As a state driven by a surrounding competitive economy, New Jersey’s educational system has not always been an important focus for state legislators. There have been few proposals on educational reform, least of all school choice. Parents have not been able to voice their needs for a choice in their children’s education, but with Hispanic CREO’s help, New Jersey parents can make education the focus of the state government, subsequently giving their children a chance to reach their full potential.
2000: New Jersey began their first pilot school choice program for the 2000-2001 school year in select “choice” districts around the state. These districts have had very successful results since they first began. For example, all choice districts have established excellent public outreach campaigns, they have seen an increase in student enrollment, and they have also been extremely cooperative in providing the state department with the necessary data to evaluate the program’s efficiency.
2001: Governor Bret Shundler (R) proposed the Schoolchildren First Education Act which would create a wide variety or innovative educational programs throughout public schools, giving parents in the Jersey City district the chance to enroll their children in programs that they think will best help their children learn.
Also, the Jersey City "Schoolchildren First" Education Act would provide Educational Opportunity Grants to help parents pay for excellent programs at privately-managed schools. These grants will help expand educational opportunities for families by allowing parents to choose from a broader range of programs.
2004: A new alliance in New Jersey, the New Jersey School Choice Alliance, launched a drive to gather thousands of signatures in an attempt to persuade state legislators to expand parents’ school choice options in the state to include private school vouchers.
2005: The Democratic Party finally stopped resisting education reforms that give parents greater freedom to choose their children's schools. These New Jersey Democrats, including Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez (Camden) and four Democrat colleagues sponsored legislation to create a corporate tax credit program that would allow businesses to provide tuition scholarships to 4,000 low-income children in Camden, Newark, Orange, and Trenton. These students could leave their public schools and attend private schools of their parents' choice.
2006: A group of New Jersey parents from failing school districts filed a class action lawsuit, demanding the right of parents to choose the school their children attend in order to escape failing public schools, a move which powerfully expresses the need for increased school choice in New Jersey.
2007: With the new No Child Left Behind Act Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores, New Jersey is seeing a clear improvement. More than 100 schools that have been on the Schools In Need of Improvement list for two years or more met the AYP benchmarks. Hispanic CREO is dedicated to empowering the Latino community by providing parents, media and Hispanic leaders with the basic understanding of school choice and presenting New Jersey’s crisis in Latino education. We are working hard to support educational reform and to make sure that New Jersey schools continue to see improving results in the success of their students.
