U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8), as well as state Senators Angela McKnight (D-31) and Raj Mukherji (D-32), touted the Jersey City Public Schools Foundation at a meet and greet fundraiser last night.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We know it’s a challenging environment for public education. We know that the board of education is doing everything they can to get the resources to our public schools here to make sure that our students and our faculty and our administrators are fully supported,” the congressman said at the Left Bank Burger in Jersey City.
“If we believe in public education, we have to fund public education, and right now, I see it when I’m in Washington: There’s a real assault on public education and there’s a real inflection point here in our country, whether we believe that public education is a fundamental right of anyone in this country …”
Menendez further stated that while public education can improve, that effort should be led by educators and administrators, not politicians.
The JCPSF is a five-member volunteer board, with the three primary members being Dr. Kinna Perry, the board chair, Alika Muhammed, who served as the emcee for the evening, and Garth Naar.
Board of Education Trustee Natalia Ioffe serves as an advisory board member who acts as a liaison to the school board, while Enmmanuel Tejada is the chief technology officer.
“I am a fighter down in Trenton. When I saw the news about how much money we’re losing this year, I immediately picked up the phone and made phone calls. Not just to one person, I made phone calls to the administration, I made phone calls to my senate president, I said ‘hey, this is wrong, this is not right, that Jersey City gets its fair share,'” recalled McKnight.
“Despite Congressman Menendez’s best efforts, when we have a president who fancies himself a king and wants to disband the Department of Education, when the secretary of education thinks her cabinet agency shouldn’t exist, we face challenges that even keeping state funding whole, despite the funding formula, is not enough,” exclaimed Mukherji.
He continued that while the foundation cannot make up the funding cuts on the federal and state level (he asserted that the state funding formula was “designed to screw Jersey City”), they are doing their part in providing aid to public school students.
Others in attendance included Hudson County Executive Craig Guy, mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey, his council-at-large running mate Izzy Nieves, Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2), Council President Joyce Watterman, both who are also mayoral candidates, Jersey City Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Mira Prinz-Arey, as well as LD-32 Assembly candidate Crystal Fonseca and Jennie Pu, among many others.
