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NJ Spotlight--Murphy’s Education Budget: Some Pledges Redeemed, Some Deferred
Murphy’s call for a $283 million increase in aid to public schools — to more than $9.6 billion — is the biggest bump in almost a decade
for public education next year was as stark a departure from the past eight years as any topic he touched on yesterday.
There was no talk of school vouchers; charter schools got barely a mention; and there certainly were no examples of school overspending and waste. Murphy even extolled the virtues of labor unions.
Welcome to post-Christie education budgeting, with the new governor announcing he would increase aid to virtually all districts, move to expand preschool statewide, and start on the path to tuition-free community college.
John Mooney | March 14, 2018
Star Ledger--N.J. kids are walking out of school Wednesday. Here's what you need to know
Students across New Jersey will stop what they're doing and walk out of their classrooms on Wednesday morning to remember the 17 high schoolers and teachers who were killed last month when a gunman opened fire in a Florida school.
The 17-minute walkout is meant as both a memorial to the lives lost and as a protest to demand safer gun laws.
Here's what you need to know:
Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media Posted March 13, 2018 at 07:36 AM | Updated March 13, 2018 at 04:34 PM
Press of Atlantic City--New Jersey Dept. of Education moves to transition from PARCC
Keeping true to Gov. Phil Murphy’s promise to move away from the current state standardized test, the New Jersey Department of Education last week released guidance on how it plans to replace PARCC.
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers has been criticized by many educators and school districts since its implementation four years ago as overly burdensome. The test is required each year for students in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. The scores are used to measure school performance.
CLAIRE LOWE Staff Writer| Mar 12, 2018
NY Times--National School Walkout: Florida Shooting Spurs Protests Today
Thousands of students, emboldened by a growing protest movement over gun violence, will stand up in their classrooms on Wednesday and walk out of their schools in a nationwide demonstration, one month after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida.
The 17-minute protests unfolding at hundreds of schools are intended to pressure Congress to approve gun control legislation after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and will come 10 days before major protests in Washington and elsewhere.
Here’s what to know:
• Students are scheduled to leave classrooms at 10 a.m. in their local time zones.
• School administrators have been grappling with how to respond. Some districts have welcomed or even tacitly encouraged walkouts, while others have threatened disciplinary action against students who participate.
ALAN BLINDER and JULIE TURKEWITZUPDATED 6:37 AM
Education Week--Most Teachers Oppose Arming Educators and Fear a School Shooting, Says NEA Poll
Nearly three-quarters of educators oppose President Donald Trump's push to arm school staff, and a clear majority also say working with armed school personnel would make them feel less safe, according to a poll of National Education Association members released Tuesday.
In addition, 82 percent of respondents said they would not carry a gun to school even if they had received firearms training and were allowed to do so.
The poll, conducted March 1-5 by GBA Strategies, surveyed 1,000 NEA members who work in schools, using both cell phones and land lines. The margin of error is 3 percentage points. The poll's finding that most NEA members dislike the idea of arming school employees matches the message from NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, who has blasted the Trump administration's support for states that choose to arm educators. (You can watch a video of García discussing the idea on Monday at the top of the blog post.)
By Andrew Ujifusa on March 13, 2018 5:30 PM
