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1-9-16 Education in the News

NJ Spotlight--Sweeney Pushes to Keep His School-Funding Plan Alive

Senate president adds new wrinkle to scheme, a select committee to investigate school funding statewide

Senate President Steve Sweeney last week took another shot at staying front and center on the topic of school funding, even as his hopes of seeing his plan implemented are growing more uncertain, at least in the near term.

Sweeney announced Friday that he would file a resolution tomorrow — and expects passage tomorrow —creating a new Select Committee on School Funding Fairness to hold hearings across New Jersey to gain testimony on the state of school funding.

“It will be very bipartisan,” Sweeney said Friday in an interview. “It won’t be a committee to make a vote itself, but to go out there and get information so we can lay out the numbers.”

All of this is with a clear eye to reviving Sweeney’s most recent proposal to create a task force to actually come up with a plan to improve on the state’s school-funding formula, a proposal that he took on the road as well with public meetings in more than a dozen communities.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/01/08/sweeney-pushes-to-keep-his-school-funding-plan-alive/

John Mooney | January 9, 2017

 

 

NJ Spotlight--Background to Christie State of State: High Unemployment, Property Taxes

Governor enters final year in office with low approval ratings and some Republican lawmakers breaking ranks to oppose him

When Gov. Chris Christie ran for president last year, he frequently promised to “tell it like it is.” But this year, as Christie is now getting ready to deliver another State of the State address in Trenton, telling it like it is may not be so easy for him to do.

After seven full years with Christie in office, New Jersey property taxes remain the most expensive in the nation while rebates have been reduced. The state’s unemployment rate remains higher than the national average, and the public-employee pension system is also still in big trouble despite Christie’s one-time reform efforts. The Christie administration has also become the latest in Trenton to be tarnished by scandal.

For Christie himself, the outlook at the start of a new year is not very rosy. His job-approval rating has fallen to a near record-low for a New Jersey governor, and he just watched lawmakers from his own Republican Party break ranks for the first time and refuse to provide the votes needed to pass legislation that Christie made a priority at the end of 2016. These included a bill seeking to change state ethics rules to allow him to profit from a book-publishing deal.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/01/08/background-to-christie-state-of-state-high-unemployment-property-taxes/

John Reitmeyer | January 9, 2017

 

Education Week--New Jersey Earns a B on State Report Card, Ranks Second in Nation

An Education Week State Highlight Report

The 21st annual edition of Quality Counts—Under Construction: Building on ESSA’s K-12 Foundation—continues Education Week’s long-standing tradition of grading the states on their performance. A state’s overall grade is the average of its scores on the three separate indices tracked by the report.

State Overview

This year, New Jersey finishes second among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with an overall score of 85.6 out of 100 points and a grade of B. The nation as a whole posts a grade of C.

Diving into the findings for the three graded indices, New Jersey earns a B-plus in the Chance-for-Success category and ranks third. The average state earns a C-plus. In School Finance, New Jersey receives a B-plus and ranks third. For the K-12 Achievement Index, last updated in the 2016 report, it finishes second with a grade of B-minus. The average state earns grades of C and C-minus in School Finance and K-12 Achievement, respectively. More details on results in these categories are reported below.

Education Week| December 30, 2016