Monday, April 2, 2012
State agency faces questions from non-partisan Office of Legislative Services
What is it: The state’s non-partisan Office of Legislative Services each year conducts separate internal reviews of every department’s and agency’s budgets for the coming year. Some of it is boilerplate, but the OLS also asks specific questions to a department that raise larger issues of public policy and practice. The state Department of Education was the first agency to go before the legislature last week, and in turn, the first to face the OLS questioning. What it means: The OLS questions and the DOE responses give a glimpse to some of the inner workings of the department, and often drive the discussion when administration officials go before the legislature to defend their budgets. The OLS’ probing of DOE’s use of outside consultants, …
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
With Cerf working on a report about school funding, some districts are already resigned to seeing no increases
When Gov. Chris Christie releases his state budget next week, his proposed income tax cut will grab a lot of attention. But the biggest -- and possibly the toughest -- questions may have to do with state aid to schools, which accounts for one-third of the overall budget. The Christie administration has so far been mum or at best vague as to what it will propose for public schools next year. Meanwhile, acting education commissioner Chris Cerf has been working on a court-ordered report to the legislature that revisits the formulas used in the School Funding Reform Act to determine if they provide enough -- or too much -- aid to districts. Although SFRA covers all New Jersey school districts, if the formulas are revised it could have a …
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
300 school districts poised to make changes that take budgets off annual ballot
In what started as a trickle after a new law opened up the possibility, more than 230 New Jersey school districts have moved their elections to November and all but taken their budgets off the annual ballot, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA). With roughly a week to go before what state officials set as a loose deadline, the association predicts the number could top 300 districts, or more than half of all districts that have elections. “I’m pleased to see it embraced by so many districts and look forward to seeing it embraced by even more,” said state Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden), one of the primary sponsors of the law. “We’re controlling government spending and property taxes and increasing public …
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Keeping kids in school longer, experts contend, is only one part of a larger solution
Even before President Obama pressed the idea in his State of the Union message, New Jersey and other states were looking to address the dropout crisis by keeping kids in school until they're 18. Seven states have upped the age in the past decade; 11 others -- including New Jersey -- have introduced legislation in the past five years. In all, 21 states require students to stay in school until 18 or their graduation. But as New Jersey's bill to raise the age from 16 to 18 gets new life, including a hearing Monday in the state Senate, it is becoming apparent that just upping the age is no quick fix -- or even a slow one. "In those states [that have raised the age], there has not been much evidence that it has had an impact," said Jennifer …
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Breaking with century-old tradition, nearly 60 districts opt to hold their contests on Election Day
Editor's Note: Teaneck's Board of Education voted to move the township election. Read about the decision here. With the law barely a week old, nearly 60 schools districts in New Jersey have already signed up to move their board elections to November and effectively end the annual public vote on their base budgets. The state’s School Boards Association is keeping a running tally of the districts that have adopted the necessary resolutions on their websites, with the number clicking to 56 late yesterday. “And there are quite a few more that are taking it under consideration in the next month,” said Frank Belluscio, the association’s spokesman. He said many boards had yet to meet since the law was signed. In new guidelines released by the …
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Mechanistically linking test scores to teacher evaluations means trouble not accountability
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Gordon MacInnes wrote the following opinion piece for NJ Spotlight. MacInnes is a fellow at The Century Foundation in New York and previously was a lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He served as the assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education and was a member of the New Jersey State Senate and General Assembly. MacInnes also directed the New Jersey Network and was the first director of the Fund for New Jersey. He lives in Morristown. Reformers look on education as something like an assembly line: the requisite machinery and bins of gleaming parts are all in place. If the products that come off the line don't sell, it must be the welders who are to blame. Under this mechanistic view, no one …
Monday, December 5, 2011
Closed-door meetings may lead to some movement, but odds are against it
The legislature's lame duck session that was expected to be busy with education reform debate is looking sleepier by the day. Senate committees last week met in the Statehouse amid a lively rally outside for a proposed school voucher program, but there was little movement on that or any other key education bills that had been high on the agenda. That's not to say there weren't plenty of meetings behind closed doors that could quickly change the landscape. State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), who is seeking to shepherd through a tenure reform bill, was party to many of them, and late yesterday was not giving up hope for this month -- for her bill at least. She said long-awaited amendments would be filed in the next week. But some prominent …
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sen. Loretta Weinberg introduced new oversight measures for homeschooling in New Jersey
New Jersey has long been known as one of the least restrictive states when it comes to homeschooling, not only not requiring much of families that choose to educate their own children but also not even keeping track of who they are. But reacting to a spate of child abuse incidents and other concerns, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) has moved to try to put in place some rules that she calls "minimal" to at least get some accounting of the children's existence, along with their health and education. Weinberg, the incoming Senate majority leader, on Monday introduced legislation that would require homeschooled students to register with their home districts, submit proof of schoolwork, and present an annual medical exam. This has been …
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Two planned charter schools have sparked debate in Teaneck
The League of Women Voters of Northern Valley will host a forum on charter schools and the future of public education tonight at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. Stan Karp, director of the Secondary Reform Project at the Education Law Center, will speak on current issues in education, the impact of charter schools on public education, and the history of charter and voucher proposals, a LWV press release said. The free event starts at 7:30 p.m. in the medical center’s auditorium. Guests should enter through the main entrance. The Christie Administration has made charter schools a key component of the state’s education reform plan, but the schools have sparked controversy locally. Shalom Academy Charter School, a planned Hebrew …
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Officials will announce if the school is approved in January.
A new charter school proposal in Teaneck was one of 42 new charter applications the state received by Monday's deadline, according to the Department of Education. The school, called Garden State Virtual Charter School, is planned to serve students in Kindergarten through grade 12, according to the state Education Department. Details on the school were not released, and a school representative could not be immediately reached Tuesday night. Elsewhere in Bergen County, the Northeastern Arts and Science Charter School was proposed to serve grades K-5 in Hackensack and Ridgefield Park. Officials will announce what schools are approved in January, said Department of Education spokesman Justin Barra. Gov. Chris Christie has made opening more …
DMAB6395
11:51 pm on Wednesday, February 15, 2012
ZIZI-I didn't read the comment but I'm sure it has to do with Whitney Houston & the flags flying at half mass on the day of her funeral. more ›