The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
Gov. Chris Christie championed his message that charters schools are a boon to urban communities across the state during a visit to Village Charter School in Trenton Wednesday. Greg Wright, NJ.com Read more
Citing a “broken and unaffordable” education system and lengthy waiting lists for charter schools, Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday proposed sweeping reforms that he said would give charter schools greater flexibility in hiring staff and better access to high quality facilities. Adam Clark, NJ.com Read more
America’s students as a whole lag behind many other industrialized nations on international tests. Government expenditures on K-12 education have more than doubled over the last 40 years (adjusted for inflation), and yet U.S. students’ academic performance at the end of high school is flat.
Learn more:
Posted by Matt Rooney On August 03, 2015 11 Comments
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Governor Chris Christie’s CNN interview continues to elicit strong reactions, Save Jerseyans, and the problem with this controversy, as with similar incidents, is that most folks are focusing on the style points. It’s among the regrettable byproducts of our presidential politics, cultural decline, and hyper-politicization of the education industry. But those are topics for another post…
What about the substance?
Let’s revisit, briefly, what these teachers’ unions are all about and objectively decide whether they deserve to exist (I’m not pulling any punches):
10) The union establishment’s demands are as unrealistic as they’ve been fiscally ruinous. NJEA members will donate $126,000 to pension and health benefits over 30 years but stand to collect $2.4 million in return. Who thought this was a good idea??? Are all of the calculators broken in Trenton? Of course not. It’s all part of an elaborate, decades-old double-whammy of vote buying and problem avoidance. Instead of hating Chris Christie, teachers should direct their ire to the politicians on their own union’s campaign season payroll. They did it.
9) Their chosen tactics are disgusting. Wisconsin’s recent experienceswere horrific, and the physical/verbal violence perpetrated by Big Labor’s storm troopers was 100% one-sided.
8) The system these unions ferociously protect is failing our country’s most vulnerable children, especially those students living in poorer, minority-concentrated school districts. Click here to check out my lengthy run-down of Camden High School’s plight (catalyzed by a give-and-take with my liberal friend of Inky fame Kevin Riordan) for the uncomfortable truth.
7) American Teachers’ unions = Democrat Party affiliates. After self-preservation, the teacher union establishment is primarily concerned with protecting the Democrats whose policies protect their power. A good faith union would avoid colluding with one political party or the other, pursuing and prioritizing the best interests of its membership and their children. Not the teacher’s unions; in this state and most others, and certainly nationally as Chris Christie pointed out, they function as a Democrat Super PAC. The American Federation of Teachers has already endorsed Hillary Clinton before either party held its first debate!
6) Dues tied up in waste and hypocrisy… so teachers lose, too: The NJEA collects a 9-figure annual sum in teachers’ taxpayer paycheck-derived dues; its regular and political arms spend many millions more in lobbying and both direct and indirect campaigning activity to influence public police. What do its members have to show for it???
5) Therefore, these unions have a financial incentive to protect bad dues-paying teachers at the expense of the education system. Much has been written on this topic but John Stossel did a particularly good job of illustrating how difficult it is to purge the suck; it’s a crisis that’s turned even hardened union veterans against the tenure-centric system.
https://savejersey.com/2015/08/chris-christie-teacher-union-punch-video-facts/
Annie Holmquist | June 29, 2015
We’ve all winced at the numbers. U.S. students rank 17th, 26th, and 21st on the reading, math, and science portions of the PISA exam – well below many of their international peers.
But even while we recognize that these numbers are bad, many of us secretly reassure ourselves that such is not the case with the local schools which our children attend. Surely the American children struggling to keep up with the rest of the world are in other communities besides our own, right?
Not necessarily. As recent test scores demonstrate, students from well-to-do suburban and rural areas might not be doing as well as we imagine.
A case in point is the Kettle Moraine school district, located on the outskirts of Milwaukee. The district’s superintendent describes Kettle Moraine as “‘a very good school district.’” In this district, “only about 10 percent of the 1,300 students at Kettle Moraine High qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and about 90 percent are white.” And with the high graduation rates and ACT test scores which many of its students achieve, one would have to agree that Kettle Moraine’s students seem to be ahead of the pack.
