As the 2025 New Jersey governor election draws near  NJ gubernatorial candidates Republican Jack Cittarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill have introduced different policy proposals about education. How do their policies differ?

Rebecca Michelle “Mikie” Sherrill, the democratic nominee for governor, is a former naval officer and federal prosecutor who is currently serving as the U.S. representative for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district from 2019-today. As stated on her official website, mikiesherrill.com, Sherrill says that she is extremely proud about New Jersey’s public education, but there are elements that can still improve: “New Jersey has some of the best public schools in the country…..but this isn’t true of every zip code”. She notes that due to the pandemic, there have been “struggles with mental health and learning loss”. Therefore, Sherrill has pledged to address a variety of education issues:

• The lack of federal funding to schools. Sherrill states that in the past, she has “fought to bring back federal funding to safely reopen schools and get kids back on track, including by introducing legislation to profile high-quality tutoring to students”.
• The affordability of education. Sherrill also pledges to make “early childhood education, pre-K, and kindergarten affordable and available in every corner of the state”.
• The academic mental health crisis. Sherrill’s campaign is also fighting for improved mental health care in schools. She notes that she will “address the mental health crisis by increasing the number of school counselors, psychologists, and mental health services in schools”
• Cost of nutrition. Additionally, as a “mom of four”, Sherrill knows that “kids learn better when their stomachs are full”. Sherril claims that she “will make school meals available at no cost for every student in New Jersey” because she knows that “good nutrition is essential to academic achievement”.
• Educator Pensions: Sherrill campaigns to protect Educator Pensions, which are retirement plans for teachers. In the past, Phil Murphy (the current and soon-to-be former governor New Jersey) has promised to continue pension funding. Sherrill claims to “always fight to ensure that a promise [funding pensions] is kept, as [she believes] it reflects our commitment to those who serve our children”
• Stronger pathways between schools and the workforce: Sherril claims that if elected, she can “better prepare [graduating high school students] by creating stronger pathways between schools and the workforce”, including “offering more apprenticeships, working closely with employers and colleges, and expanding job training programs”. She claims that “we need to make sure they have what they need to empower the next generation of the high-skilled workforce”.

The Republican nominee for governor is Jack Cittarelli, a former New Jersey State Representative and businessman. On his website, jack4nj.com, he states that he promotes “educational opportunity for all children”, and will improve NJ education by implementing the following reforms:

• Inter-district public school choice program: Cittarelli states that he will “expand charter schools and loosen restrictions on the inter-district public school choice program” in order to give parents “real choices in the school their children attend”. He later notes that he is “modeling it after Florida’s school voucher program”
• NJEA union bosses: Cittarelli claims that if elected, NJEA union bosses will no longer “be allowed to bully their own members into a system that siphons dues money from teachers into the coffers of a hyperpartisan political operation”, which he claims will spend “tens of millions of dollars pushing candidates and issues that a vast number of teachers don’t agree with”.
• Community college programs: Citarelli states that he “will make 3+1 community college program offerings (programs where students can take three years of of classes at a community college and then complete their final year at a larger university, which leads to significant cost savings) mandatory for all state colleges and universities, promote partnerships between county colleges and Vo-Tech with local employers, and create a workforce development job pipeline in every county”.
• Pensions: Cittarelli claims that he “will promote pension reforms for teachers and other faculty that create options for a Defined Contribution model for new teachers”.
• State health insurance: Cittarelli is “committed” to “fixing the state health insurance plan and, if necessary, reforming Chapter 78 health insurance contribution policies to ensure that public workers do not experience a decrease in net pay due to required employee contributions”.
• Parents’ Bill of Rights: Cittarelli proposes to implement a “true Parents Bill of Rights”, which would provide “transparency to parents by requiring K-12 curriculum sources to be posted online at the beginning of each school year, and reform requirements for sexual and social education to make content age-appropriate for elementary, middle school-aged, and high school children”.

Overall, both candidates pledge to support schools, students, and educators, but they have different ideas on how to do so. On November 4th, residents of Piscataway will find out which reforms will be coming to NJ schools.