Sen. Ruiz's Long Study of Tenure Finally Coming to FruitionChairwoman of Senate education committee says she'll file her long-awaited version of tenure bill next week
State Sen. Teresa Ruiz’s first deliberations on teacher tenure started more than a year ago, even before Gov. Chris Christie made it a centerpiece of his education reform agenda.
Since then, the governor has grabbed the issue as his own, and gone to war with the teachers unions who, in turn, have responded with their own proposals.
Ruiz (D-Essex), in the meantime, has made her plan for rewriting the tenure law one of the best-kept secrets in the Statehouse, while the chairwoman of the Senate education committee has continued to develop its details.
Now it finally looks ready. Ruiz said yesterday that she would file the bill next week, and it would likely include a few twists on the governor’s proposal.
"Everyone has been saying what took so long, but this has not been an easy task," Ruiz said in an interview yesterday after her committee held a hearing on teacher evaluation.
In the Details
The details of Ruiz’s plan are of no small consequence, given Ruiz’s place in the Democratic leadership that rules both the Senate and Assembly. And she