Whitman wants the 14 member panel to draft legislation allowing students to attend the public or private school of their choice, with private school tuition paid for by tax-funded vouchers.
Despite his opposition to vouchers, Kean said Tuesday that he would work to create a plan " that won't damage public schools".
"I've always been against choice that includes private schools," said Kean, who is president of Drew university in Madison. "But I've always been for experimenting in choice among the public schools." Voucher proponents say that giving students a choice between private or public schools will foster competition and force schools to improve to compete for students. Opponents. Including the New Jersey Education Association, the state's teachers union, say vouchers would divert tax dollars to private schools.
The NJEA immediately critized Whitman's panel. Other then Kean, the union said the panel includes only proponents of vouchers. The union said that there were no parent, NJEA representatives, or religious groups on the panel, except for the Catholic Church, which supports vouchers. "It's a fait accompli," NJEA spokeswoman Karen Joseph said.
Whitman announced the panel in January after a proposed voucher bill written by her office failed to attract a legislative sponsor. Without political support for the plan, the governor decided to back off and study the idea for another year.
Whitman wants the pilot voucher program to begin by the 1996-97 school year . Kean said that the volume of research on school choice programs would help speed the process. "I would hope to wrap it up in six months," he said.
Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler also was named to Whitman's panel. Schundler has received national attention for his efforts to implement a voucher plan in Jersey City.
Whitman also appointed David Matthews, a senior medical sales representative with G.D. Searles and Co.; Luis Pagan, a teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden; John Howard, superintendent of East Orange schools; Margaret Tannenbaum, associate professor at Rowan College, and George Corwell, associate director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference.
Senate President Donald T. Di Francesco, R-Union, and Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian, R-Warren, each appointed ther panel members. DiFrancesco appointed Gina A. Colagero, an attorney in River Edge,; Francine M. Aster, an attorney in Verona; and Maryanne S. Connelly, a corporate executive with AT&T.
Haytaian's appointments are Susan Grant, director of New Jersey Concerned Women for America; Rosemarie B.Viciconti, principal of Our Landy of Czestochowa Elementary School in Jersey City; and Dennis W. Daggett, superintendent of Mount Olive schools.