey residents.

“We agree with the governor’s focus on the importance of early literacy as the foundation of lifelong learning. It’s a critical part of keeping our public schools the very best in the nation. We look forward to working with his administration to continue implementing approaches to reading instruction that work in the real world and recognize the diverse learning needs of our youngest students. While too many other states are busy banning books, we agree that every New Jersey student should be reading books.

“We also look forward to finding ways to remove the unnecessary paperwork requirements that burden educators and take too much time way from the instruction that really determines our students’ success.

“Gov. Murphy’s continued commitment to responsibly funding New Jersey’s pensions is also vital to our ongoing effort to attract and retain great teachers and educational support professionals for our schools. Not only that, it is already paying dividends for all New Jersey residents. With a better credit rating due to his fiscal responsibility, New Jersey has more resources to invest in middle-class tax cuts, school funding, and job training to make New Jersey a great place to live, work and raise a family.

“We look forward to working with Gov. Murphy in the coming year to make our great schools even better and to make our great state even stronger.”