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The Record -‘NJ teachers appear to be agreeing to smaller raises’ The Record
Courier Post - ‘State should aid NJN's transition’
NJ teachers appear to be agreeing to smaller raises’ Thursday, June 10, 2010 BY LESLIE BRODY The Record
New Jersey teachers are accepting smaller raises in light of the state's fiscal crisis, early data suggest.
Newly settled contracts reported to the New Jersey School Boards Association show average raises of 3.35 percent for the coming school year. That's down from a 4.35 percent average for all teachers this year.
"The numbers are starting to reflect the economic realities and that's what everybody wants at this point," NJSBA spokesman Frank Belluscio said Wednesday. "We want to make sure contracts are in line with what the community can afford. We're very enthusiastic that the downward trend will continue."
This trend is evident among 33 contracts settled since January. Looking ahead, average raises in these districts drop further — to 3.12 percent — in 2011-12.
These agreements represent only a fraction of roughly 600 districts statewide but show the intense pressures on current contract negotiations. Governor Christie has cut state aid to districts by $820 million for the coming school year, called on teachers to accept one-year wage freezes and repeatedly sparred with the state's largest teachers union. Meanwhile, taxpayers showed their frustration about paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation by voting down most school budgets in April.
If other districts follow suit, average raises statewide would fall below 4 percent for the first time in at least a decade. The 3.35 percent average raise among the new contracts excludes a dozen districts where teachers took one-year wage freezes; including those would bring the average raise down to 2.14 percent. Some school boards might not have reported new contracts to their association yet.
Dumont Superintendent Emanuele Triggiano has witnessed the economic climate's effect at the bargaining table firsthand. He said that after two years of negotiations, his board expected to approve a contract Wednesday night with raises under 4 percent for the coming year, and teachers would vote on it shortly. For the first time, as law now requires for settlements, the teachers will also chip in 1.5 percent of their pay for health benefits.
"Teachers have been hammered in the media for quite a while, but we've been working behind the scenes to come up with something palatable for everyone," Triggiano said. "We put together a tremendous compromise for the community."
The median salary for teachers in New Jersey is $59,700, according to The Record's analysis of state data. Not all teachers get the average raise for their contract; raises come from a pool and are distributed at different percentages along a salary guide. Those guides vary among districts.
New Jersey Education Association spokeswoman Kathy Coulibaly said she could not confirm the NJSBA data on lower raises but said it sounded "in the ballpark."
"Contracts are always negotiated in the real world," she said. "Economic conditions have an impact. This is one of the reasons we're so concerned the governor is trying to impose artificial limits on what those settlements may look like with his 2.5 percent cap."
The union argues that raises should be set locally through collective bargaining. Christie is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would create a 2.5 percent cap on the annual increase in the property tax levies by school districts, municipalities and counties; that cap would limit public employee pay. Local governing bodies could ask voters for permission to exceed the cap.
The governor's spokesman, Michael Drewniak, declined to comment on the data showing a decline in teacher raises, saying the group of new contracts was too small to assess.
Even so, Belluscio, at the school boards association, said the early data was telling. He said average raises began to decrease in 2004-05, when they hit 4.68 percent, but the recent one-year drop was more dramatic.
"There's a very strong downward trend in settlements and we expect that trend to continue," he said.
E-mail: brody@northjersey.com
New Jersey teachers are accepting smaller raises in light of the state's fiscal crisis, early data suggest.
Newly settled contracts reported to the New Jersey School Boards Association show average raises of 3.35 percent for the coming school year. That's down from a 4.35 percent average for all teachers this year.
"The numbers are starting to reflect the economic realities and that's what everybody wants at this point," NJSBA spokesman Frank Belluscio said Wednesday. "We want to make sure contracts are in line with what the community can afford. We're very enthusiastic that the downward trend will continue."
This trend is evident among 33 contracts settled since January. Looking ahead, average raises in these districts drop further — to 3.12 percent — in 2011-12.
These agreements represent only a fraction of roughly 600 districts statewide but show the intense pressures on current contract negotiations. Governor Christie has cut state aid to districts by $820 million for the coming school year, called on teachers to accept one-year wage freezes and repeatedly sparred with the state's largest teachers union. Meanwhile, taxpayers showed their frustration about paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation by voting down most school budgets in April.
If other districts follow suit, average raises statewide would fall below 4 percent for the first time in at least a decade. The 3.35 percent average raise among the new contracts excludes a dozen districts where teachers took one-year wage freezes; including those would bring the average raise down to 2.14 percent. Some school boards might not have reported new contracts to their association yet.
