...the exodus of our best high school students from New Jersey in STEM fields.
I can see why this is a problem simply by comparing the offers my son got from all the schools to which he applied, all of which accepted him.
Every school made a financial offer in the tens of thousands of dollars per year except two. Rutgers was the only school to offer zero.
We were angry because we knew it was about football. Apparently New Jersey would rather promote victims of CTE rather than future scientists.
For us it worked out well, since his first choice school made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and the opportunities he enjoyed there in his undergraduate career were spectacular, but as much as I love New Jersey, I suspect that my son's scientific career will not be here. Rutgers was his second choice, and the chairman of the department showed enthusiasm for my son, but it was never going to happen.
I love Phil Murphy but I'm not sure this issue is not on his agenda, but the devotion to football over science at Rutgers is obscene.