NJ About to End “Basic Skills” Requirement for Teachers

If Democrat New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy gives his assent, government-school teachers in the state will soon no longer have to show they even have the most basic skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic to teach children. Yes, seriously. 

As teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten frets publicly about the surging number of families fleeing the government school system for homeschooling, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and its pet state lawmakers just gave parents yet another powerful reason to run for the exits. 

Calling the “basic skills test” for teachers a “barrier,” the far-left union pushed S1553 through the legislature with overwhelming support. It is now demanding the governor sign it. If he does, teachers without even rudimentary academic skills will be allowed to indoctrinate helpless children. 

“New Jersey requires that candidates for teacher certification pass a basic skills test, the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Reading, Writing and Math, or show SAT, ACT, or GRE scores,” the union complained in an alert to members urging them to take action.

Bragging about its success last year eliminating the “barrier” to becoming a teacher known as the Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), the union issued a call to action on its website. “Now it’s time to eliminate another barrier: the basic skills test for teachers,” union bosses declared.

“When the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) adopted changes to the administrative code around teacher certification, it missed an opportunity to eliminate this requirement, which created an unnecessary barrier to entering the profession,” the union continued.

Calling on union members to email Governor Murphy and urge him to eliminate the “unnecessary requirement,” the unnamed author never bothered to explain how reading and writing could be considered “unnecessary” skills for teachers who are supposed to “educate” children by at least teaching them to read and write.

Such “unnecessary skills” would seem to be needed just for brainwashing children with hyper-racialism, gender confusion, “climate” hysteria, and other “progressive” lunacy. But with the advent of “edtech” technology, teachers are increasingly becoming babysitters as tablets and iPads handle indoctrination and data collection.  

The NJEA, an affiliate of the radical leftwing NEA with over 200,000 members, is proud of its controlling influence over the political process. Extorting money from teachers and taxpayers to fund elections, the union boasts that over 90 percent of its candidates were successful in the last election. No surprise, then, that S1553 sailed through the legislature with overwhelming support. 

Last year, when approving the bill to kill the edTPA assessing teachers’ performance, Gov. Murphy painted the moved as part of an effort to deal with a “national teacher shortage.” “By eliminating edTPA, we will streamline a process that has previously acted as a barrier in the transition between sitting in a classroom and leading a classroom,” he said. 

The effort to remove the most basic academic requirements for being able to teach comes as states such as Oregon remove all academic requirements for high-school graduation. With basic skills tests for high-school seniors derided as “discriminatory,” children in Oregon can officially graduate without even knowing how to write their name or read a Stop sign.

The teachers’ unions seem totally oblivious to the damage they are doing to their own members, let alone the victims in their classrooms, as Americans increasingly regard the government school system as a cruel joke. Public education has a lower approval rating than Joe Biden. It is easy to see why. 

Without dramatic change, it seems unlikely that America will survive another generation of this madness. Parents who love their children must act to protect them immediately.