New Jersey has been targeted by the right wing, and NJEA is mobilizing to counter the threat
Mention the threat of school vouchers to the average NJEA member and you?re apt to get the reply: ?Vouchers in New Jersey? Not a chance.? After all, voucher legislation (to allow public tax dollars to be used for tuition to religious and other private schools) has always been a non-starter at the State House.
In 1994, then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman and then-Jersey city Mayor Bret Schundler couldn?t even get legislation creating a pilot voucher program in Jersey City out of committee. Between 1998 and 2002 several voucher bills met similar fates in Trenton. Each sought to enact vouchers or tuition tax credits ? vouchers by another name (see sidebar). Their price tags ? $200 million a year and up ? were deemed prohibitive.
A rapidly changing landscape
But suddenly the landscape is changing ? and New Jersey is being targeted by a powerful, well-financed national voucher movement.
For a long time, voucher experiments have been confined to Milwaukee (since 1990), Cleveland (1995), and the state of Florida (1999).
But in June 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ? in a controversial 5-4 ruling ? upheld the constitutionality of the Cleveland, Ohio voucher program in Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris. Ignoring the fact that 96 percent of Cleveland voucher students attend religious schools, the Court ruled that because voucher money went to parents and not directly to religious schools, those parents were entitled to spend it where they chose.
Last April, the Colorado legislature enacted a voucher program by a single vote ? end-running the 60 percent of Colorado voters who opposed vouchers. Prior to Zelman, every attempt to enact vouchers by public referendum (including Colorado) had failed, and in November 2000, voucher proposals in California and Michigan were crushed, receiving only 29 and 31 percent support respectively.
New Jersey is now targeted
Shortly thereafter, the ultra-conservative Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation ? which provides millions of dollars annually to pro-voucher think tanks, researchers, law firms, and organizations ? decided to target two places for vouchers: Washington, D.C. (Congress is poised to enact a voucher law there) and New Jersey.
It targeted New Jersey for three reasons:
- We have a large number of struggling urban school districts, which are commonly targeted by voucher organizers.
- We have a large number of active urban/minority parents and leaders who justifiably want their children to attend quality public schools.
- And we have a Newark-based organization ? Excellent Education for Everyone, or ?E3? ? that is aggressively organizing for vouchers.
NJEA members must be informed
As a result, every NJEA member needs to become informed about the origins and scope of the national voucher movement. Vouchers are a direct assault on public school funding, and the threat is now real for New Jersey.
NJEA has mobilized to counter the threat. A Voucher Task Force has been meeting for several months, with sub-groups working on training, message and materials, community organizing, coalition building, research, legal issues, and legislative strategies.
Starting this month, each issue of The Reporter will include a full-page article on a specific topic under the heading ?The Truth About Vouchers.? We?ll tell you who?s pushing vouchers ? and why. We?ll expose the myths about vouchers, and provide you with compelling arguments against them. And we?ll conclude with a close look at what public schools need to do to make the case for vouchers irrelevant.
Be sure to check the NJEA website ? www.njea.org ? since it will be featuring numerous voucher facts and links to other sites for members who want to learn more.
Please stay tuned, and stay informed. The voucher movement has arrived in New Jersey, and it is playing for keeps.
NEXT MONTH: Excellent Education for Everyone ? E3 ? the engine behind the New Jersey voucher movement.