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5-14-13 Education in the News
NJ Spotlight - Online Charter School Hopes to Escape from Limbo...The nation’s largest online education company, K12 Inc., is once again registering kids and offering jobs to teachers for the debut of New Jersey’s first virtual charter school – all without knowing if the school will even open.

Star Ledger - Task force may look at full-day kindergarten in all districts…”While most of New Jersey’s elementary school districts offer full-day kindergarten, at least 114 districts still offer half-day only, according to the state Department of Education. The Assembly Education Committee approved a bill that would create a task force to explore full-day options…”

Star Ledger - State's largest teacher union forms Super PAC

NJ Spotlight -  Online Charter School Hopes to Escape from Limbo…State delays go-ahead amid questions about legality, viability of virtual classrooms for kids

By John Mooney, May 14, 2013 in Education

The nation’s largest online education company, K12 Inc., is once again registering kids and offering jobs to teachers for the debut of New Jersey’s first virtual charter school – all without knowing if the school will even open.

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The New Jersey Virtual Academy Charter School was one of two applications given preliminary approval by the state Department of Education two years ago.

But it was forced into a delay last summer, when state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf wouldn’t grant the final charter amid ongoing questions – legal and otherwise – about the school’s merits and viability.

Almost a year later, answers to those questions remain hotly debated, including in the courts, and K12 Inc. is taking a wait-and-see approach to what Cerf will do this time while the company presses its case in the Legislature and elsewhere.

The deadline for a decision by the state is July 15, and a visit is set for next month from department staff. A department spokeswoman yesterday said that a decision has yet to be made about this or any other virtual school proposals.

“We’re still waiting for a decision,” said Lorna Bryant, interim director of the planned school. “In the meantime, we are doing everything we can to prepare for the visit in June.”

Bryant said the school, which would provide classes online for up to 850 students from kindergarten through 10th grade, has registered nearly 1,000 students and now is following up with further documentation for each of them.

It has also made job offers to about 25 teachers who would lead the classes, she said, and has begun to line up more than a dozen remote locations for the students to interact in person with teachers.

“We’re basically dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s,” she said.

K12’s model remains a controversial one, though, with the Legislature this winter and spring holding public hearings on the concept of virtual schooling in general, and various bills floated in the last year to try to address it, including two that called for a moratorium.

There has also been considerable discussion about even the very definition of virtual schooling, with two other charter schools opening last year – including one involving K12 Inc. – that are more like hybrid models that mix online with in-person schooling.

One additional virtual charter school has also applied to open in the latest application round -- the Mosdos Charter School in Lakewood proposes to eventually serve more than 5,000 students.

The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, has filed a legal challenge against the online schools, saying they do not fall within the law.

Trying to stay ahead of the debates, Bryant and families from virtual schools elsewhere have testified at those public hearings, and the company has hired the state’s largest lobbying firm, Princeton Public Affairs Group, to press its case.

Next week, an organization called Public School Options, headed by former state education department official Norris Clark, will follow up with a public presentation in the Statehouse. Families and educators will talk about virtual schooling and demonstrate how it works in real time. All 120 legislators have been invited to the session.

Otherwise, Bryant said K12 was not doing much different this time in trying to convince the state to allow the school to open, besides providing additional details to address questions about lunch services and about special-needs students.

“Maybe we’ve been a lot more cautious with families and staff,” she said. “So many families were genuinely heartbroken and devastated last year (with the state’s decision for a delay), and we’ve told them that we will need to wait until July 15.”

 Star Ledger - Task force may look at full-day kindergarten in all districts…”While most of New Jersey’s elementary school districts offer full-day kindergarten, at least 114 districts still offer half-day only, according to the state Department of Education. The Assembly Education Committee approved a bill that would create a task force to explore full-day options…”

By Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-Ledger  The Star-Ledger  on May 13, 2013 at 8:11 PM

TRENTON — A proposal to explore the idea of bringing full-day kindergarten to schools statewide advanced in a state Assembly committee Monday.

While most of New Jersey’s elementary school districts offer full-day kindergarten, at least 114 districts still offer half-day only, according to the state Department of Education. The Assembly Education Committee approved a bill that would create a task force to explore full-day options.

“It doesn’t make sense that we still have half-day kindergarten in some districts. It’s archaic,” said Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, (D-Bergen/Passaic), co-sponsor of the bill.

She said the 17-member task force would do a “comprehensive review” of existing research governing kindergarten, as well as staffing needs, facility space — and the cost of implementing full-day kindergarten, plus possible funding sources.

