Establishment
Created by statute in 1975, this committee is comprised of 14 members of the Legislature.
Appointments are made by the Senate President and Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly.
The Members select leadership at the reorganization meeting, every 2 years.
A subcommittee structure has allowed this committee to be involved in major legislative policies and proposals.

Initiatives
When the State took over the operations of the Jersey City (1989), Paterson (1991) and Newark (1995) school districts, the Joint Committee began continuous interaction with the superintendents, boards and community; and held numerous public meetings to provide a forum for transparency of the process, as well as being a reporting agent to the Legislature.

In 1995, the Joint Committee's research into the Nation's relatively new charter school laws played a major role for the Legislature in developing and refining a legislative proposal that culminated in (former) Governor Christine Whitman's signing of this enactment in January, 1996.

Since 2002, the Joint Committee has taken the lead in providing Legislative and public awareness regarding matters of school construction.

When the Legislative and Executive branches decided to change the method by which school districts were monitored and evaluated, the Joint Committee was involved with both public meetings and research into language development for the statutory change. This eventually became the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum law. (NJ QSAC)