In a move that defies logic and undermines the foundational principles of education, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) has successfully lobbied to eliminate the state’s basic reading and writing skills test requirement for teachers.
This action, rubber-stamped by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, is just the latest example of union-driven policies prioritizing the whims of special interests over student success.
The now-defunct test was one of the last safeguards ensuring that educators entering New Jersey’s classrooms possessed baseline literacy skills. Its removal sends a chilling message: Competency in basic reading and writing is no longer essential for those entrusted with the academic development of our children.
Instead, the NJEA — the state’s largest teachers union — argued that the test was a barrier to diversifying the teacher workforce and should be scrapped in the name of “equity.”
While diversity in the classroom may be a laudable goal, lowering standards is the wrong way to achieve it. Students — especially those from under-served communities — deserve teachers who do more than check identity boxes. They must also be equipped with the necessary skills to effectively educate.
Eliminating competency tests does nothing to close the achievement gap; in fact, it exacerbates the problem by placing students in classrooms with potentially underqualified educators.
The NJEA’s real motives are transparent. Anything that puts more bodies in the teacher pipeline ultimately ensures more dues-paying union members regardless of qualifications.
The NJEA’s track record of opposing accountability measures — from teacher evaluations to school choice — demonstrates a pattern of valuing union demands above student outcomes.
Parents across New Jersey should be outraged. The state’s education system already faces significant challenges, including declining literacy rates and persistent achievement gaps. By eliminating the reading and writing test, the NJEA and its allies in Trenton have signaled that mediocrity is acceptable in public education.
Meanwhile, private and charter schools continue to hold their educators to high standards, further widening the gap between students who have access to quality education and those who do not.
This policy assures that students in New Jersey’s public schools will bear the brunt of the state’s declining standards, creating a two-tiered system where only the wealthy can escape the consequences.
This travesty is a wake-up call for parents, taxpayers and policymakers. The NJEA’s outsized influence over education policy must be reined in, and accountability restored.
Our children deserve better than the NJEA’s cynical calculus. It’s time to demand policies that elevate educational standards, not dismantle them in the name of union-driven politics.
New Jersey’s students are capable of greatness, but only if we — as a community — insist on greatness from those who teach themDumbing down standards isn’t equity. It’s surrender.
And the NJEA’s role in this surrender is a betrayal of every student in New Jersey.
