Ridgewood Education Foundation enhances education
Tuesday March 26, 2013, 11:24 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
BOOM!
There’s nothing like fiery (but safe) explosions to wake hundreds of Ridgewood High School (RHS) students up on a Friday morning.
Each loud burst startled jumpy students in the RHS Campus Center earlier this month as three hydrogen balloons were popped with a flame, leaving three orange fireballs momentarily suspended in midair.
“Why don’t [balloon vendors] give you a gas that actually floats a lot better and is a lot cheaper [than helium]?” said David Maiullo, presenter of the “Fun with Physics in All the Sciences” event
Bill Gates’ $100 million database to track students Corporations gaining access to grades, addresses, hobbies, attitudes
By Michael F. Haverluck
Over the past 18 months, a massive $100 million public-school database spearheaded by the $36.4 billion-strong Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been in the making that freely shares student information with private companies.
The system has been in operation for several months and already contains millions of K-12 students’ personal identification ‒ ranging from name, address, Social Security number, attendance, test scores, homework completion, career goals, learning disabilities, and even hobbies and attitudes about school.
Claiming that the national database will enhance education, the main funder of the project, the Gates Foundation, entered the joint venture with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and school officials from a number of states. After Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify Education (a division of News Corp) spent more than a year developing the system’s infrastructure, the Gates Foundation delivered it to inBloom ‒ a nonprofit corporation recently established to run the database.
Student loan write-offs hit $3 billion in first two months of year
Elvina Nawaguna Reuters
6:13 p.m. CDT, March 25, 2013
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt in the first two months of 2013, up more than 36 percent from the year-ago period, as many graduates remain jobless, underemployed or cash-strapped in a slow U.S. economic recovery, an Equifax study showed.
The credit reporting agency also said Monday that student lending has grown from last year because more people are going back to school and the cost of higher education has risen.
“Continued weakness in labor markets is limiting work options once people graduate or quit their programs, leading to a steady rise in delinquencies and loan write-offs,” Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said in a statement.
Equifax analyzes data from more than 500 million consumers to track financial trends.
U.S. student loan debt reform has become a more pressing issue since the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported in March 2012 that the total surpassed $1 trillion by the end of 2011 and as interest rates on subsidized Stafford loan rates are set to double in July.
A spellbinding new documentary from HBO, “FALL TO GRACE.”
For Jim McGreevey, August 12, 2004 was, in his words, “a train wreck.” That was the day the former New Jersey governor famously announced his resignation and declared himself “a gay American” on live TV. After his political downfall and the ugly divorce that followed, McGreevey found himself at an existential crossroads. FALL TO GRACE reveals how McGreevey moved through that painful period, reinventing himself as a spiritual advisor to women in prison.
FALL TO GRACE debuts this THURSDAY, MARCH 28 (8:00 ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
FALL TO GRACE was officially selected for the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Official Education Spending Figures Do Not Incorporate Full Cost of Teacher Pensions
By Jason Richwine, Ph.D.
March 25, 2013
Abstract
Despite the centrality of pensions in debates over government budgeting and education policy, the federal government dramatically underestimates teacher pension costs in its official education spending figures. States report to the federal government only the yearly contributions to teacher pension funds rather than the present value of accrued benefits. Since states and local school districts routinely contribute less to their pension funds than is needed to cover future benefits, correcting this accounting problem could add tens of billions of dollars—somewhere around $1,000 per pupil—to official education spending estimates. The federal government should revise its data collection procedures to require proper accounting of teacher pension costs, giving taxpayers a more accurate picture of education expenditures.
The cost of pensions for public school teachers is a major focus of debates over education spending. In Wisconsin, for example, Democrats strongly opposed reforms championed by Governor Scott Walker (R) that prevented teachers and other public employees from collectively bargaining over pensions. In Florida, teachers filed a lawsuit in response to a new requirement that state employees contribute 3 percent of their salary to their pension plan, which had been funded exclusively by taxpayers.[1] Part of the intense media coverage of the recent teacher strike in Chicago was the fact that the city—instead of teachers themselves—paid most of the “employee contribution” to the teacher pension fund.[2]
Despite the prominence of pensions in these debates, however, the federal government dramatically undercounts the cost of teacher pensions in its official education spending estimates, which include the widely cited per-pupil spending figures. This undercounting occurs because the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education, allows states to define teacher pension costs as whatever school districts happen to contribute to their pension funds each year. Because governments frequently underfund their pensions, the contribution does not reflect the true costs of their pensions. The correct accounting, which is embraced by other federal agencies and virtually all economists, measures pension costs based on the present value of future pension benefits that teachers have accrued.
