Latest Updates

Today, the New Jersey Public Charter School Association (NJPCSA) announced the winners of its Teachers of Diverse Backgrounds Initiative call-for-stories. The call-for-stories garnered a significant number of compelling stories from public charter school teachers from across the state. After weeks of careful review, eleven teachers have been selected and will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize in addition to being featured in a video to tell their unique stories.

Over the next few weeks, our organization will join the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools to ask Congress to support the Charter Schools Program (CSP). This is the program that has made it possible for half of public charter schools across the country to open—including many in our state—and we are proud of what we’ve accomplished through the CSP.

A few years ago, Sean Lanigan was a well-liked elementary school gym teacher living in a small town. Sean had taught at the suburban school in his close knit community for more than thirteen years, where he also coached a high school boys’ soccer team and various club teams in the area, receiving accolades and rave reviews from students and community members for over a decade. That was until the rug was swiftly pulled from under him when he was falsely accused of misconduct by a student looking for revenge after he had disciplined her.