NJ Education Report

This morning’s Courier-Post looks at the squabbling in the Statehouse over how to manage the additional $500 million in school aid to our Abbott districts just ordered by the State Supreme Court. Do we just use our handy-dandy $511 million surplus? Do we raise taxes to fully fund the $1.7 million deficit in state school aid and send money to suburban districts as well? Steve Sweeney wants to raise another $500 million for suburban districts and Sheila Oliver wants to fully fund the formula, plus another $300-$500 million for Medicaid.

The Wall St. Journal does some q and a on the latest Abbott ruling.

John Mooney examines the State’s new way of calculating per pupil expenditures, which factors in overhead and other school costs.

Four bills that would effect public charter schools passed through the Assembly Education Committee, reports NJ Spotlight. One of the four mandates community approval before a charter is granted; others expand authorizers and allow private and parochial schools to be converted to charters.

New Jersey Newsroom and NJ Spotlight explain Senator Teresa Ruiz’s teacher tenure reform bill.

State Senate wannabe Carl Lewis’ first comments after a battle over residency eligibility were to criticize a South Jersey district for restricting homework on weekends. He also called for teacher tenure reform.

Trenton Public Schools is in the midst of a kerfuffle among school board members, unionized custodians, and the State Fiscal Monitor. The Monitor, Mark Cowell, overruled the school board’s decision to forgo privatization and maintain the employment of 128 public school custodians. School bus drivers are also in line for privatization and protested by calling in sick for the last two school days. Here’s the school board minutes.

Sara Mead at Edweek explains the new early education-focused Race to the Top round and corrects some misconceptions.

Michelle Rhee in the Huffington Post says that its discriminatory to argue against testing kids with disabilities.