Education-focused PAC with deep pockets backs N.J. candidates in both parties

This summer, it handed out 40,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to students in Camden and other low-income areas. This week, one of its founders promised to bail out an after-school program that was set to shutter after state funding cuts.

Now, Better Education for Kids (B4K), an organization bankrolled by two hedge-fund managers, is using its cash to help elect candidates who agree with its ideas on education, including tenure reform, voucher programs, and teacher merit pay.

The group's political action committee has spent money in four competitive districts, including in Burlington County's Seventh Legislative District, where it has fronted more than $31,000 to send glossy fliers promoting Troy Singleton, a Democrat running for the Assembly, according to financial disclosures filed with the state this week.

B4K, backed by financiers David Tepper and Alan Fournier, formed in March. It launched a $1 million ad campaign in June advocating measures that Gov. Christie is backing as school reforms.

Forbes magazine estimates Tepper's net worth at $5 billion and ranks him at No. 60 on its most recent list of 400 richest Americans. Earlier this week, Christie said Tepper would help save the New Jersey After 3 after-school program.

B4K's political arm - Better Education for New Jersey Kids Inc., PAC - is supporting Democrats and Republicans this election on an issue that has supporters and detractors on both sides of the aisle. The state's largest teachers union said the group was using the billions behind it to buy influence in Trenton and accused it of trying to "demonize" the union.

Singleton, 38, a carpenters union leader and recently appointed assemblyman from Palmyra, is the only legislative candidate in his district to support the Opportunity Scholarship Act legislation.

The currently stalled bill would use tax incentives to create a voucherlike program that could enable low-income parents to send their children to private schools.

Others running in his district, including Democratic Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. and Republican Sen. Diane Allen, argue that the program would take money out of public schools, hurting public education.

Singleton supports the idea as a pilot program and said it could help students struggling now in failing schools while legislators worked to improve public education.

Singleton also supports merit pay for teachers, another idea touted by Christie.

"Every principal should be able to look at the educational staff, using a predetermined metric of evaluation, and reward those teachers," he said. "I think that's consistent with what we instill in our children in the educational system."

B4K plans to bring education issues, specifically changes to the tenure system, to the fore in Trenton following the Nov. 8 election.

To that end, the group has invited New Jersey teachers to roundtable discussions in Iselin and Union this weekend, and in Camden on Nov. 12. Teachers who attend the meetings, which are closed to the news media, will be offered a $100 gift card, according to an e-mail invitation to the Camden event.

"We're doing this so that we can introduce ourselves to New Jersey teachers to let them know we're not mad at them and so teachers have a chance to be heard," said Derrell Bradford, executive director of the organization's advocacy wing.

Asked about the gift card, he said, "We wanted to do that so that teachers who have taken time out of their busy schedules could use it to get classroom supplies or cookies. . . . We're not trying to pay teachers for their time, but we want to reward them for their time and their dedication."

Bradford offered no additional details about the type of gift card that would be offered, but said, "nobody has to take it, certainly."

B4K is working with the nationwide group StudentsFirst founded by the former Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, Michelle Rhee.

The state's largest teachers' union is skeptical of B4K's initiatives and its giveaways.

"Other than big bank accounts, what are their credentials for education reform?" said Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association.

Asked about the teacher roundtable meetings, Wollmer said he wasn't surprised.

"That's pretty much what you'd expect from B4K: It's all about throwing money at people and buying their support or buying their opinions," he said. "The 40,000 backpacks? In exchange for that they were gathering parents' addresses and e-mails so they could organize politically. Nothing's free."

After the election, B4K plans to help state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D., Essex) pass her bill on tenure reform, said Mike Lilley, executive director of the political advocacy arm of the organization.

Ruiz's bill, while still evolving, would require teachers to work four years before qualifying for tenure, instead of three, and add an evaluation that measures teachers based on student performance.

Ruiz's bill doesn't include some more controversial aspects of tenure changes supported by Christie, such as merit pay and ending the "last in, first out," policy that protects teachers with seniority.

While B4K supports those ideas, Lilley said it recognizes they might not be politically feasible at this time. "We are looking at a lame-duck session at what could conceivably get done," he said.

NJEA has drafted its own educational bills, including one on tenure reform, and is lining up sponsors, Wollmer said. Like Ruiz, the union suggests adding a fourth year, but it also would create a mentorship program for new teachers navigating their first years in the classroom.

"Our proposals are research-based," Wollmer said. "We don't want to see bad teachers in the classroom either. . . . The question is, how do you identify them and fairly remove them?"

Along with Singleton, B4K's political action committee has donated to Democratic Assembly candidate Gabriela "Gabby" Mosquera in the Fourth Legislative District, which includes parts of Camden and Gloucester Counties.

Lilley would not reveal how much the group had spent for Mosquera, and the reports were not yet available at the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The group has also has spent money to help two Republican challengers for Assembly in Bergen's 38th District: Fernando Alonso, a lawyer, and Richard Goldberg, mayor of Hawthorne.

B4K spent $12,481 to support the candidates and owes about $7,500 more to a public affairs organization for its services, according to financial disclosures filed with the state.