By Matt Friedman/The Star-Ledger
[…]Under the bill (S2169), new employees of school districts in 10 counties near the New York or Pennsylvania border would not be bound by the residency requirement: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Mercer, Burlington and Camden.
The bill would establish a pilot program requiring school districts to report each year to the Department of Education on its impact. After three years, the Department of Education would recommend whether to keep or scrap the exemptions.
The bill would need Christie’s approval to become law, but he’s not saying how he feels about it. His spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said the governor would review the bill if it reaches his desk.
A Star-Ledger analysis of the decisions by the Employee Residency Review Committee — which was set up to decide whether employees should be exempt from the law — found that out of 184 “hardship” requests heard this year, 114 were from school district employees. The vast majority of those — 90 — were approved for a temporary or permanent exemption.
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