Dumont Superintendent Emanuele Triggiano has witnessed the economic climate's effect at the bargaining table firsthand. He said that after two years of negotiations, his board expected to approve a contract Wednesday night with raises under 4 percent for the coming year, and teachers would vote on it shortly. For the first time, as law now requires for settlements, the teachers will also chip in 1.5 percent of their pay for health benefits.
"Teachers have been hammered in the media for quite a while, but we've been working behind the scenes to come up with something palatable for everyone," Triggiano said. "We put together a tremendous compromise for the community."
The median salary for teachers in New Jersey is $59,700, according to The Record's analysis of state data. Not all teachers get the average raise for their contract; raises come from a pool and are distributed at different percentages along a salary guide. Those guides vary among districts.
New Jersey Education Association spokeswoman Kathy Coulibaly said she could not confirm the NJSBA data on lower raises but said it sounded "in the ballpark."
"Contracts are always negotiated in the real world," she said. "Economic conditions have an impact. This is one of the reasons we're so concerned the governor is trying to impose artificial limits on what those settlements may look like with his 2.5 percent cap."
The union argues that raises should be set locally through collective bargaining. Christie is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would create a 2.5 percent cap on the annual increase in the property tax levies by school districts, municipalities and counties; that cap would limit public employee pay. Local governing bodies could ask voters for permission to exceed the cap.
The governor's spokesman, Michael Drewniak, declined to comment on the data showing a decline in teacher raises, saying the group of new contracts was too small to assess.
Even so, Belluscio, at the school boards association, said the early data was telling. He said average raises began to decrease in 2004-05, when they hit 4.68 percent, but the recent one-year drop was more dramatic.
"There's a very strong downward trend in settlements and we expect that trend to continue," he said.
E-mail: brody@northjersey.com
Courier Post June 10, 2010 ‘State should aid NJN's transition’
New Jersey Network needs ample time from the state to successfully become a private nonprofit. In a state sandwiched between two major cities -- Philadelphia and New York -- where the broadcast news programs center on events in and around those cities, the public New Jersey Network is really the only place on the TV dial where New Jerseyans can be sure to get New Jersey news.
For that reason, it would be a shame if NJN went belly up -- which is a real possibility. The programming it offers -- from the nightly half-hour state news broadcast to educational shows for kids such as Sesame Street to travel shows like Globe Trekker and documentaries on interesting people and places in New Jersey -- cannot be found on for-profit broadcast and cable stations.
Under the proposed state budget likely to be adopted this month, NJN would need to become a private nonprofit organization. The budget would drop direct state aid to the public broadcaster from $4 million this year (22 percent of NJN's operating budget) to $2 million in the next fiscal year. State aid for NJN would end altogether by Jan. 1.
Less clear is what would happen with the additional $7 million the state spends on NJN -- $4.3 million for facilities (NJN's modern Trenton studio) and $2.7 million for employee benefits and Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. With NJN becoming a private entity, employees would no longer work for the state, so the state would almost certainly quit paying for any employee benefits. How lawmakers would help NJN remain in its Trenton studio remains unanswered.
We can understand the state getting out of the TV business. It's simply not a core function of government. In a state strapped for cash with taxes and debt that are far too high and reduced revenue due to the poor economy, cutting costs and shedding nonessential functions has to happen.
Only 18 of the 50 states have TV networks operated by a government agency. An additional six states have statewide networks run by a public university. Only one other state -- Oklahoma -- has a public station that does a nightly broadcast of statewide news like NJN does.
But as the state nudges NJN out of the nest, it should give the network the time and help it needs to get on its feet in a new form and survive. Certainly, NJN, which draws only about 10 percent of its revenue from private donors, won't be able to continue on with 130 employees. It likely won't be able to do as many stories on its nightly newscast. It needs time to figure out a way to grow its donor base and/or sign on more corporate underwriters. Typical public television stations in the United States get about 30 percent to 50 percent of revenue from private donors.
NJN, founded nearly four decades ago, is a valuable resource that airs news and PBS programs not found elsewhere. In South Jersey, most people get WHYY out of Philadelphia, but it airs shows on NJN at different times, or not at all, and doesn't have any New Jersey news.
State lawmakers should look to help NJN as much as possible and give it more than half a year to either sink or swim before being completely cut off. As it stands now, NJN looks like it will sink. Lawmakers ought to do something to prevent that from happening