Using proper accounting, teacher pension costs are several times higher than the amount recorded in NCES estimates. Although exact figures are not available, making this correction adds somewhere around $1,000 to the current per-pupil spending estimates. The NCES should revise its data collection procedures to require proper accounting of teacher pension costs, giving taxpayers a more accurate picture of education expenditures.
Planning Board taps experts to review Valley Hospital expansion
March 26, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, As previously reported the Ridgewood Planning Board is hiring several experts to advise the village as it moves forward with public hearings on Valley Hospital’s planned expansion .
While the quality as well as the objectivity has been long debated on this blog ,here is what we know so far:
The hospital’s application will be the focus of the board’s proceedings for the next two months, with the next hearing set for next Tuesday.
Gordon Meth of RBA Group was tapped March 11 as the traffic engineer.The board also agreed it would hire a geotechnical and environmental expert from Whippany’s Converse Consultants.
The RBA Group was founded in 1968 as a dynamic partnership of engineers, architects, planners and environmentalists who worked together in the creation of new towns across the United States. For over forty years, the company has continued its mission of innovative, quality services that work towards enhancing the quality of life. With offices in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania we have a combined staff of nearly 250 talented engineers, planners, architects, technicians and support personnel working on everything from small, local projects to massive infrastructure assignments.( https://www.rbagroup.com/profile/ )
Since 1946 Converse has lead the industry in geotechnical engineering and today Converse’s experienced and dedicated hands-on professional team continues to use advanced technologies and infrastructure development to provide quality innovative solutions for each of our services. Converse serves a wide range of Core Markets. ( https://www.converseconsultants.com/ )
The village’s Blais Brancheau, is going to serve as the board’s planning expert for the hospital hearings, along with village engineer Chris Rutishauser officially providing his expertise to the board as well.The Planning Board is also looking to appoint an architect to review the plans on its behalf.
The next special meeting will be on April 2 hearing in the Benjamin Franklin Middle School auditorium.
Poverty Hits America’s Suburbs : This is becoming a common story
This is becoming a common story. Many people who once held well paying jobs are now in transition or underemployed out of necessity.
The unemployment figures are not accurate. There are a lot of people hurting and or just trying to get by. A lot of the jobs lost were due to “restructuring,” i.e. position elimination, outsourcing or company relocation’s and not because employees did anything wrong.
For those who are doing well, it is important to support local food banks and donate your gently used clothing and shoes to thrift shops where people in these unfortunate circumstances shop.
Reader says No matter how much lipstick the developers put on these pig Projects, they are still going to be pigs
Sure, the developers are more than willing to put up one way signs and / or traffic lights in front of the new Projects so the hundreds of cars passing in and out of the Projects each day will be able to speed along their way through the rest of the Village. The problem is that Ridgewood Ave, Prospect, Linwood, Glen, etc, are all going to be more busy than they were before, and the Villagers are going to bear the expense of more traffic, reduced home values, road work, and all the other things that go along with city streets. The proposals under consideration are simply going to push traffic through the rest of town, meaning more traffic on our over-burdened roads from the 1.000′s of additional car trips generated by any where from 400 to 800 more cars owned by the new families in the Projects.
No matter how much lipstick the developers put on these pig Projects, they are still going to be pigs. Some may be mislead by a bit of make-up, however, so we need to keep speaking up before our officials are fooled into kissing these porcine projects.
Ridgewood paying for portion of Passaic River cleanup
Monday March 25, 2013, 10:33 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Village of Ridgewood is among several dozen municipalities throughout the state that are on the hook as third party defendants to pay for past and future Passaic River cleanups, a task that federal officials and environmentalists believe will run as much as $4 billion to complete.
The Village of Ridgewood was ordered by a judge to pay for a portion of Passaic River cleanups because some private homes might have contributed to the pollution.
Ridgewood council members recently approved a resolution formally accepting the village’s responsibility.
Over a 10-month period that bridged 2011 and 2012, a Superior Court justice ruled that three companies were responsible under New Jersey’s Spill Compensation and Control Act to rid an eight-mile stretch of the lower Passaic River of the cancer-causing chemical dioxin.
Paul: Congress ‘Ten Years Behind the American Public’
By Eliana Johnson
Asked whether there’s room for a presidential candidate with his seemingly unorthodox political views, Kentucky senator Rand Paul was unequivocal in his response. Calling the country’s left-right political spectrum “confusing,” Paul argued that the GOP needs a candidate capable of appealing “across the left-right paradigm.”
Paul rejected host Chris Wallace’s contention that his budget plan, which balances the budget twice as fast as the proposal offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, is “out of the mainstream.” “I think the legislature is about 10 years behind the public,” Paul shot back. “I would argue the Senate is not up to date with what the people really want.”
Long N.J. commutes cross many lines
Last updated: Monday March 25, 2013, 7:44 AM
BY DAVE SHEINGOLD
STAFF WRITER
The Record
North Jerseyans spread far and wide when they head off to work each day, sometimes hopping two or three counties away as they endure some of the longest commutes in the nation.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that about one in nine commuters from Bergen and Passaic counties work at least two counties away from home, heading as far as southern New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Long Island to make their living.
The patterns contribute to New Jersey’s status as a state with one of the highest percentage of commutes that typically consume at least 10 hours of each workweek.
The new information adds to census data released earlier this year showing that only about half of the employed people living in Bergen and Passaic work in their home counties. Bergen commuters head more often to New York City for work, while Passaic commuters are more likely to have jobs in surrounding New Jersey counties, according to that data.
Amanda Knox “anxious” as Italy’s high court weighs her acquittal of roommate murder
By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, March 25, 7:16 AM
ROME — Amanda Knox was “very anxious” as Italy’s top criminal court heard arguments Monday from prosecutors appealing her acquittal in the murder of her roommate, her lawyer said.
“She’s carefully paying attention to what will come out,” attorney Luciano Ghirga said as he arrived at Italy’s Court of Cassation. “This is a fundamental stage. The trial is very complex.”
Prosecutors are asking the high court to throw out the acquittals of American Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend in the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, and order a new trial.
Cyprus reaches last-minute deal on 10 billion euro bailout
By Jan Strupczewski and Michele Kambas
BRUSSELS/NICOSIA | Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:09am EDT
(Reuters) – Cyprus clinched a last-ditch deal with international lenders to shut down its second-largest bank and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors, including wealthy Russians, in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.
The agreement came hours before a deadline to avert a collapse of the banking system in fraught negotiations between President Nicos Anastasiades and heads of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Without a deal, Cyprus’s banking system would have collapsed and the country could have become the first to crash out of the European single currency.
Swiftly backed by euro zone finance ministers, the plan will spare the Mediterranean island a financial meltdown by winding down the largely state-owned Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits below 100,000 euros to the Bank of Cyprus to create a “good bank
Photo credit:Boyd A. Loving Two Injured When Honda and Toyota Collide In Ridgewood
March 25,2013
Boyd A. Loving
2:53 PM
Ridgewood NJ, A Honda Passport and Toyota Camry collided at the intersection of South Van Dien Avenue and Grove Street early Monday afternoon resulting in injuries to the occupants of both vehicles. The driver of the Camry was trapped in her vehicle until members of the Ridgewood Fire Department freed her by using the “Jaws of Life” to remove the driver’s side door. She was transported to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood by members of the Ridgewood Volunteer Ambulance Corps; the other injured party refused medical aid at the scene.
Both vehicles were removed from the scene by flatbed tow truck. Westbound traffic on Grove Street and northbound traffic on South Van Dien Avenue was detoured to facilitate work by emergency personnel and the tow truck operator. Ridgewood PD officers under the command of Lt. Forest Lyons investigated the accident and provided traffic control.
