The New Jersey gubernatorial election is rapidly approaching. As the promised day, November 4th, comes nearer and nearer, the race continues to ramp up in fervor. New Jerseyans all across the state are being greeted on their morning commutes with red, white, and blue signs lining every turn. Every YouTube video and TikTok scroll is prefaced by yet another political ad. It’s hard for the average high school student to find it in them to care about any of this. The realm of state politics seems so small when compared to national protests, international conflicts, and the math test you have next block. But we do have good cause to be paying attention to this election in particular.
New Jersey is well-known for its education system. It was recently ranked first in the country by the US News & World Report in pre-K to 12th-grade education. A lot of people choose to live here explicitly because of the quality of its education. That makes the education policies of those running for governor pertinent to the average parent. And as students, we could be the very first people affected by these policies. So…what exactly are our options here?
The two biggest candidates for this election are the Democrat Mikie Sherrill, current United States Representative, and the Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former member of the New Jersey General Assembly.
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Mikie Sherrill
Post-Pandemic Struggles – Sherrill stated that she intends to implement relief programs for the lasting, long-term effects the pandemic has had on education, with issues such as learning delay and mental health problems. She described implementing tutor programs and expanding the number of mental health services offered in every school.
Apprenticeship and Job-Training Programs – Sherrill also emphasized wanting to offer more apprenticeship and job-training programs to students. Explicit details were not given, but she has said that she would make efforts to work with both colleges and employers in the state to put these programs in place.
Phone Ban – Sherrill made it clear that she is in support of a state-wide classroom ban on phones to help reduce cyberbullying and distraction. The details of this kind of band, like whether you would be allowed to use your phone in the halls or cafeteria, would have to be decided by each district.
Affordable Early Childhood Care – New Jersey currently does not offer totally free daycare, but it does offer the Childcare Assistance Program, which helps lower-income families pay for various childcare services. Sherrill has stated that she intends to make early childhood care even more affordable and has supported related bills in the past.
School Funding Reform Act – Sherrill has stated that she plans on reviewing and modernizing the School Funding Reform Act. The SFRA, created in 2008, established a formula meant to dictate how state aid is distributed across schools based off of need. Need is calculated on attributes like grade level populations, at-risk students, and the number of special education students. Sherrill specifically mentioned wanting to provide better extracurriculars, mental health services, and meals to students.
Relationship with the NJEA – The NJEA has officially endorsed Sherrill’s campaign. This is partially because of Sherrill’s promise to ensure teachers receive fully-paid pensions no matter what. She’s also talked about working with public employee unions at large to reduce the cost of health benefits. She was the cosponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, an act made to ensure union members can organize properly without many restrictions.
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Jack Ciattarelli
State School Funding Formula Reform – Ciattarelli has campaigned on plans to reform the state spending formula since the beginning. He specifically talked about wanting to fix New Jersey standards on per-pupil spending and described wanting to get the New Jersey Department of Education to reduce pressure on higher-performing schools while still supporting the under-performing ones.
Expanding Pre-K – He also described wanting to provide better access to early quality childhood education by utilizing more private daycare providers. He reasons that these daycare providers would be able to address student needs more directly while respecting the choices of parents.
Charter and Private Schools – In a similar vein, he also intends to expand charter schools. He wants to loosen restrictions on New Jersey’s current public school choice program. This would allow parents more agency in what school their child attends. He also wants a system similar to Florida’s school voucher program, which allows families to use scholarships based on public funds to be able to attend private schools.
Parents’ Bill of Rights – Ciattarelli also mentioned wanting to create a Parents’ Bill of Rights. This would ensure that school districts have to be completely transparent about what their curriculum is, requiring them to post their sources online. This Bill of Rights would also reform requirements for sexual and social education to make content more “age-appropriate” depending on the grade level.
3+1 Community College Program – He intends on creating what he describes as a “3+1 Community College Program.” This program would promote the relationship between county colleges and vocational and technical schools and local employers. This would provide students direct access to potential careers and create a job pipeline that would expand the workforce.
Pension Reforms – Ciattarelli stated that he wants to create more options for new teachers by creating a Defined Contribution model for pensions, rather than the current Defined Benefit model. A Defined Contribution model provides variable benefits that depend on what is initially contributed. The employee tends to assume the risk of these investments; these kinds of pensions tend to function more like a 401(k). A Defined Benefit model has a pre-defined, fixed annual retirement income. This is far more traditional, but could yield less money.
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Each candidate has their own appeal. Sherrill focuses more on mental health services, pension-paying, and welfare programs. Ciattarelli focuses more on the concept of parents’ rights and cutting costs for taxpayers. Whoever you find yourself in support of, make sure that you (and anyone you know planning on voting in this election) are educated on their policies. Happy polling!
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