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Asbury Park Press--Who won the NJ governor debate?:Education
Kim Guadagno's take: "We need to work harder to make sure school is more effective and more affordable for you. And then when you come out of school, you need to have opportunities, and the way to do that is to lower the cost of doing business in New Jersey, to lower the cost of living in New Jersey, and to make sure people can afford to live in New Jersey.''
Phil Murphy's take: "We are among the most segregated states in the nation (and a principle reason is) underfunding public education...
Bob Jordan, @BobJordanAPP Published 5:00 a.m. ET Oct. 11, 2017 | Updated 7:43 a.m. ET Oct. 11, 2017
Press of Atlantic City—Op-Ed: School monitoring and takeovers necessary, but could be shorter
Local control of schools is prized to an extraordinary degree in New Jersey. Partly that’s because parents and communities want a say in how their children are educated. But it’s also because local officials love to have funds and jobs to dispense.
Since the community and parents also provide the funds as taxpayers, the interests and responsibilities are aligned. Or at least they were until the state Supreme Court in 1973 managed to find a requirement in the N.J. Constitution that the state must guarantee all students access to a “thorough and efficient” education. From then on, home rule continued but responsibility for school effectiveness rested ultimately with the state.
The state Department of Education, however, wasn’t running the schools, just overseeing them with a view to developing policies and practices. It had no recourse when local districts failed to provide that court-ordered education.
So in 1987, the state enacted the nation’s first school takeover law. It was used to take full control of first Jersey City schools and then those in Newark and Patterson.
Press of Atlantic City| Oct 8, 2017
Education Week--Can Apprenticeships Pave the Way to a Better Economic Future?
Colorado leaders are painfully aware that they need to find skilled workers to fill thousands of jobs. And they're betting big on their new secret weapon: an apprenticeship program for high school students.
This fall, 116 teenagers from four districts have fanned out to 40 companies in Colorado in the inaugural year of the state's apprenticeship program. Three days a week, the junior and senior students are at school, and two days a week, they're earning minimum wage or more while they learn the ins and outs of finance, information technology, business operations, or advanced manufacturing.
Colorado has a grand vision for the outcome of this project: By 2026, 20,000 apprentices from all across the state will have finished high school with transferable college credit, at least one postsecondary credential, three years of work experience, and in most cases, an associate degree.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/09/27/can-apprenticeships-pave-the-way-to-a.html
Catherine Gewertz| September 26, 2017
