Schulz, Melanie
Executive Director, Joint Committee on the Public Schools, NJ
Melanie Schulz has been involved in NJ State Government for over 30 years.
Her vision and leadership as Executive Director has guided the Joint Committee on the Public Schools for the past 21½ years.
During her tenure at the Joint Committee, she has been instrumental in evolving NJ Education policy initiatives for the Legislature and has put that Legislative Committee at the cutting edge of law making.
She is recognized for having expertise and institutional memory of the Abbott decisions.
Melanie’s knowledge of the school construction Act and its regulations make her a reliable resource for Members of the NJ State Legislature in this area.
Her team approach to policy making has been recognized by members of both the business and education communities.
In 1995, she was part of the team that shepherded the Charter Schools Law through the process. Her strategic approach and networking capabilities made her a leader of this education reform effort.
In 2011, she partnered Operation College Promise to write Legislation establishing the nation’s first condensed teaching certification program designed specifically for a veteran cohort that was signed by New Jersey Acting Governor Kim Guadagno. The legislation was sponsored by Senator James Whelan (D-Atlantic) and Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex). The VETeach pilot will be housed at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and was launched in September 2012.
In recent years, she was part of a group that included Legislators, DOE leadership, educational organizations and Legislative staff that helped to craft the proposed comprehensive changes to the school monitoring law known as NJ QSAC (NJ Single Accountability Continuum).
For eight years, Ms. Schulz was the Senior Legislative Aide to former Assemblyman Gerard Naples. During this time, she assisted in crafting new laws for Special Education and the school funding formula known as the Quality Education Act. (QEA)
Currently, she serves on the statewide advisory board of the NJ School Aged Care Coalition, NJSACC and the NJ Career & Technical Advisory Council (NJ CTE).
She has served on the Steering Committee of the Business Coalition for Educational Excellence (BCEE), was Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of Quality Education NJ, was a Legislative liaison on the State Action for Education Leadership Project (SAELP), was an active member of the Public Education Institute (PEI) at Rutgers University, and has served on the Advisory Board at the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy at Thomas Edison College.
