Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

4-13-18 Education in the News

NJ Spotlight--Lawmakers Want Voters to Approve $1B Bond Issue for School Safety and Vo-Techs

Original bond was for $500M to upgrade NJ’s vocational-technical and community colleges, but legislators want to double it to improve school security

State lawmakers have supersized a planned bond issue that’s on track to go before New Jersey voters this fall, turning a proposed $500 million debt sale for facility upgrades at vocational-technical and community colleges into a $1 billion issue that would also raise money for school security improvements.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/04/12/lawmakers-want-voters-to-approve-1b-bond-issue-for-school-safety-and-vo-techs/

John Reitmeyer | April 13, 2018

 

NJ Spotlight--Murphy and Sweeney: NJ Politics’ Great Divide

 ‘Festering feud’ between two most powerful pols in New Jersey gets uglier

The Murphy-Sweeney divide got a little wider Thursday after Senate President Steve Sweeney pulled two cabinet nominations from Thursday’s Senate board list.

Lamont Repollet is Murphy’s pick to be education commissioner. Zakiya Smith Ellis is his choice for secretary of higher education.

Sweeney said Wednesday he didn’t like some of the answers they gave on issues. That’s a real slap at Murphy, since both nominees had been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/04/13/murphy-and-sweeney-nj-politics-great-divide/

NJTV News | April 13, 2018

 

NJ Spotlight--Opinion: Despite Potential Savings, New Jersey Has No Urge to Merge

Consolidation has been a tough sell in the Garden State, as Sen. Sweeney has found. Residents want their ‘own’ police, fire departments, and elected officials

Although he’s been a study in inconsistency on tax policy — he was “yes,” “maybe,” and “no” on the millionaires tax and on his proposal for a 3 percent surcharge on corporate taxes — Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) has been unwavering in his belief that shared services and municipal consolidation can result in significant cost savings and property-tax relief.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/04/12/opinion-despite-potential-savings-new-jersey-has-no-urge-to-merge/

Carl Golden | April 13, 2018

 

Star Ledger--Murphy hits top Democrat for blocking nominees. And he stresses they're African-American.

Gov. Phil Murphy didn't do what his predecessor, Chris Christie, might have done. 

A day after state Senate President Stephen Sweeney said he's holding up the confirmation of the governor's two nominees to oversee education in New Jersey, Murphy responded not by hammering Sweeney or denouncing him by name. 

Matt Arco and Brent Johnson| Updated 1:35 AM; Posted Apr 12, 6:53 PM

 

Education Week--NAEP: Urban School Districts Improving Faster Than the Nation

America's large urban districts have been improving faster than the nation as a whole, and mostly held onto those gains during the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and mathematics.

"We know we need to accelerate the pace of reform and improvement in our urban schools, and we know our achievement gaps are still too wide," said Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools at a symposium on the NAEP district results here Tuesday afternoon, "but these NAEP data give us the tools we need to ask hard questions about our instructional practices and where we need to improve."

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2018/04/naep_2017_urban_school_districts.html

Sarah D. Sparks on April 10, 2018 2:53 PM