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6-17-14 Education and Related Issues in the News
The Record - N.J. Chief Justice Rabner tells renomination panel he is mindful of rulings' impact … The man likely to help decide some of New Jersey’s most vexing social and political issues as the leader of the state Supreme Court until 2030 portrayed himself as a judge tasked “to do justice” and be mindful of the impact his decisions have on peoples’ lives…During Monday’s hearing, Solomon [Harold Solomon’s nomination was also approved by the committee], like Rabner before him, was careful not to weigh in on any issue that might come before the court. As a legislator and an advocate for policy he could push his philosophy through lawmaking, but as a justice he said he needed to apply it.“There is no place, no right, to take a public policy position as a member of the judiciary,” Solomon said.

Star Ledger - Government shutdown unlikely over NJ budget [nonetheless]...Budget negotiations are expected to continue well into the week...“I didn’t bring my sleeping bag, but maybe I should have,” said Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.

Star Ledger – NJ Raises standards for teacher training and certification… If teachers are the most important drivers of student success, then putting high quality candidates to work in the state’s classrooms should be a top priority, state educators say.

The Record - N.J. Chief Justice Rabner tells renomination panel he is mindful of rulings' impact … The man likely to help decide some of New Jersey’s most vexing social and political issues as the leader of the state Supreme Court until 2030 portrayed himself as a judge tasked “to do justice” and be mindful of the impact his decisions have on peoples’ lives…During Monday’s hearing, Solomon [Harold Solomon’s nomination was also approved by the committee], like Rabner before him, was careful not to weigh in on any issue that might come before the court. As a legislator and an advocate for policy he could push his philosophy through lawmaking, but as a justice he said he needed to apply it.“There is no place, no right, to take a public policy position as a member of the judiciary,” Solomon said.

 

June 16, 2014, 12:11 PM    Last updated: Monday, June 16, 2014, 10:25 PM

By JOHN REITMEYER and MICHAEL PHILLIS

State house Bureau

The Record

The man likely to help decide some of New Jersey’s most vexing social and political issues as the leader of the state Supreme Court until 2030 portrayed himself as a judge tasked “to do justice” and be mindful of the impact his decisions have on peoples’ lives.

Since 2007, when Stuart Rabner took over as chief justice, the Supreme Court has ruled on a range of contentious topics including state education funding, affordable housing and same-sex marriage, a decision to allow such couples to legally wed that Rabner himself wrote.

"The decisions that come before the court are more than academic questions,” Rabner said Monday in a rare, but cautious, airing of his judicial philosophy before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “They are tied to the very fabric of the state and its people, both of which I want to see thrive.”

Rabner, a former state attorney general who also served as a federal prosecutor before joining the Corzine administration, told senators considering his renomination that he understands that while not everyone will be happy with the court’s decisions, he hopes that his rulings are fair and explained clearly to the public.

 “I think all justices must be mindful of the fact that our mission in the end is to do justice,” Rabner said “not to resolve or move cases or treat them as statistics but to understand how important these cases are.”

For years, Governor Christie has railed against Rabner and the court he heads, both in New Jersey and at appearances across the country, calling the justices activists and decrying their decisions that disagreed with his.

The Senate committee approved Rabner’s renomination by an 11-2 vote. The committee also approved Lee Solomon, a Republican, who was named by Christie to the court as part of a brokered deal with Democrats who control the Legislature. That came in a 12-1 vote.

The nominations, which were made in May, occurred after a public campaign by the New Jersey State Bar Association that equated Rabner’s renomination with a broader fight over judicial independence. Traditionally, justices had been renominated almost by default. But Christie, a Republican considering a run for president, has twice declined to appoint a justice for a second term.

The state bar association said that if Rabner were not reappointed, it would be a signal to the legal community in general that if a judge disagreed politically with Christie, unemployment could follow.

Now, after an initial 7-year term, Rabner is one step away from returning as the leader of a high court whose decisions and precedents for decades have drawn national attention.

Rabner, an appointee of former Gov. Jon Corzine, is 53, meaning if he’s confirmed by the full Senate later this month he would be eligible to serve until well into the next two decades before hitting the state’s mandatory judicial retirement age of 70.

In addition to heading the Supreme Court, the chief justice also runs the state Judiciary and gets to promote assignment judges in the Superior Courts in all 21 New Jersey counties.

If, as expected, the Senate confirms the nominations of Rabner and Solomon, the Supreme Court will still be one member short of a full seven justices. Until a replacement is confirmed, the opening is being filled by an appellate court judge who is a Democrat, which will maintain the traditional partisan split on the high court.

