NJ Spotlight--Should NJ Deliver In-Depth Analysis of the Affordability of Its Debt?
A comprehensive debt-affordability analysis can be used as a tool to weigh future bond issues and the costs of servicing that debt
Every year the state government produces a lengthy summary of just how much money New Jersey owes its bondholders. But a new report on the issue of government borrowing suggests New Jersey should consider going a step further by adding an in-depth analysis of the affordability of its debt.
John Reitmeyer | June 12, 2017
Star Ledger--5 of N.J.'s toughest teaching jobs, a look inside the classroom
They are high school students who dream of attending an elite college, kindergartners learning to read and middle school students with disabilities just trying their best to master telling time.
And they are all relying on someone to guide them there: Their teacher.
http://www.nj.com/education/2017/06/njs_toughest_teaching_jobs.html#incart_river_index
Adam Clark| Updated on June 11, 2017 at 11:36 AM Posted on June 11, 2017 at 7:30 AM
Associated Press _(via Philadelphia Inquirer)--Christie misses school aid deadline, but talks continue
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has missed a self-imposed deadline for reworking how the state funds education, but he says talks with leaders toward a solution are continuing.
During his February budget address, Christie called for reaching a deal with the Democrat-led Legislature within 100 days. The deadline was Thursday, but Christie and legislative leaders didn't announce a new plan.
Instead the governor said he and Senate President Steve Sweeney and the Republican legislative leaders were still talking.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto said he hadn't heard back from the governor after recent discussions. A legislative solution would have to pass the Senate and Assembly before heading to Christie's desk.
"It takes three to tango," Prieto said.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/nj/20170609_ap_91695db77d3a407cbe29458abf4f9dcb.html
MICHAEL CATALINI, The Associated Press| Updated: June 10, 2017 — 3:01 AM EDT
NY Times--To Understand Betsy DeVos’s Educational Views, View Her Education
HOLLAND, Mich. — The students formed a circle around the Rev. Ray Vanderlaan, who draped himself in a Jewish ceremonial prayer shawl to cap his final lesson to graduating seniors in his discipleship seminar at Holland Christian High School.
“We’re sending you out into a broken world, in part because of my generation,” the minister told the students. Referring to God, he exhorted them to “extend his kingdom.”
Mr. Vanderlaan could not have missed his lesson’s echoes of Holland Christian’s most famous graduate, Betsy DeVos, who proclaimed in an audio recording that surfaced in December that her education advocacy would “advance God’s kingdom.” Last month, in her first commencement address as education secretary, Ms. DeVos again reflected her own education when she told graduates at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., that “my generation hasn’t done a great job when it comes to dealing with one another in grace.”
She continued, “You have an opportunity to do better.”
Holland Christian is one of several western Michigan nonpublic schools that have helped shape Ms. DeVos’s views of elementary and secondary education, and that her critics fear she will draw from to upend the nation’s public schools. The private Christian school that she attended, another that she sent her children to and a hardscrabble private religious school that she has long supported have dominated her time, money and attention.
Public neighborhood schools — the vast majority of schools in this country — were hardly present in the billionaire’s childhood or adult life.
By ERICA L. GREENJUNE 10, 2017
Education Week--Legislative Measures Seek to Protect Student Press
When 17-year-old Robbie Maher stood in front of the Vermont House judiciary committee this spring to make his case for student-press freedoms, he credited his high school journalism adviser for his ability to report on issues that matter.
"It all starts at the top with the Mercury [student newspaper] adviser, Peter Riegelman," said Robbie, a student at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, Vt. "Mr. Riegelman ... learned the ins and outs, do's and don'ts, of journalism. As our adviser, he has passed this knowledge down to each and every BFA journalism student."
The bill Robbie was testifying for grants free-speech and free-press protections for student journalists at public K-12 schools and state colleges and universities. It also protects media advisers from being dismissed, suspended, reassigned, or otherwise disciplined for protecting their students' journalism. The bill is among more than a dozen such efforts across the country seeking to expand free-press protections to both student journalists and their teachers—and meeting with varying degrees of success.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/06/07/legislative-measures-seek-to-protect-student-press.html
Madeline Will| June 6, 2017