The Teaching Profession is one of the most unique career fields in the United States. Most teachers typically work 50-60 hours a week from September to May. When not working during the school year, many teachers pick up Summer jobs or work for the Summer School program.

Also, getting a teaching career started involves taking a state-specific certification test along with other prerequisites depending on what school they work at and what level of education they are working as a teacher.

Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney Online gathered data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Council on Teacher Quality, and the National Education Association to find out what are the best states to be a teacher in America.

The team at UTS Online weighed the following factors when creating their rankings of the best and worst states to be a teacher:

-Teacher Compensation
-Education and School Statistics
-Student Performance and Attainment
-Teacher Employment and Preparation
-School Environment

Where Does New Jersey Rank on the List of Best States For Teachers

In a Press Release from UTS Online, their research team ranked New Jersey as the second-best state for Teaching Careers in America. New Jersey Schools rank as some of the Safest Education Environments in the United States and a high rate of New Teachers ( 56 percent ) qualify for Teacher Pensions in New Jersey.

New Jersey Students rank number two in the United States in the Student Performance and Attainment Category, meaning that many NJ Students have a clear path to attaining a High School Degree. This makes a New Jersey Teacher’s job more straightforward compared to other states.

One more area unique to The Garden State is 8th Grade Students in New Jersey average the highest NAEP reading scores in the United States (270.25). This is significantly higher than New Jersey’s neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

According to the UTS Rankings, Pennsylvania is the 12th best state for Teaching Careers and Delaware is 31st overall. Pennsylvania received low scores for Teacher Employment and Preparation while Delaware got low scores for Teacher Compensation.

Here are the Top Ten Best States For Teachers:

1. Massachusetts
2. New Jersey
3. Connecticut
4. New York
5. North Dakota
6. Maryland
7. Illinois
8. Georgia
9. Colorado
10. Vermont
11. Virginia
12. Pennsylvania

Continuing the conversation about Education in New Jersey, here is a ranking of the Best Public Schools in The Garden State based on Average Academic Scores:

There’s a new poll in the New Jersey Senate race that puts Republican Curtis Bashaw in striking distance of winning a three-way contest against Democrat Andy Kim and independent Bob Menendez, the incumbent.

The poll has Kim leading Bashaw by six points, 39%-33%, with 3% for Menendez and 25% of likely New Jersey voters still undecided.

Kim’s lead expanded to 41%-24% in a head-to-head poll against Menendez, a three-term U.S. Senator who is currently on trial on federal corruption charges.

Six in ten Hispanics view Menendez unfavorably; Kim has a 32%-26% lead among Hispanic likely voters, with Menendez at just 3%.

The poll was conducted by co/efficient, a newish, little-known independent survey firm in Kansas City with a one-star in 538’s pollster ratings.   The pollster, Ryan Munce, appears to be Republican- leaning.

The same poll shows Donald Trump and Joe Biden in a statistical dead heat in New Jersey; Trump leads, 41%-40%, with 7% for independent Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and other third-party contenders.

Neither of the Senate candidates is especially well-known: Kim has favorables of 30%-20%, while Bashaw is at 13%-14%; 50% of voters have never heard of Kim, a three-term congressman and former Obama White House staffer, and 73% don’t know who Bashaw is.

Menendez’s favorables are at 4%-71%.   The co/efficient poll also has Gov. Phil Murphy with upside-down favorables of 36%-24%   Favorables for Trump (45%-50%) and Biden (36%-56%) are both underwater.

Trump’s favorables among Republicans is at 88%, although that didn’t stop the state party from re-electing fervently anti-Trump candidate Bill Palatucci, a close ally of former Gov. Chris Christie, for Republican National Committeeman on Thursday.

A generic ballot test in the U.S. Senate race has Democrats with a 12-point lead, 46%-34%.

The co/efficient poll was conducted on June 26-27 using mobile text responses and landline interviews, and a sample size of 810 likely general election voters and a +/- 3.4% margin of error.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Friday sided with a local ordinance in Oregon that effectively bans homeless people from sleeping outdoors, and local governments will be allowed to enforce those laws.

In a 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion that the enforcement of those local laws that regulate camping on public property does not constitute the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

“Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it,” he wrote. “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”

The case originated in Grants Pass, a city in Oregon that argues its ordinance is a solution to the city’s homelessness crisis, which includes fines and potential jail time for repeat offenders who camp or sleep outdoors.

From Oregon to N.J., policymakers’ genius plan to solve homelessness is to say, ‘Go somewhere else’

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent arguing that the ordinance targets the status of being homeless and is therefore a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

“Grants Pass’s Ordinances criminalize being homeless,” she wrote. “The Ordinances’ purpose, text, and enforcement confirm that they target status, not conduct. For someone with no available shelter, the only way to comply with the Ordinances is to leave Grants Pass altogether.”

During oral arguments, the justices seemed split over ideological lines, with the conservative justices siding with the town in Oregon, arguing that policies and ordinances around homelessness are complex, and should be left up to local elected representatives rather than the courts.

The liberal justices criticized the city’s argument that homelessness is not a status protected under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The liberal justices argued the Grants Pass ordinance criminalized the status of being homeless.

The Biden administration took the middle ground in the case, and U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler offered partial support.

“It’s the municipality’s determination, certainly in the first instance with a great deal of flexibility, how to address the question of homelessness,” he said during oral arguments in late April.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.