NJEA’s officers, President Sean M. Spiller, Vice-President Steve Beatty and Secretary-Treasurer Petal Robertson issued this statement regarding the conditional veto of S-896/A-677 issued today by Gov. Murphy:

“Gov. Murphy’s conditional veto of S-896/A-677 preserves the core objective we have sought for six years – the elimination of edTPA as a requirement for teacher certification in New Jersey. EdTPA is a costly, discriminatory and unnecessary obstacle to teacher certification at a time when New Jersey schools are in dire need of qualified teachers. Eliminating it is a victory for all future educators who will not be saddled with a requirement that enriches Pearson but does nothing to benefit New Jersey’s public school students.

“This reform, which thousands of New Jersey educators and other stakeholders advocated for this spring and summer, is especially timely given the severe nationwide teacher shortage. There are classroom vacancies across New Jersey right now waiting to be filled by educators who will be eligible for certification as soon as edTPA is finally eliminated. While it is unfortunate that the school year had to start without them, New Jersey students will soon have the opportunity to benefit from their passion and expertise. We again thank legislators for unanimously passing the original bills in June and urge them to act swiftly to finally eliminate edTPA as an obstacle to prospective New Jersey educators. We look forward to continuing our work with all stakeholders to improve the teacher preparation process and preserve the high standards that have made New Jersey’s public schools the best in the nation.”