 “We’ll take it one step at a time, who knows what will happen in the future, I don’t know,” Christie said of that remaining vacancy when appearing on a radio call-in show Monday night.

Even with a deal in place to secure his renomination, Rabner was questioned by all 13 members of the committee during the lengthy hearing. He was pressed by several senators to explain why he has declined to participate in two cases regarding education spending in New Jersey.

Rabner said those cases touched on the state school funding law enacted when Corzine was in office. He said he was involved to some degree as a member of the administration. But he said there may be cases on school funding that come before the court that he could participate in, Rabner said.

“If and when the next school funding … case comes before the court,” Rabner said. “I will endeavor to participate unless the nature of the challenge itself is necessary for a recusal.”

In one decision that touched legislators personally, Rabner selected a tiebreaking member of the panel that redrew the state’s legislative districts after the 2010 census, and that tiebreaker chose a map drawn by Democrats and favored that party, a decision that infuriated many New Jersey Republicans, including Governor Christie.

And if he is still serving as chief justice in 2021 after the next census, and the political boundaries for the legislative districts are again being redrawn, Rabner said he would likely approach the selection of a tiebreaking member for the redistricting commission in the same way he did in 2011.

“I will look for someone who will be faithful to the Constitution,” Rabner said.

For that process three years ago, Rabner told lawmakers that he asked the five respective Republican and Democratic members on the redistricting panel to give him the names of potential tiebreakers, and that he ended up picking the late Rutgers University Professor Alan Rosenthal after Rosenthal’s name appeared on both lists.

Though much of the questioning of Rabner was subdued, he was strongly pressed by Sen. Michael Doherty, R-Warren, on the constitutionality of the court’s school funding and same-sex marriage decisions.

The confirmation hearing for Solomon followed Rabner’s on Monday but took less than half the time.

Solomon, 59, serves as the Superior Court assignment judge in Camden County, but lawmakers are familiar with him because of other jobs he’s held during a long career in public service. The Senate has approved Solomon four times before – as prosecutor in Camden County, later as president of the state Board of Public Utilities and twice as a Superior Court Judge.

In the early 1990s, Solomon served in the Assembly. When he was U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Christie appointed Solomon as deputy U.S. attorney.

During Monday’s hearing, Solomon, like Rabner before him, was careful not to weigh in on any issue that might come before the court. As a legislator and an advocate for policy he could push his philosophy through lawmaking, but as a justice he said he needed to apply it.

“There is no place, no right, to take a public policy position as a member of the judiciary,” Solomon said.

Still, he was asked by Doherty to explain why, when he was a legislator in the early 1990s, he pushed for mandatory preschool in poor communities.

“The best I can say about my decision,” said Solomon, “that kind of legislative initiative has no bearing on the constitutional question that came before the court.”

Email: reitmeyer@northjersey.com and phillis@northjersey.com

Star Ledger - Government shutdown unlikely over NJ budget

By NJ.com Staff The Star-Ledger
on June 16, 2014 at 7:02 PM, updated June 16, 2014 at 8:40 PM

By Matthew Arco/NJ.com

TRENTON — A state government shutdown is unlikely despite increasing uncertainty over how Gov. Chris Christie and state lawmakers will tackle New Jersey’s $1.7 billion revenue shortfall, the chairman of the state Senate budget committee said today.

Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) said there is “a strong” chance the Republican governor and Democratic-controlled Legislature will find common ground on a state budget measure and avert a government shutdown. Lawmakers who serve on the Senate budget committee could vote on budget bills as soon as early next week, Sarlo said.

“The likelihood of a negotiated budget is still strong,” said Sarlo, referring to lawmakers and Christie compromising on a final proposal.

A new state budget is due on the governor’s desk in less than two weeks . In an about-face after signing a series of laws meant to shore up the pension system, Christie has proposed cutting the state’s $2.25 billion pension payment to $681 million. The smaller payment is an effort to plug the revenue shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Christie has faced backlash from Democrats for his proposal to send a reduced payment to the state’s underfunded pension system. However, the alternative could mean finding more than $1 billion in cuts.

“This is my 12th year on the budget committee and it’s one of the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Sarlo, adding everything “revolves around the pension payment ”

“I think that once that decision is resolved, everything else will fall in place,” he said.

The state’s top Assembly lawmaker declined to say whether the full pension payment would be made, but suggested a compromise on the budget is an ideal scenario.

“The way I always look at it is a negotiated budget is the best budget because you know what you are getting and we strive for that,” said Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson).

“We would love to do that and we’ll see what the feasibilities are of getting it done again,” he said, adding, “We want to make sure we take our obligations that should be there and then we’ll go from there.”

