JAMES SOLOMON UNVEILS EDUCATION PLAN THAT WILL IMPROVE AND BUILD NEW SCHOOLS – ALL WHILE KEEPING THEM OPEN

Plan Also Calls for All Teachers and School Staff to Be Vaccinated Against Covid-19

Solomon: “My plan is simple: keep schools open, build new ones, and make sure they are high quality.”

JERSEY CITY, NJ –  City Councilmember James Solomon, who is an educator, unveiled his new education platform today, which is aimed at safely keeping Jersey City’s schools open while building two new downtown elementary schools and ensuring they are fully funded. In addition, Solomon called for all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19, without the option of weekly testing. The plan comes following a year and a half of uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It was built through extensive conversations with downtown families and drew on James’ experience as an educator himself.

James Solomon said: “As a former educator and soon-to-be public school parent, I get how important it is that downtown families have access to the high-quality education that is vital for the success of our students. As a parent who juggled childcare and work along with my spouse throughout the pandemic, I know how stressful and uncertain this last school year was for so many Jersey City parents, which is why my plan is simple: keep schools open, build new ones, and make sure they are high quality.”

Solomon’s four-part plan includes:

1. Open Schools Safety in September: First and foremost, our public schools must reopen for in-person learning this September and must remain open for the full school year. To do that, Jersey City must require vaccinations for all teachers and all school staff. Full stop, with exceptions *only* for narrowly defined religious and health reasons. In addition, we must increase vaccination rates among eligible students using an array of incentives coupled with an aggressive education campaign.

2. Construct Two New Elementary Schools in Downtown: Building off the first new school construction in Ward E in decades, the PS 16 Annex, we need to complete the construction of two new elementary schools in the next four years. In 2020, I put together the plan to build one at 1st and Manila Ave, which will seat up to 400 students. I will also work to get a second elementary school built in the Lackawanna neighborhood north of the Holland Tunnel. A new school in that area will reduce overcrowding at Cordero, and ensure students do not have to cross the Holland Tunnel access lanes on their way to school. In total, we will add more than 1,000 elementary school seats downtown in the next four years.

3. High-Quality Public Schools Through Sustainable Funding: The state of New Jersey cut Jersey City Public Schools’ budget by over $200M in the last three years, with more than $150M in cuts still on the way. We must address these devastating cuts without harming our children or property taxpayers. To that, we must find new sources of revenue such as

   1. Share abatement revenue with Jersey City Public Schools, to ensure the taxes paid by big developers go to our public schools

   2. A tax on real estate speculators that either flip land. This “deed recordation tax,” modeled after Washington DC’s, would provide millions in new revenue.

   3. A tax on property owners that let land sit vacant. The tax would assess all vacant lots at their full value as if they had construction on them. This tax would encourage property owners to maintain and improve their lots instead of letting them sit in disrepair.

4. Work Proactively with the Board of Education (BoE): We need more accountability from the BoE to ensure our tax dollars are spent responsibly and transparently. To do this, we must ensure that there is clear, ongoing communication between the School Board, the City Council, and the public. The School Board and City Council must meet together quarterly, and empower the newly created joint committees to address the short-term and long-term challenges facing our schools. To guarantee transparency the School Board should provide a yearly report on how city tax dollars were spent, and the City Council should provide one on how real estate tax abatements impact school funding.