NJ Education Report

The Star-Ledger has the complete list of the 465 school districts that will move to November Elections, far more than anticipated.

In other school budget news, Mark Magyar, today’s guest columnist in the Star-Ledger, disputes Gov. Christie’s rosy budget projections while The Record catalogs the charges by other Republicans that Christie’s proposed increased spending makes him a RINO (Republican in Name Only).

Hamilton Public School District is once again in the news: this time because the interim Superintendent, James Sheerin, recommended three new elementary principals who didn’t come up through the ranks, so the Board fired him. At the last meeting, a former board member, Olga Dixon, accused the Board of not accepting the ex-superintendent’s recommendations because the candidates are black. From the Trenton Times: “Did [Sheerin] not carry out district policies? Did he breach them? If so, how? Was it a moral or criminal nature? Or was it simply that he did not bend over to what is likely the largest employment agency in Hamilton Township?”

The NJ DOE announces that 372 LEAs — both districts and charter schools — have enrolled in the $38 million Race To The Top award. These districts will now help pilot data-driven teacher evaluations and move the State closer to implementing the Common Core Standards. See Star-Ledger for more details.

The Press of Atlantic City looks at the increasing role of county special services districts in serving kids with the most severe disabilities.

Parents worry that the proposed narrowing of the definition of autism by the American Psychiatric Association will increase their challenges in procuring necessary services for their children. (Star-Ledger)

Dr. Bruce Baker takes down the NJ DOE’s “Education Funding Report” for politicizing the achievement gap and positing that giving more money to Abbott districts serves no useful purpose.

NJ Spotlight has an interactive map so you can see how your high school students do on the state standardized assessments.

The Princeton International Academy Charter School, now the unfortunate symbol of charter schools in suburbia, is back before the South Brunswick Zoning Board. (South Brunswick Patch)

Department of Paranoia: Here’s GOP Candidate Rick Santorum on the “real reason” President Obama wants more Americans on college campuses.

“That’s why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image,” Santorum said to more applause. “I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his.”