Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

10-18-17 Education in the News

NJ Spotlight--Tackling the Toughest Questions Facing NJ’s Public Education System

A new report in the “Crossroads NJ” series recommends a variety of solutions to problems like school funding and segregation

As New Jersey is about to pick a new governor, the state’s public education system is teeming with challenges, from the funding of the schools to the very makeup of their classrooms in one of the most segregated states in the country.

And in a new report issued yesterday, the remedies seemed as vexing as some of the problems, with money in short supply and the state’s racial chasms apparently unbridgeable.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/10/17/tackling-the-toughest-questions-facing-nj-s-public-education-system/

John Mooney | October 18, 2017

 

NJ Spotlight--New Bond Issue Edges Closer as Vo-Techs Make Case for Urgent State Funding

Garden State’s vocational high schools appeal for more money to help them keep pace with the rising demand for technical training

New Jersey voters will decide in a few weeks whether the state should take on more than $100 million in new debt to pay for library capital projects. But even as the fate of that proposed borrowing has yet to be determined, lawmakers are already starting to explore the next big bond issue that could go before voters.

A bipartisan group of legislators that is looking at ways the state can better support an ongoing rebirth of the New Jersey manufacturing industry took testimony yesterday from representatives of the state’s 21 county vocational school districts, who are seeking more funding to help keep pace with a rising demand for technical training that’s being driven, in part, by the manufacturing sector.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/10/17/new-bond-issue-edges-closer-as-vo-techs-make-case-for-urgent-state-funding/

John Reitmeyer | October 18, 2017

 

Asbury Park Press--NJ restores state aid to 5 Jersey Shore school districts

TRENTON - Five Jersey Shore school districts that faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid cuts have learned that the money will be restored, according to the New Jersey Department of Education.

The announcement came from the department this week that schools in Brick, Keansburg, Marlboro, Middletown and Toms River will receive thousands of dollars more in state support than had been promised last summer.

Early last spring, each district balanced its budget on a state aid promise that would later prove ephemeral. State Democrats struck a deal over the summer that moved a portion of the districts' promised money to schools that were not receiving their fair share under the State Funding Reform Act. Learn more about how New Jersey funds its schools in the video above.

At one point in the state budget negotiations, the cuts were so severe that Toms River schools stood to lose $3.3 million and Brick could have lost $2.2 million in aid.

http://www.app.com/story/news/education/2017/10/17/nj-restores-state-aid-5-local-schools/773021001/

Amanda Oglesby, @OglesbyAPP Published 6:22 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2017 | Updated 6:56 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2017

 

Education Week--The 'Elephant in the Classroom': Q&A on Substitute Teaching

For the last 20 years, Jill Vialet has been working to improve what’s supposed to be one of the most fun parts of the K-12 experience: recess. Through her nonprofit Playworks, she’s brought professional training and recess coaches to about 1,800 schools across the country, and helped turn learning breaks from a time for potential bullying and ostracism to one in which students can build self-confidence and community.

In her new venture, she’s tackling an aspect of K-12 education that’s equally ripe for innovation, but somewhat harder to garner the public’s enthusiasm for: substitute teaching.

Teachers are absent about 11 days during the school year on average, according to a 2014 analysis of large districts by the National Council on Teacher Quality. That means that over their K-12 experience, students spend just under a year being taught by someone other than their classroom teacher.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/10/13/the-elephant-in-the-classroom-qa-on.html

Liana Loewus| October 13, 2017 | Corrected: October 16, 2017