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NJ Spotlight--Murphy Names Transition Team, Signals His Priorities
High-profile appointees include NJEA president; Gov.-elect also appoints less well-known figures
Less than a week after his election, Gov.-elect Phil Murphy yesterday started naming names to his various transition committees that show where his policies lie.
Murphy has appointed a wide array of well-known — and some less well-known — individuals. The list is notable for a few familiar high-profile names, including New Jersey Education Association president Marie Blistan on the education committee, former U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman on law and justice, and former NAACP president Cornell Brooks, also on law and justice.
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/11/14/murphy-names-transition-team-signals-his-priorities/
John Mooney | November 14, 2017
Star Ledger--NJEA president: Stand down from politics? I was elected to fight for educators | Opinion
Last April, the 200,000 members of the New Jersey Education Association gave me the greatest honor of my life, electing me to lead our union. NJEA is a truly democratic organization that exists to advocate for our members, our students and our public schools. That's no easy task in New Jersey, but it's profoundly important. Public education is the cornerstone of our democracy. With that cornerstone under constant attack, we must work daily to protect it.
That imperative -- to defend and strengthen our public schools -- made me an educational advocate as a young teacher and it drives me today as I lead NJEA through a time of political transition in New Jersey.
Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Marie Blistan| Updated Nov 13, 11:23 AM; Posted Nov 13, 11:12 AM
The Record--Editorial: Moral for NJEA: Petty is as petty does
However it wants to spin it, the New Jersey Education Association is less than it was before the 2017 election cycle – in both influence and cash. It spent an estimated $5 million trying to unseat state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. The gamble did not pay off. Sweeney won by his largest margin. And while the elephant may be the GOP mascot, no targeted politician forgets from where the arrows came.
The NJEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, remains a powerful force, representing some 200,000 members. Those members are the ones who decide whether current leadership is pursuing the right course. But something has to change, whether its people or its policy.
NorthJersey Published 4:48 p.m. ET Nov. 13, 2017 | Updated 5:15 p.m. ET Nov. 13, 2017
Education Week--Democrats' Recent Election Gains: The K-12 Repercussions
Charter, funding issues in N.J., Va., Wash. state
The Democratic gains in this week's New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington elections will have repercussions in all three states in their long-simmering debates over the expansion of charter schools, school funding, testing, and other K-12 issues.
And the political maneuvers used by education policy advocates to animate moderate voters over those issues could provide a script for other states next year when 38 governorships and four-fifths of state legislative seats are up for election.
Daarel Burnette II |November 10, 2017
Star Ledger--Ernest Reock Jr., an expert in N.J. government, dies at 93
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Ernest C. Reock Jr., a former Rutgers University professor known for his extensive knowledge of state government, died Sunday morning. He was 93.
Reock, of the Kendall Park neighborhood of South Brunswick, died of complications from pneumonia at University Medical Center of Princeton in Plainsboro, his family said.
Reock served as director of Rutgers University's Center for Government Services from 1960 until his retirement in 1992. He was known throughout the Garden State for his research in property taxes, legislative redistricting and other state government issues.
Alex Napoliello and Luke Nozicka| NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated Nov 13, 9:03 PM; Posted Nov 13, 4:09 PM
