NJ Spotlight--Move to Help Union Officials Gain Easier Access to Public Workers in NJ
Labor interests happy that measure advances as municipal officials express concern about cost to taxpayers
Union representatives would get greater access to public employees at the job site, under the terms of a bill that came before the Assembly Labor Committee yesterday. “We just want to make sure that we have free access to our members…” said Eric Richard of the state AFL-CIO.
WHYY News | March 20, 2018
Star Ledger--Student arrests haven't stopped N.J. school threats, the big no-win dilemma explained
The scenarios tend to play out along similar lines: A student takes to social media, or turns to a peer, and makes a vague statement about bringing a weapon to school.
Panic, and a police investigation, ensues.
Amanda Hoover| Updated 6:45 AM; Posted 6:45 AM
Asbury Park Press—Op-Ed: School funding deficit actually twice as large?:Bennett
In his successful gubernatorial campaign Phil Murphy often praised New Jersey’s school funding law as the “first one to be blessed by the Supreme Court” and vowed, in contrast to Chris Christie, that he would fully fund it.
In his first budget, for fiscal year 2019, Murphy has started to follow through on his education promises. He dedicated an additional $283 million to K-12 state aid, calling it the first step in a planned $1 billion increase in state aid that would have New Jersey school districts “fully funded” by 2022-2023.
The problem with that claim is that the funding target Murphy has laid out for New Jersey is not full funding in a real sense, since the School Funding Reform Act has both a statutory deficit and a real deficit. And there is a wide gap between the two. In fact, New Jersey's state aid deficit for 2017-18 is more honestly given at $1.96 billion, not $1 billion, and that $1.96 billion real deficit grows at least $100 million every ear.
Jeffrey Bennett Published 6:06 p.m. ET March 19, 2018
Education Week--Collective Bargaining Does Not Improve Teacher Pay, Study Finds
Challenging the conventional wisdom about collective bargaining, a new study finds that requiring school districts to bargain with teachers' unions did not actually improve teacher pay.
Thirty-three states passed mandatory collective bargaining laws since the 1960s. Those states do typically have higher teacher salaries and higher per-pupil education spending, but they already did so "well before the emergence of collective bargaining rights or modern teacher unions," the study found.
In states with collective bargaining laws, school districts are obligated to bargain with teachers' unions on wages, hours, and working conditions. The approved contract is binding. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has said collective bargaining "raises wages for union workers. ... [T]hrough collective bargaining, workers get the voice they need, a collective voice."
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2018/03/collective_bargaining_teacher_pay.html
Madeline Will on March 19, 2018 2:42 PM