Bill Text: NJ A2751 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes teacher recruitment grant program in DOE; appropriates $6 million to DOE.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Higher Education Committee [A2751 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A2751-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman LOUIS D. GREENWALD
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Lampitt, Assemblyman Atkins, Assemblywoman Park and Assemblyman Wimberly
SYNOPSIS
Establishes teacher recruitment grant program in DOE; appropriates $6 million to DOE.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act establishing a competitive grant program for teacher recruitment organizations, supplementing chapter 6 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes, and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Commissioner of Education shall establish a competitive grant program to provide funding, over a period of three school years, to no less than two eligible organizations that recruit, train, place, and retain new teachers for long-term employment in one or more underserved school districts in the State. To be eligible to receive a grant under this program, an organization shall:
(1) qualify as a tax-exempt organization pursuant to paragraph (3) of subsection (c) of section 501 of the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. s.501); and
(2) place newly-trained teachers in underserved school districts.
In awarding a grant to an organization, the commissioner shall consider factors including, but not limited to: the merits of the program proposed by the organization; the potential to improve student outcomes; the organization's strategy to ensure that new teachers selected to teach in an underserved school district are committed to long-term employment; an applicant's existing partnerships with school districts and the demonstrated success of those partnerships with respect to teacher retention; and the potential for the program to be implemented successfully.
b. The commissioner shall award grants to the selected organizations in an amount equal to any private contributions raised by the organizations for the purpose of recruiting, training, placing, and retaining new teachers in one or more underserved school districts in the State, not to exceed $1,000,000 per year, in each of three consecutive school years. The first grants shall be provided no later than six months after the effective date of this act.
c. As used in this section, underserved school district means a school district in which the percent of students who are at-risk pupils, as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-45), is equal to or greater than 40%, and which is experiencing a teacher workforce shortage as determined by the commissioner.
2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Education the sum of $6,000,000 to effectuate the provisions of this act. The appropriation shall be deposited into a non-lapsing fund.
3. This act shall take
effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes a competitive grant program in the Department of Education to provide funding to no less than two eligible organizations that recruit, train, place, and retain new teachers for long-term-employment in underserved school districts. The selected organizations would receive a grant equal to the amount of private contributions that the organizations receive, not to exceed $1 million each year, for three years. For the purposes of the grant program, an underserved school district is one in which at least 40 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, and which is experiencing a teacher workforce shortage as determined by the Commissioner of Education.
