The Joint Committee on the Public Schools (another one of those entities I’m sure most of you never knew existed, but which is getting renewed attention lately) was supposed to convene on Tuesday to address school reopenings and the impact of remote learning on New Jersey’s school children.
On Tuesday, both the Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli and Acting Commissioner of Education Angelica Allen-McMillan were supposed to appear remotely. Now the meeting has been postponed… indefinitely.
–
“Both Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan and Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli are looking forward to appearing before the Committee,” explained the message to members of the joint legislative committee. “At the current time there is insufficient detail regarding the specifics of the vaccine rollout for educators and support staff, which will be based in large part upon availability of the doses made available to us from the federal government, which will in turn impact schools fully reopening in some districts.”
“There’s a clear pattern of the Murphy Administration hiding Commissioner Persichilli from any exposure to legislative committees where she might have to answer difficult questions about pandemic response,” said State Senate Mike Testa (R-1), a member of the joint committee. “This follows our nursing home hearing on Friday where family members of victims were livid that she and other members of the administration refused to show up and face them.”
“New Jersey families want their kids back in school as soon as possible,” added Assemblyman Erik Simonsen who also represents LD1 and serves as a member of the committee. “There’s a lot of important ground we need to cover that has nothing to do with vaccines. This is yet another example of Governor Murphy’s team making excuses at everyone else’s expense to protect themselves.”
The Murphy Administration has repeatedly drug its feet on school reopenings despite soft pressure exerted at the local and national level. Dozens of districts around the state remained fully remote at the beginning of March.
The Murphy Administration’s no-show problem isn’t limited to school reopenings; embattled corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks, currently under threat of impeachment, has also ducked the legislature.
–
