This week we’ll take a closer look at NJ S2293, or the Securing Our Children’s Future Bond Act. This bill has been getting a lot of clicks on BillTrack50 because it is a big piece of legislation passed this year impacting New Jersey’s midterm election November 6th. (Check if you are registered to vote here)
NJ S2293 is a bipartisan bill targeted at giving students greater access to opportunities for education to support and help them succeed within New Jersey’s “rapidly-evolving workforce”. This bill primarily aims to address three items: vocational-technical programs, school security projects and school district water infrastructure.
Vocational-technical schools, or “vo-tech” schools, are high schools that not only give students a high school diploma, but also teach them a trade via vocational and/or technical training. Student learn skills such as: cosmetology, carpentry, electrical technology, media technology, culinary arts, and more. Vo-tech’s purpose is to allow students to graduate with a certification to work within a specific industry right out of school, hoping to provide graduates with better future; whether they enter the workforce full time or to continue on to college, having these skills provides graduates with a solid foundation to build on. Vo-tech schools are licensed, registered, or accredited like any other high school.
The bill cites studies indicating that fewer than 50 percent of young Americans in their mid-twenties have any kind of postsecondary degree. They say economists predict by 2020 two-thirds of jobs will require some education or training beyond high school. The bill goes on to say that survey after survey indicates employers cannot find individuals with the skills they need to fill today’s jobs, especially technical jobs in fields like information technology, health care, logistics and distribution, advanced manufacturing, and aviation technology.
In 2017, the county vocational school districts in New Jersey were unable to meet the needs of 17,000 students who sought enrollment but could not be accepted due to a lack of facilities. NJ S2293 was proposed to address this issue and others.
The bill originally aimed to seek voter approval to allow the issuance of bonds to fund $450 million for school security upgrades and $400 million for the expansion of county vocational schools. The state needs voter approval because they will be borrowing the money, hence the word “bond” in the bill’s title.
After the bill passed both houses of the Legislature (with wide bipartisan support), Governor Murphy issued a conditional veto on S2293, wanting to reduce the funding outlined in the original bill by half. The reduced amount would stipulate $350 million for vo-tech schools and school security, $50 million for county colleges and $100 million for water structure improvement. The legislature agreed and the reduced numbers are in the final version of the bill and thus on NJ ballots as Public Question 1.
The issue of borrowing the money to fund these items now heads to voters who will decide on Election Day, November 6.