newjerseynewsroom.com

3,900 remain unemployed as new school year starts

With the new school year beginning in New Jersey, the statewide teachers' union is chiding the Christie administration for not moving on obtaining $268 million in federal education aid to rehire 3,900 public school teachers and support staff.

Barbara Keshishian, New Jersey Education Association president, Tuesday said Gov. Chris Christie is digging in his heals on applying when other states began sending in their aid applications two weeks ago.

"Incredibly, the administration continues to insist that it needs more time and technical advice in order to complete a thorough and complete application, which consists of a single question,'' Keshishian said.

"It is completely implausible that the state could not have completed this one-question application and submitted it two weeks ago or more,'' Keshishian said. California and Illinois submitted their applications on Friday, August 13. Tennessee and Kansas submitted theirs that weekend. Anyone who looks at the application can see that it is easier to apply for this funding than to open a new checking account.''

Keshishian said the administration managed to prepare and submit the 1,000-page federal Race to the Top application over a three-day holiday weekend. She said the $268 million aid request form is a three-page, one question application.

Christie and the NJEA have locked horns over teacher pay and benefits almost from the day he took office in January. The governor dislikes the NJEA and other public employee unions.

"Governor Christie should just be honest with the people of New Jersey,'' Keshishian said. "Unlike other governors who saw the opportunity to put people back to work and jumped on it, he is putting his own anti-public education political agenda ahead of the needs of New Jersey's working families. There is no other way to explain his willingness to keep 3,900 New Jersey professionals on the unemployment rolls when quick action two weeks ago could have ensured they'd be working this week when school begins.''

Keshishian added, "It is an affront to every unemployed person in the state that the governor cares so little about helping get people back to work. And it is even worse, because he's also denying students across the state a better education.

"His $1.3 billion in cuts have already guaranteed thousands of layoffs and will result in larger class sizes and fewer opportunities for students. His administration's mishandling of the Race to the Top application has cost the state $400 million. Now his inexcusable delay in applying for the $268 million that the federal government is trying to return to New Jersey taxpayers will end up harming the very public schools that money was intended to save."

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM