Labor leaders, education advocates, public servants and others gathered March 4 outside New Jersey Regional Day School in Newark for a press conference marking the launch of Protecting N.J. Public Education and Students.
This AFT New Jersey-HPAE initiative, part of AFT’s Protect Our Kids campaign and the union’s national day of action, was created in response to the Trump administration’s threats to upend the U.S. Department of Education and Medicaid.
AFTNJ President Jennifer S. Higgins said a loss of federal funding from those two entities would be “a double whammy” to districts like Newark and to students served by schools such as New Jersey Regional Day. The Republican administration in Washington, D.C., she added, “wants to pull the carpet out from under them to provide tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.”
Higgins concluded by saying, “Remaining silent with the hope that cuts won’t come to New Jersey is misguided. The Republican administration has already demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice the many for the benefit of a few. Today is the day we begin to fight back to protect New Jersey’s kids.”
Education Law Center research director Danielle Farrie also addressed the crowd, noting that sufficient school funding improves student achievement and performance, as well as high school graduation rates and college attendance. Additionally, adult wages and life expectancy increase, while adult poverty and contact with the criminal justice system go down.
“There’s no serious disagreement about this among the experts who study it, and this is what makes the Trump administration’s threats to withhold support from the nation’s public schools so absurd,” Farrie said.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka spoke for several minutes that morning, as did NAACP President Deborah Smith Gregory, Newark Teachers Union President John M. Abeigon and Newark Board of Education President Hasani K. Council, among others.
TOP: Foreground, left to right: New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charlie Wowkanech, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, AFT New Jersey President Jennifer S. Higgins, HPAE President Debbie White and Newark Teachers Union President John M. Abeigon on March 4 outside New Jersey Regional Day School in Newark prior to the start of the press conference for the launch of the Protecting N.J. Public Education and Students campaign. (Photo by Chris M. Junior)