The bill, co-sponsored by Assembly members Mila Jasey (D-Essex/Morris) and Tim Eustace (D-Bergen/Passaic), will now advance to the full Assembly for a vote.

The sponsors said studies show children benefit from full-day kindergarten and increasing half-day programs to full-day, would save working parents thousands of dollars in after-care costs.

“(Kindergarteners) are so smart today, they need to be in school all day,” commented Assemblywoman Betty Lou DeCroce, (R-Morris). “Electronically, their minds are way above some of us.”

While most school districts used to offer half-day kindergarten only, that changed in the 1980s and 90s. In 2011-12, 77 percent of public kindergarten children (and 74 percent of private school children) in the U.S. attended full-day kindergarten, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. New Jersey falls slightly below that; In the Garden State, 73 percent of public kindergarten children attended full-day in 2011-12.

Institute director W. Steven Barnett said full-day kindergarten can “significantly improve children’s achievement, if properly implemented “ and helps parents manage their work schedules.

New Jersey does not currently mandate that children attend kindergarten, and Barnett said that about 5 percent of children don’t go. When full-day kindergarten is not available, he said some kids don’t attend kindergarten at all.

But while some educators say increasing half-day programs to full-day would be enriching, many simply don’t have the space. “If it were to be mandated by the state, it would be appropriate for the state to fund that mandate,” said Westfield Superintendent Margaret Dolan.

Edison Superintendent Richard O’Malley called the task force bill “election year politics.”
He said his district had full-day kindergarten — but eliminated in in 2010, when Gov. Chris Christie cut $1 billion from the state’s schools. Now the district’s enrollment has grown, and the town no longer has the classroom space, he said.

“If there were no boundaries and I had plenty of space and money, it’s a no-brainer,” he said. “We just don’t have the functional space.”

The task force would be required to issue a report within a year of formation.

Star Ledger - State's largest teacher union forms Super PAC

Jarrett Renshaw/The Star-Ledger By Jarrett Renshaw/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
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on May 13, 2013 at 2:13 PM, updated May 13, 2013 at 3:25 PM

 

TRENTON —The state’s largest teacher’s union has formed a new political advocacy group that can raise unlimited amounts of money from donors during the upcoming campaign season, according to federal and state filings.

The move by the New Jersey Education Association underscores a growing trend in the state as donors and interest groups turn to the federal tax code to avoid the state limits on campaign contributions.

The New Jersey Education Association formed Garden State Forward in March of this year, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service. The NJEA already has a state political action committee, but a spokesman said the new group will allow the union to focus more on issues, less on specific elections.

“We established it so, if we wish, we can express issue advocacy with our members,” NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer said.

The 527-organization is tax exempt and — unlike the union's state PAC — it can accept donations from contributors without limits. The group must disclose its donors to the IRS, not the state.

The group does not have to disclose any spending in the state unless they advocate for a specific candidate. Election Law Enforcement Commission records show Garden State Forward has already spent about $270,000 in the governor's race.

The NJEA has already endorsed Gov. Chris Christie’s likely challenger, state Sen, Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex).

The NJEA and Christie have clashed repeatedly in recent years, and the union has spent millions trying to convince the public that the governor’s policies are wrong for New Jersey.

In 2011, the union spent $10.8 million on an ad campaign called "Millionaires for Christie" -- in the middle of a raucous year of political battles between Christie and the public-sector workers' unions, whose pensions and health benefits he ultimately slashed with the help of Democrats. The amount was nearly twice what the NJEA had spent in 2010, when Christie took office.

At the time, Christie railed against the union for its huge ad buy. "Is this really what teachers want their money being spent on, this kind of garbage?" he said at a news conference. Wollmer countered that the spending was necessary because otherwise the union's voice would be drowned out by Christie, who usually gets press coverage when he attacks them. "Unfortunately, he doesn't have to pay to get his message out," Wollmer said then.

Last year, the NJEA's spending on lobbying dropped dramatically -- from $11.3 million to $409,000.

Outside advocacy groups have already spent nearly $10 million in the gubernatorial campaign, despite the lack of a competitive primary.

That number is just $4 million off the estimated $14 million spent in the entire 2009 gubernatorial contest, according to a report from ELEC.

“We have predicted that outside groups will spend as much as $25 million in the current campaign. Given that an estimated $10 million already has been spent to influence this year’s election, our estimate could end up on the low side,’’ ELEC Executive Director Jeff Brindle said.