New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last week announced the state would allocate $1 million toward its recently adopted antibullying law, which was on the brink of being wiped from the books.
The state’s Council on Local Mandates in January moved toward invalidating the law because it constituted an unfunded state mandate, as it did not provide resources to school districts for implementation.
The panel gave the state 60 days to rewrite the measure or locate funding before the law would be overturned.
The proposed funding is outlined in a bill spearheaded by Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, which was reviewed in a hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee Monday.
Vainieri Huttle said she is “extremely pleased” with the proposed fix.
“At the end of the day, the law has not changed, which means that our goal of protecting the countless students who are at the mercy of bullies day in and day out remains intact,” she said.
The law, considered to be one of the toughest in the nation, lays down stringent regulations on antibullying policies and reporting procedures at the district levels and also instates training, which is LGBT-inclusive, for educators.
The Council on Local Mandates’ ruling was precipitated by a complaint from the Allamuchy Township Board of Educators, which contended that the training would have cost the district $6,000.
In a news conference last week, Christie praised the aims of the law.
“We know that students have the best opportunity to learn and achieve when they’re in an environment that’s safe and free from bullying and intimidation,” he said. “This legislation is extraordinarily important to meet those goals. That’s why we need to come together and fix it.”
Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, joined Christie in the news conference, noting that “in the rough and tumble of politics, it’s nice to see the governor and our Democratic leaders put kids first. This heroic fix that the governor and the leaders in both houses of both parties have engineered will save lives.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].