By Matt Rooney | SaveJersey.com
New Jersey’s public schools are struggling to teach kids how to read, write, and do basic math.
But don’t worry, Save Jerseyans. The state’s most powerful teachers’ union is hard at work on the important stuff.
A viral photo from the New Jersey Education Association’s (NJEA) convention shows a presentation hosted by its “Rainbow Alliance Committee” featuring a slide prominently declaring “THE GAY AGENDA.”
Apparently, irony wasn’t on the agenda.
Here’s what should be.
As NJ.com reported this week, New Jersey’s latest standardized testing results paint a disturbing picture of academic achievement in one of America’s most expensive public education systems.
According to the state’s newly released 2026 assessment results:
- Only 51.1% of tested students met or exceeded grade-level expectations in English language arts.
- Just 41.7% demonstrated proficiency in mathematics.
- A miserable 24.9% met or exceeded proficiency standards in science.
That’s right. Nearly half of tested New Jersey students aren’t proficient in reading, nearly six in ten aren’t proficient in math, and roughly three out of four aren’t proficient in science.
These are the results of a new adaptive assessment, so direct comparisons with previous years require caution. But there’s nothing ambiguous about the fundamental problem: New Jersey’s educational outcomes are nowhere near where they should be.
And remember, taxpayers are spending more than $30,000 per public school pupil annually by some measures for this privilege.
Here’s a radical idea: How about a reading agenda? A math agenda? Maybe even a science agenda?
Instead, the NJEA’s leadership continues to demonstrate an enthusiasm for progressive political activism that would be considerably more impressive if it were matched by similarly impressive academic results. The union itself has devolved into a political machine that seems to regard education as just one item on a much longer ideological to-do list.
It collects dues, spends heavily to influence elections, helps elect politicians who protect its institutional interests, and then demands more taxpayer money for a system that consistently fails to deliver acceptable academic results for far too many children.
It’s a beautiful arrangement. For the NJEA, anyway.
For the parents whose children can’t read at grade level? Not so much.
And let’s not pretend this is some unfortunate coincidence.
The NJEA helps keep Trenton Democrats in power. Trenton Democrats help keep the NJEA powerful. Taxpayers finance the arrangement, and the children get whatever educational outcomes are left over.
Meanwhile, the latest testing data should be setting off alarm bells in every school district in New Jersey. State officials themselves are questioning whether millions invested in tutoring and literacy programs are producing adequate results.
That’s a serious conversation worth having.
But it’s not nearly as politically fashionable as the latest culture-war crusade.
The real tragedy is that most classroom teachers aren’t the problem. They’re trying to educate children while navigating bureaucratic mandates, discipline challenges, and political controversies they never signed up for.
They deserve better representation. Parents deserve better results. And taxpayers deserve something resembling accountability.
New Jersey doesn’t need a teachers’ union with a more ambitious social agenda.
It needs schools that work.
Less indoctrination. More multiplication.
And if the NJEA can’t figure out the difference, maybe it’s time Trenton stopped treating the union like the fourth branch of government.
Because when nearly six in ten students can’t meet math standards, the most urgent agenda in New Jersey education shouldn’t have a rainbow attached to it.
It should have a report card.
