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NJ Spotlight--Op-Ed: An Investment in STEM Is an Investment in New Jersey’s Future
STEM education must be maximized, and we must make sure that women, blacks, and Latinos are among those that receive this essential training
This month, we are celebrating New Jersey’s commitment to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in honor of NJ STEM Month. Throughout the state, students, schools, parents, businesses, employees, and program providers will be promoting STEM activities and showcasing their work.
There is certainly much to be celebrated. According to U.S. News and World Report, New Jersey is home to 21 of the top 251 STEM high schools nationwide. But to truly maximize our potential and reach more students, as well as meet the workforce needs of the future, we must do even more to educate our children in STEM disciplines.
Ann Borowiec | April 6, 2018
Star Ledger--'You are going to hell!' crowd erupts after vote to make it harder to skip vaccines
Parents erupted in anger Thursday after state lawmakers advanced a bill that would make it harder for families in New Jersey to avoid getting their children shots based on religious grounds.
Moments after the state Assembly Health Committee at the Statehouse in Trenton approved the measure, dozens of people leapt to their feet shouting, "You are going to hell!" "Shame!" and "You Democrats destroy America!"
Susan K. Livio| Updated 1:19 AM; Posted Apr 5, 7:20 PM
Washington Post/Associated Press (via Philadelphia Inquirer)-- What striking teachers teach us | Opinion
To “reading, writing and arithmetic,” we can now add “solidarity.”
The new teacher activism — born in West Virginia and spreading to Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona — is not a flash in the pan. And it’s about more than the demand for higher wages and benefits. It is a revolt against decades of policies that gutted public institutions.
More immediately, it is a response to the decimation of state spending on education since the 2008 recession. The economy has recovered, but state support for education has not. In an excellent report last November on K-12 expenditures, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that in 29 states, “total state funding per student was lower in the 2015 school year than in the 2008 school year” in real terms.
E.J. Dionne, For the Washington Post| Updated: April 4, 2018 — 3:01 AM EDT
Press of Atlantic City--N.J. School Boards offering training on opioid crisis
TRENTON — Responding to the ongoing opioid epidemic sweeping the state, the New Jersey School Boards Association is offering training for local school board members next week.
“The Opioid Crisis: Prevention, Intervention and Treatment” will be held April 13 at Mercer County Community College as a professional development program for local school board members, but it also is open to teachers, administrators and support staff.
Press Staff Reports| Apr 4, 2018
The New York Times--Homework Therapists’ Job: Help Solve Math Problems, and Emotional Ones
On a recent Sunday, Bari Hillman, who works during the week as a clinical psychologist at a New York mental health clinic, was perched at a clear, plastic desk inside a 16-year-old’s Manhattan bedroom, her shoeless feet resting on a fluffy white rug. Dr. Hillman was helping a private school sophomore manage her outsize worry over a long-term writing project. The student had taped the project outline on the wall above the desk, at Dr. Hillman’s prodding. It was designed to serve both as a reminder that the project was due, and an empowering indicator of progress.
KYLE SPENCERAPRIL 4, 2018
