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Star Ledger - Christie says voucher program was a sticking point in N.J. budget
NJ Spotlight – Longtime Newark Teachers Union Chief Ekes Out Election to 10th Term…Still outspoken, if no longer quite as militant, Joseph Del Grosso has been the president of the Newark Teachers Union – the state’s largest teachers local -- for 18 years, for a total of nine terms in all.
Asbury Park Press editorial - Re-examine cap for school chiefs
Star Ledger - Study: Charter schools are improving, but performance still close to public schools
Star Ledger - Elizabeth schools' 7.5 percent tax hike is within bounds, state education official says
Star Ledger - Christie Says Voucher Program a Sticking Point in N.J. Budget
Jenna Portnoy/The Star-Ledger June 25, 2013 at 5:00 PM, updated June 25, 2013 at 7:46 PM
MOUNT LAUREL — Gov. Chris Christie said today that his $2 million vouchers pilot program was a major sticking point in the state's budget plan, which he plans to sign this week with no changes.
“It was either agree to let it go, or close government,” Christie said during a news conference. “(Democrats) absolutely would refuse to even consider it.”
Thwarted by lawmakers in his previous attempt to pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act — which would have given students in poor, low-performing school districts up to $10,000 for tuition in private schools — Christie tried this year to make a small-scale version of the program a bargaining chip in budget negotiations.
Christie said state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) wouldn’t pass a budget that included the program.
“So my choice was to either close down the government over it or say, we’ll come back and have that fight next year,” he said. “I think it’s awful that they’re unwilling to do it. I think you all know why they’re unwilling to do it.”
Christie has argued in the past that teachers unions hold powerful sway over members of the Legislature.
“They just simply refuse to give low-income parents a choice about where to send their students to school, and I think that’s unfortunate, but it certainly is not something I was going to close government for.”
Christie made the comments hours after a Philadelphia scholarship organization honored him with their "Citizen of the Year" award for his work on vouchers, known as "school choice."
He said that he plans this week to sign the $33 billion budget as approved by the Legislature on Monday.
“When you negotiate a budget, you negotiate a budget,” he said, “so I’m not going to then double-cross these guys and go back and use the line-item veto pen.”
NJ Spotlight – Longtime Newark Teachers Union Chief Ekes Out Election to 10th Term…Still outspoken, if no longer quite as militant, Joseph Del Grosso has been the president of the Newark Teachers Union – the state’s largest teachers local -- for 18 years, for a total of nine terms in all.
John Mooney, June 26, 2013 in Education
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Yesterday, he barely made it to his 10th term.
In what was by far his closest race yet, Del Grosso was re-elected president of the 3,500-member union by a margin of just nine votes, squeaking by a challenger from an upstart faction that had been critical of Del Grosso’s leadership and, in particular, the Newark school district’s new labor contract.
The new faction represented by the “New Vision” slate did gain a real victory, too, winning 18 of 31 seats on the NTU’s executive board – making it the first time since his first term that Del Grosso’s slate will not control the board.
Del Grosso last night was philosophical about the narrow election to his 10th two-year term, remembering that when he was arrested during the Newark teachers strike in 1971, he was part of what was called the “Newark Nine.”
“I guess nine is the magic number,” he said yesterday.
Del Grosso said he recognizes that the union has been changing and that the new labor contract – with its imposition of new performance bonuses and a new evaluation system – has stirred discontent within his membership.
Drawing statewide, if not national, attention, the new contract was personally negotiated by Del Grosso in conjunction with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the national union. Weingarten had been a vocal defender of Del Grosso and his role in reaching a contract deal.
But Del Grosso also noted that there was an extremely low turnout in the mail-in election, with just over 1,200 votes cast, which he believes spoke to a larger issue that may have fed the discontent.
“I think people are overwhelmed,” he said. “There are a lot of changes associated with the contract and the whole peer review, and it will be a rocky road in the beginning until they understand they will be gaining controls.
“But there’s a lot chaos in the district right now,” he said. “It’s just overwhelming people, and they are feeling apathetic and skeptical.”
Branden Rippey, Del Grosso’s main challenger, said the split vote was evidence that that Newark Education Workers (NEW) caucus that backed the New Vision slate was being heard.
“Our goal wasn’t to take over the NTU,” said Rippey, a history teacher at Science Park High School. “Our goal was to build a movement that would fight for our rights and fight for our jobs.”
“We obviously ran with the intention of winning some leadership positions as well, but we are satisfied with the results,” added Leah Owens, chair of the NEW Caucus and an English teacher at Central High School. “Our goal was to bring some different ideas, and we have given voice to workers who haven’t been heard in a long time.”
Owens agreed that it wasn’t just the contract that sparked discontent. She said it’s equally about the reforms enacted by state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson as part of the state’s ongoing operation of the district.
“It’s largely about these corporate education reforms that are completely destroying public education,” she said. “It’s about our working conditions that are deteriorating, and the profession that isn’t what it used to be.”
What the split union vote means to the school district has yet to be seen. In reaching agreement with Anderson on the labor deal, Del Grosso may now have a harder time cooperating with the superintendent.
“What we will do now is execute power,” Rippey said last night. “The board has been a rubber stamp for a long time, and now he’ll have a real board to deal with.”
But Del Grosso also was hardly shy in criticizing Anderson on some of her policies, either, and has been especially critical of the state’s ongoing control of the Newark district. He said last night that he expects that some of the new members of the leadership team will find things look different from the inside.
“They will have to learn to what procedures they can and cannot do,” he said. “Now they will get the opportunity to see it from the inside.”
For her part, Anderson said in an emailed statement last night: "The Newark Teacher's Union is an important part of our public education system. Under Joe's progressive leadership, I look forward to greater partnership together on behalf of our kids."
Del Grosso and the new board will be sworn in on Friday. Del Grosso said he had no intention of this term being his last.
“If I had won by a lot of votes, it probably would have been my last,” he said. “But I think it will take another term to be satisfied.”
Asbury Park Press editorial - Re-examine cap for school chiefs
5:52 PM, Jun. 21, 2013 |
The mass exodus of New Jersey school superintendents, prompted in large part by the superintendent salary cap mandated in 2011, continued this week with the news that Jackson school chief Thomas Gialanella, 61, is “retiring” at the end of this month, only to take a job as an interim superintendent in Toms River immediately thereafter.
Why would Gialanella, who has been in Jackson for 11 years, do that? For the same reason many other superintendents have “retired,” then found work elsewhere: to avoid taking a cap-mandated pay cut, and to start collecting a pension plus a handsome salary from another job. Why collect just one salary when you can get two — all the while avoiding a pay cut. And all the while collecting benefits.
Nearly one-third of the state’s school superintendents left their positions in the 2011-12 school year, the highest turnover in 11 years, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. It edged out the previous high rate of 28.9 percent, which occurred in 2010-2011. Superintendent pay is now capped at $175,000 for school districts with fewer than 10,000 students. It should come as little surprise, then, that many superintendents are retiring early to avoid a substantial pay cut. Or that many of them, upon retirement, are taking lucrative, albeit short-term, interim positions.
The salary cap originally was intended to save the state money. Thanks to the unintended consequence of many superintendents collecting their pensions sooner than they otherwise might have, plus benefits, that potential savings is largely, if not completely, offset.
There also is the downside, of course, of losing qualified superintendents to early retirement or to other states. And there is continuing concern about uncapped salaries of assistant superintendents and principals now nearly matching, and in some cases exceeding, those of the capped superintendents, further reducing the pool of interested replacements from within the district.
The adverse impact of the salary cap needs to be re-examined by Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature, with consideration given to providing more flexibility and to disallowing superintendents to draw pensions and salaries from interim jobs simultaneously. More importantly, it should prompt them to take another serious look at consolidating some of the 603 total districts in the state — a move that would save real money. A plan to do that under the Corzine administration was essentially abandoned once Christie took office. The blueprints for the plan should be dusted off and reconsidered.
The salary cap for superintendents was not a solution to the state’s fiscal troubles. It should be re-examined and, perhaps, readjusted. But over the long haul, the best way of ensuring that school districts are being run efficiently, by the best-qualified superintendents, is by consolidating the dozens of districts in New Jersey that are far too small to warrant their own highly paid chief executives and administrative staffs.
Star Ledger - Study: Charter schools are improving, but performance still close to public schools
Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger June 26, 2013 7:00 AM, updated June 26, 2013 at 7:41 AM
Students in charter schools fared better than those in traditional public schools in some states — including New Jersey — but a majority of charters across the United States still deliver no better education than traditional public schools in reading, and 40 percent are about the same in math, according to a new study released Tuesday by researchers at Stanford University.
The study, which updates a 2009 report and which Stanford researchers described as the largest study of charter school performance in the United States, looked at test scores from 1.5 million charter school students in 27 states or districts, including New Jersey, and compared them with their "virtual twin" students attending traditional public schools.
The study determined that about a quarter of charter schools performed better than regular public schools — specifically, 25 percent did better in reading and 29 percent better in math.
The original study, which looked at charter schools in 16 states, showed only 17 percent of charter schools outperformed traditional public schools in math, and 37 percent fared worse.
"The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average and that charter schools are benefiting low-income, disadvantaged and special education students," said Margaret Raymond, director of the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes at Stanford.
New Jersey is one of 11 states or districts where charter school students’ performance outpaced traditional public schools in both subjects in the new study. The state was not included in the original research.
"It’s not saying 100 percent of New Jersey charter schools are hitting it out of the park," said Dev Davis, research manager at CREDO. "Overall, they’re doing better than the national picture."
New Jersey has about 84 charter schools, educating about 23,000 students.
Nationally, there are about 2.3 million students in privately run, publicly funded charter schools, or about 4 percent of the total public school population, according to the study.
Some in education were quick to criticize the study.
The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform took issue with the findings, calling the study "extremely weak in its methodology and alarming in its conclusions."
"No matter how well-intentioned, the CREDO research is not charter school performance gospel," said Jeanne Allen, president of the center. She said the CREDO study "is based on stacking mounds of state education department data into an analytical process that is decidedly lacking in rigor."
New Jersey Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf applauded the findings of the study, which used the same data as a report released on the state’s charter schools in the fall.
"The Center for Research on Education Outcomes’ rigorous, independent analysis of the achievement results of charter schools in New Jersey shows that the results are clear – on the whole, New Jersey charter school students make larger learning gains in both reading and math than their traditional public school peers," Cerf said in a statement.
Star Ledger - Elizabeth schools' 7.5 percent tax hike is within bounds, state education official says
Richard Khavkine/The Star-Ledger The Star-LedgerJune 25, 2013 at 4:30 PM, updated June 25, 2013 at 6:06 PM
ELIZABETH — State education officials have said that because of increased enrollment and other factors, Elizabeth school officials are not unduly raising taxes despite the district’s 7.5 percent levy bump.
The state weighed in after city administrators wrote the state Department of Education saying residents cannot afford the increase and that cuts in public safety could come as a result. The city council earlier this month passed a non-binding resolution calling for the district to consider reducing its budget to offset the increase.
But David Corso, the state education department’s assistant commissioner of administration and finance, said the district’s tax rise was within the law.
“The tax levy cap for school districts … is not a hard 2 percent cap,” the letter, dated June 20, begins.
Increases in enrollment, in health-care costs, deferred pension contributions and other factors all add to how much tax the district can raise beyond 2 percent. Corso also said, as the district had contended, that unused cap amounts from previous years can be “banked” and used within three subsequent years.
The cap calculation of the district’s 2013-14 budget, approved weeks ago, includes a $1.17 million adjustment for enrollment increases and a $1.79 million adjustment for health-care cost increases, according to Corso’s letter, copies of which were sent to members of the city council, the board of education and others, including Gov. Chris Christie and Mayor Chris Bollwage.
“These adjustments were reviewed and approved by the Executive County Superintendent during the budget review,” Corso wrote.
State Department of Education officials calculated the district’s levy cap amount at $52,636,340, or slightly more than the district’s budgeted $52,313,124.
Although the portion of the local levy going toward the schools budget has stayed steady at $48.6 million since 2010-11, the spending plan has increased more than $90 million since then, to just over $500.8 million. About 87 percent, or $417.1 million, comes in the form of state aid.
The city’s chief financial officer, Tony Zengaro, said that the district’s budget would raise school taxes for the average property owner by about $200 a year.
“We have to send out the bills, and we take the criticism,” he said.
Zengaro said that the city had asked the district to consider budget cuts or use a portion of its surplus to offset the increase but had not received a reply.
“Our point is that it’s … simply unaffordable,” he said. “It’s not acceptable to the taxpayers.”
He said that a letter from Mayor Chris Bollwage detailing the increases would accompany August’s tax bills.
