An important message for all @NJEA members
Dear Fellow NJEA Members,
I'm pleased to formally announce today that I'm running for NJEA Secretary-Treasurer. The election is in April, 2017. Having to reach members from High Point to Cape May, this race, unlike an assembly race, is a marathon, not a sprint, so it's essential to start early.
From the moment I stood up to Gov. Christie at a Town Hall Meeting in 2010, I've been fighting for our great public schools, students and education professionals—you!Whether running for state office, testifying before the State Board of Education, blogging about education and social justice issues, speaking to crowds at protest rallies or appearing on national television, I've worked hard to fight the attack on public education. But I want to do more. That's why I'm running for NJEA Secretary Treasurer, and I'm asking for your vote and your support.
My decision to run for state assembly in LD16 in 2011, '12 and '13* was born out of a passion for public education and a committment to fight corporate education 'reform' which is designed for one thing only: to turn neighborhood schools into profit mills - threatening not just our profession, but the ability of every child in New Jersey to receive a thorough and efficient education. I will not sit back and watch that happen to one of the best public education systems in the country—that we built!
On day one, I will fight for an iron-clad guarantee that the state will fully fund our pensions and return cost of living adjustments to our retired members. I will work to restore the honor and respect we deserve as educated, experienced professionals, ensure fair and equitable funding for our public schools and eliminate the punitive effects of standardized testing on our students and teachers. I will stand up to the corporate interests that want to privatize our schools, turn our students into test-taking machines, destroy our association and reduce our profession to one of low-wages and high-turnover. I will push back against the outsourcing of our "Essential School Personnel." And I will work to make 'grass-roots organizing a part of our daily vocabulary because NJEA is all of us —200,000 strong — working together!
Billionaires and politicians - who haven’t taught single day in their lives - don’t know what’s best for our students and schools. We do because we are education professionals.
I will not stop. I won't give up. I won't back down. Send me to NJEA so I can work for you, and together, we can work for our students!
For more information, including ways you can help me help you, please visit my website and like myFacebook page. And of course you can find me on Twitter @mariecorfield.
Thank you for all the work you do to make ours one of the very best public education systems in the country. Thank you for all you do for the children of NJ. And please let me know if you will be at the NJEA Convention this weekend. I would love to connect.
All my best,
Marie
* The work we did in '11, '12 and '13 helped pave the way for what looks to be a flip of at least one seat in the district, and move the state one vote closer to a veto-proof majority. As of this writing the 2015 LD16 Assembly race is too close to call. Incumbent Jack Ciattarelli holds a slim lead over NJEA-endorsed challenger Andrew Zwicker who leads incumbent Donna Simon by a mere 29 votes. Simon leads NJEA-endorsed challenger Maureen Vella by a slim margin as well.
Marie Corfield: An important message for all @NJEA members: