Higher Ed Package of Bills Proposed by Riley/Cryan
The following 20 bills were introduced last week. AFTNJ is analyzing the bills to determine our positions. The bills are presented here for informational purposes. …
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Month: March 2014
As Statewide Testing Looms, Lawmakers Start to Raise Questions
By John Mooney
Concerns being raised on both sides of aisle about who is being tested and how the results will be used
As New Jersey moves closer to a new generation of statewide testing, that progress is being paced by several bills looking to put some controls — or cautions — on the new exams.…
Read MoreNJ college affordability package falls short: Editorial
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
For millennials in a cruel economy, a bachelor’s degree is hardly optional. College grads earn better salaries, and are less vulnerable to unemployment and poverty. Higher education is grotesquely expensive — particularly in New Jersey — but the cost of not going to college is worse.
Pity, then, the double-barreled misery of students who start college but don’t finish — leaving school with crushing debt but no degree.…
Read MoreThe Obama Administration’s Next Big Move in the Battle Over Public Education
By Gary Cohn
The nomination of Ted Mitchell to the Department of Ed. is a clear indication of just how cozy this administration plans to get with the corporate reform crowd.
The nomination of Californian Ted Mitchell to the number two position at the U.S. Department of Education is the latest indication that proponents of school privatization are continuing to gain influence over the Obama administration’s education policy.…
Read MoreIn a Buyer’s Market, Colleges Become Fluent in the Language of Business
By Richard PÉREZ-PEÑA
The ruling this week that Northwestern University must treat scholarship football players as employees defies the way colleges view themselves, and has administrators nationwide wondering if this is the first step toward turning college sports into something unrecognizable.
But in one key sense, the decision by an official of the National Labor Relations Board, which will allow the players to form a union and bargain collectively, fits into a long and familiar trend: Higher education is today less a rite of passage in which institutions serve in loco parentis, and more a commercial transaction between school and student.…
Read MoreNewark parents, teachers, students take protest to Trenton
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Their focus may have broadened, but their anger remains laser sharp.
Hundreds of Newark parents, teachers, students and community activists rallied in Trenton on Thursday to demand the return of local control of the city’s schools and full funding for the state’s largest school district.
Many of the same people have marched in Newark several times in the past few months to protest Superintendent Cami Anderson’s “One Newark” school reorganization plan.…
Read MoreNJ schools use technology to revolutionize classroom lessons
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
[…]That same sense of engagement can be found in the spacious math centers at William C. McGinnis Middle School in Perth Amboy, which is half-way through its first year of Teach to One Math. Last summer, the school renovated its classrooms for six, seventh and eighth grades, creating open spaces where eight general and special education math teachers work with 120 students at the same time.…
Read MoreFine Print: Bill Seeks To Clear Path To Ending State Control Of Urban Schools
By John Mooney
Legislation would return certain functions to local board in Newark, then to Paterson, Jersey City and Camden districts, if benchmarks are met
What it is: A bill filed this week by state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), chair of the Senate’s education committee, would require the state to return control of certain functions to a school district once it hits 80 percent of required benchmarks.…
Invitation for Coverage: Unions innovate in efforts to fight workplace bullying
Nat T. Bender, (908) 377-0393, nbender@aftnj.org
Convention highlight best practices to promote healthy workplaces
EDISON, NJ – Nearly half of American workers are witness to or victims of workplace bullying, according to a recent study, resulting in lost productivity, high absentee rates and increased medical costs. While legal experts and legislators debate the necessity for legislation, union members and representatives are presenting multiple approaches to protect members and promote fairness in the workplace.…
Read MoreDonna Chiera testimony: QSAC fails to move districts forward
AFTNJ President Donna M. Chiera delivered the following testimony to the State Senate Education Committee today in Trenton.
QSAC asks districts to evaluate their compliance in five categories. Though streamlined from a survey with more than 300 indicators that were required when the system launched in 2007, the evaluation process is often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and in many cases, repetitive.…
Read MoreNJ lawmakers unveil 20-bill package to overhaul college costs, accountability
By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Alarmed by rising college costs and student debt, New Jersey lawmakers proposed a package of 20 bills today designed to cut tuition, increase graduation rates and make schools more accountable.
State Assembly Higher Education Committee Chairwoman Celeste Riley (D-Cumberland) and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) said they spent three months studying the problems in higher education and meeting with college officials, student groups and other organizations.…
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