For Discussion Only
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Submitted by Steve Beatty, President
New Jersey Education Association
Thank you, Senator Beach, for your leadership and service. As a fellow educator, it is particularly meaningful to appear before you, and it is especially noteworthy that both of our daughters have followed our footsteps by becoming teachers.
Our membership is made up of professional educators and education support professionals. We are also taxpayers, homeowners, renters, commuters, parents, and children. Like all New Jerseyans, our members are directly affected by the affordability crisis facing this state.
Healthcare is one of the most important benefits associated with our profession. As highly trained professionals, many of our members could earn more compensation in the private sector, but they have historically accepted that tradeoff because healthcare coverage is part of their overall compensation package. Healthcare affordability and stability remain one of the top concerns of our membership.
Our members experience firsthand the impact of current healthcare costs in both the public and private markets. School districts struggle to absorb rising premiums, and when healthcare costs consume larger portions of school budgets, students and educators feel the consequences. Some employees lose their jobs, class sizes increase, students face longer commutes, and essential programs and supports are reduced or eliminated.
We are deeply committed to solving this problem, and we believe the solution must be collaborative. Our record demonstrates that we have consistently been willing to come to the table and work with stakeholders to develop workable solutions.
We also fully support the Governor’s approach to addressing major affordability challenges facing the state. When a system is not functioning as intended, we have a responsibility to acknowledge the problem, address it honestly, and implement meaningful reforms. The State Health Benefits Program is not functioning effectively today. Simply put, it is broken, and if New Jersey is serious about addressing affordability, fixing this system must be an urgent priority.
We support S4438 because it provides a long-term solution and establishes a structure in which the stakeholders responsible for school employee health benefits work together as partners. It is fundamentally a collaborative solution.
The proposal is rooted in our longstanding commitment to labor-management collaboration, an area in which we have invested heavily for more than a decade. In fact, our collaborative work has become a national model that other states are examining and seeking to replicate.
S4438 builds on that successful foundation by creating a collaborative trust through which health benefits can be managed and implemented by fiduciaries acting on behalf of the plan and its beneficiaries. The bill does not guarantee that any single stakeholder will receive everything they want. Rather, it commits all parties to an experience-based process in which they work together to solve this crisis and create a more sustainable system.