NJEA Vows To Fight School Voucher Plan
Asbury Park Press, Friday, November 5, 1993
by Celeste E. Smith
Atlantic City
The president of the state's largest teacher
union said his group will fight any voucher proposals emanating from
Governor-elect Christine Todd Whitman's administration.
"We believe that she does not have the kind of support in either house of the Legislature t o move that proposal through," Dennis Testa, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said at a news conference during the union's anual convention.
"The voucher plan is a key issue to this organization. We're not going to assume that she will move it. If she does, we believe that we can stop it through the Legislature."
Whitman proposed early in her gubernatorial campaign to use taxpayer funded vouchers to allow children from the state's poorest districts to transfer to private and parochial schools on a trial basis.
She later modified her proposal, saying that she would support efforts by
Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler to launch a pilot voucher program in that city's public schools. The Jersey City district has been run by the state since it was taken over in 1989.
Whitman spokesman Carl Golden said the governor-elect is not changing her stance. "Mrs. Whitman is very much aware of the opposition, but very much committed to the program," Golden said. "It's shaping up certainly asa battleground issue in the Legislatu
re. We'll see how it works out."
The teachers union has argued that vouchers would drain money and talented students away from public schools. Testa said yesterday the union believes most of the public shares that view, as illustrated by California voters who defeated a voucher proposal
by a huge margin on Tuesday.
School voucher plans also have been defeated in Colorado and Oregon. "When we start talking about the elitist nature of a voucher scheme and the cost to the taxpayers, and the brain drain...I think those arguments are convincing and far outweigh the fals
e premise that competition will somehow force the schools to do better," Testa said.
Testa also said he was "unclear" about Whitman's educational policies, echoing remarked made on Wednesday by state Education Commissioner Mary Lee Fitzgerald.
Last month, the NJEA issued a "no endorsement" in the gubermatorial race between Democratic Gov. Florio and Republican Whitman. But in 1991, the teachers union backed a number of Republicans running for the Legislature and helped the GOP gain a commanding
majority in both houses. The union's attack on vouchers was part of the converntion theme: the need to improve the image of public education.
In an address to members, Testa blamed 12 years of criticism of schools
by federal administration for the public's lack of confidence in
public education. To combat these images, Testa announced that the
union has launched a Pride in Public Education Campaign, which includes billboards, radio advertisements and a television commercial highlighting academic achievements of Asian, Hispanic, and black students.
Press staff writer Lisa R. Kruse contributed to this story.
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