By Vin Gopal
As the kids head back to school this week, we are continuing to press for approval of our legislation to address the teacher shortage and provide school districts and students with better access to experienced educators.
As chair of the Senate Education Committee, I spend as much time as possible meeting with educators and school administrators to listen to their concerns, and working with my legislative District 11 partners, Assemblywomen Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, to address them. Recently, I met informally with a group of teachers in Asbury Park to discuss our pending legislation.
We are urging Governor Murphy to sign our bill, S2078, which passed the Senate and Assembly in June and addresses the teacher shortage. The bill extends the length of time a member of the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) can maintain their membership and member tier in the pension fund following a period of discontinuance.
Under current law, membership in the TPAF ceases if an individual discontinues service for more than two years. Our bill extends the period to 10 years to encourage experienced teachers who may want to return to the classroom. This bill extends the period of discontinuance to 15 years as long as the teacher has not withdrawn their accumulated member's contributions from the retirement system. Not only does this legislation help fill the gap of teachers needed, it allows teachers who retired or left teaching to raise a family to bring their wealth of experience back to the school and students who will benefit greatly from it.
Several of our other legislative initiatives to support teachers and address the teacher shortage include our bill, S4515, aimed at building a stronger vocational teacher workforce. Introduced in the Senate in June, the legislation limits some requirements for certification of career and technical education teachers. Currently, a candidate for a certificate of eligibility in a career and technical education endorsement must complete an educator preparation program which exceeds 200-hours of instruction or one academic year. The current law is depriving school districts and students of the ability to hire talented alternate route teachers who have worked in technical fields for years and want to bring their skills to teaching.
Another of our bills, S2035, prohibits the State Department of Human Services from deeming certain teachers and school employees ineligible for child care subsidies due to the number of hours worked when school is not in session for students. Many teachers and school employees who teach summer school or work in other summer programs that help students stay on track could not afford to take the jobs without the child care subsidies.
We also want to provide incentives for New Jersey college students to stay in the state and teach. We’ve introduced S2008, to establish the Grow Your Own Teacher Loan Redemption Program in Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA). This legislation encourages students who graduated high school from a school district, or lived in a school district with a shortage of teachers, to come home and teach.
Under the bill, the HESAA would offer loan redemption up to $10,000 of principal and interest of eligible student loan expenses for each full year of employment by the program participant. The total loan redemption amount for a program participant, for five years of employment, is not to exceed $50,000.
New Jersey has the best public education system, and the best teachers, in the nation. Our legislation aims to give our schools the support needed to keep them.
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