NJ Spotlight--Fed Tax Reform Focuses New Attention on NJ’s Property-Tax Deduction
Written into state’s income tax code in 1996, statute allows Garden State homeowners to deduct up to $10,000 of their annual property taxes
The ongoing debate in Washington, D.C., over the fate of a longstanding federal tax write-off for property taxes is generating new interest in a New Jersey tax policy that for the past two decades has allowed homeowners to deduct at least some portion of their property-tax bills.
John Reitmeyer | December 11, 2017
Associated Press (via Philadelphia Inquirer)--Sandy Hook's legacy: More security in elementary schools
NEW CANAAN, Conn. (AP) - The setting could not be more different, but David Wannagot says he applies some of the same skills from his 30-year police career to his new role as a school sentry.
As he greeted children getting off the bus at West Elementary School one recent morning, he scanned their faces, ready to guide any who seem upset directly to the vice principal. And from his station at the entrance he sizes up all visitors asking to enter the building.
"We would do anything we can to protect a child or a teacher," said Wannagot, a former detective in Norwalk. "We're not armed, but we do have experience dealing with violent people in the past, reading people's mannerisms, that kind of thing."
MICHAEL MELIA, The Associated Press| Updated: December 10, 2017 — 8:41 AM EST
Press of Atlantic City--Op-Ed--Our view: Schools need tailored strategies to keep chronic absenteeism falling
Education only works if students show up to be educated, so absenteeism has been a problem as long as there have been schools. A century ago, a quarter of the kids in the Chicago House of Corrections were there for truancy — an example of how seriously government can take the attendance requirement.
A recent survey of absentee rates at New Jersey schools found them higher than desired, but they are trending in the right direction.
Dec 8, 2017
Education Week--A Commentary by Betsy DeVos: 'Tolerating Low Expectations for Children With Disabilities Must End'
Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision. The justices ruled 8-0 in Endrew F. vs. Douglas County School District that Endrew, a child with autism, was entitled to an educational program that required more than the "de minimis"—or minimum—progress set by his assigned school.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/12/08/a-commentary-by-betsy-devos-special-education.html
Betsy DeVos\ December 8, 2017