Budget negotiations are expected to continue well into the week.

“I didn’t bring my sleeping bag, but maybe I should have,” said Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.

Star Ledger – NJ Raises standards for teacher training and certification… If teachers are the most important drivers of student success, then putting high quality candidates to work in the state’s classrooms should be a top priority, state educators say.

 

By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on June 17, 2014 at 7:00 AM, updated June 17, 2014 at 8:20 AM

If teachers are the most important drivers of student success, then putting high quality candidates to work in the state’s classrooms should be a top priority, state educators say.

Earlier this month, New Jersey education officials took an important step toward that goal by raising the standards for both entry into teacher training programs and professional certification upon graduation. Students must have a minimum grade point average of a B to begin a training program, and have a minimum GPA of a B to receive certification, according to new rules adopted by the state Board of Education. Students must also pass basic skills and performance tests to be certified.

The changes reflect a comprehensive approach to teacher development, according to Assistant Education Commissioner of Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Peter Shulman.

"There is research and anecdotal evidence that the teacher in the classroom is the most important in-school factor for pushing academic achievement for students," Shulman said.

"Physics teachers should know physics," he said, but they should also have a "foundational knowledge in language arts and math. If I’m teaching phys ed or physics, there’s a level of my work that will require some writing and math."

And the final performance test — which has yet to be selected — will ensure that candidates can translate their knowledge to students. "I might have a high GPA and command of my subject, but that doesn’t mean I can teach," Shulman said.

The College of New Jersey junior Julia Albretsen said the changes are reasonable. "The big goal is to provide the most qualified, highly prepared teachers for our students," she said. "However, as the state sets higher standards, they need to meet those standards with a level of respect. It’s difficult to seek the best and brightest but then not value them."

Officials from the state’s teacher training programs said they applaud the department’s goal, although they have reservations about the path they chose.

"It’s a good idea because we need to make sure the teachers we are putting in the classroom are the best and brightest," said Susan Polirstok, dean of the College of Education at Kean University in Union, which raised its GPA requirement in 2010. "I think it’s reasonable to ask for an appropriate GPA, it’s reasonable to ask that students have basic level of skills in reading writing and mathematics."

But Polirstok is among those concerned about the added cost of the new tests. Students already spend several hundred dollars for certification.

"We could go from $300 to $1,200 to $1,500 because of all the test fees associated now with certification. That’s a big concern," said Joelle Tutela, president of the New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the director of teacher education at Rutgers-Newark.

Previously, individuals could have a 2.5 GPA to enter a training program. The new rules require the school’s average be a 3.0, with no individual student below a 2.75. The changes go into effect Sept. 1, 2015. The new rules for certification go into effect the next year.

The new rules would exempt students from taking the basic skills test if they have combined SAT scores of 1660, an ACT score of 23 or a combined GRE (the graduate school entrance exam) of 310. Tutela questioned the fairness of this rule, noting that many low-income high school students don’t even take the SAT, and those who do take it in eleventh grade.

"And now this score is used three or four years later?" she asked.

New Jersey’s move is part of a national trend. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said many states are raising standards for teacher preparation, and she praised New Jersey officials for taking steps in this direction.

But she said the details of the regulations need further study. The exit performance assessment, for example, is problematic.

"There’s an overpromise on what it’s going to do," she said about the commonly used Pearson exam edTPA, developed by Stanford University.

"A common framework is wonderful. It’s a good thing to adopt, but you cannot use it as the only indicator of whether a teacher is ready for the classroom," she said.

Walsh also questioned the state’s choice of its basic skills test. "That test is really really easy," she said. "The signal it sends off about the rigor of the program is terrible."

Hannah Pawlak of South Brunswick, a senior at The College of New Jersey, cautioned about the over-reliance on numerical ratings. While a B average is "not necessarily a bad idea," Pawlak said it should be restricted to education courses. For example, she said a student might not enroll in a challenging science class for fear of not doing well.

It’s going to prohibit students from taking risks. If (a course) is going to hinder your chances to get a job, people won’t take it," she said.

Others believe that the new standards should focus on outcomes rather than entrance into programs.

"You can raise the standards, but you also want to make sure individuals have the opportunity to meet those standards," Jennifer Robinson, director of the Center of Pedagogy at Montclair State University, said. A student might have a lower GPA because he needs to work, or take care of a family member or overcome a language barrier, she said.

"We’re not just admitting everybody," she said, noting that Montclair already raised it GPA requirement to 3.0. "But it’s a lot more complex than looking at GPA and standardized test scores and saying ‘This student will be a good teacher.’"