However, Kettle Moraine recently had the opportunity to take the OECD Test for Schools, an exam which channels the official PISA test, but adapts it for individual American schools to see how competitive they are on the global stage. As it turns out, students from the high-achieving Kettle Moraine district weren’t leading the global pack in a key area. They were behind.
https://www.better-ed.org/blog/even-best-american-schools-can%E2%80%99t-compete-globally
Maplewood protest about Assembly bill underscores ongoing N.J. education policy struggle over charter schools
MAPLEWOOD – More than 100 people protested in front of the Maplewood office of state Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-27) on Tuesday morning, decrying her support of a proposed bill that they believe hurts the future of charter schools, a critical issue echoed in next-door Newark, across New Jersey and around the nation. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
Public schools fail the inner city youth
Robby Soave|Apr. 29, 2015 2:25 pm
Would school choice reforms prevent or reduce future unrest in cities like Baltimore by improving the plight of poor minority teenagers? Some are making that case. Here was Charles Krauthammer on Fox News last night, according to National Review:
“There are essentially two problems. . . . One is single parenthood, and the other is the worst schools on earth,” said Krauthammer on Tuesday’s Special Report. “Of the first, we have no idea how to solve that. Of the second, we do. If you can’t improve the schools, give the kids a choice to go to better schools. The parents begged to have that opportunity, but the teachers’ unions won’t allow it and thus the Democrats won’t. If you want to do something, let them choose their schools.”
This idea has merit. The traditional public school system fails inner city youth in two major ways—both of which reinforce the kind of problems on display in Baltimore.
First, inner city schools are just plain awful. As Terry Jeffrey pointed out in Townhall, the most recent information shows that the Baltimore school district spends about $18,000 per student and only achieves a reading proficiency rate of 16 percent for eighth graders. That’s a lot of money wasted in pursuit of terrible result. When public schools can’t even teach the vast majority of Baltimore’s most vulnerable kids to read, the traditional education system is condemning them from a very young age to dim college and career prospects.
Second, the public school system increasingly turns mildly troubled young people into criminals thanks to a depressing trend of overcriminalization. Safety paranoia led administrators down the dark path of zero tolerance; classroom misbehavior that once would have resulted in detention now triggers a call to the cops, arrest, and expulsion. It’s really no wonder black teens and 20-somethings distrust the police—consider the representative case of Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a black 11-year-old in Virginia who incurred disorderly conduct and felony assault charges for causing a bit of mischief. In a sane education system, teachers would work with Kayleb to improve his behavior, not strap him in handcuffs. And inner city streets are filled with teens who were arrested and expelled when they should have been counselled and reformed. This is almost the perfect system for creating a society of displaced, impoverished, lawless young people.
School choice would mitigate these problems by liberating poor minorities trapped in a cycle of failure. Still, there are limits to what any single reform could accomplish. Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, told me that he expects school choice would certainly help, “but there are limits to what schools can fix.”
https://reason.com/blog/2015/04/29/the-baltimore-riots-a-case-for-school-ch
Gregory Dymshits, a full-time research biologist, teaches a genetics lesson at a special school for advanced science and math students. (Photo: Jim Ketsdever/KRT/Newscom)
Concerns Grow About Common Core Standards
Brittany Corona/ March 12, 2015
“If you came to college with only an Algebra II background and you wanted to major in a STEM area, you have a 1/50 chance— a 2 percent chance— of ever obtaining a degree in STEM… This level of preparation is simply insufficient,” said Milgram.
According to Education Week, teachers also are struggling with how to teach to the Common Core math standards.
“Each standard has so many ideas built into it, you really have to sit down and think through all the implications of that,” said math teacher Bobson Wong. “I could easily make each of these courses a two-year course.”
And recently, reports surfaced that the Common Core architects left what some consider holes in the standards.
Richard A. Askey, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former member of the math standards’ feedback group, later noticed an omission of a geometry standard in Common Core. In fact, according to Education Week, Askey said “the process toward the end was so hurried that an entire high school standard was left out of the final draft.”
“There’s no formal mechanism in place for a wholesale review of the common core, but it’s likely that states will—as they always have—review their standards at times and decide whether they need to be altered,” the Education Week article said.
When Common Core was created in 2009 by Achieve Inc., with oversight from the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, its adoption immediately was tied to federal incentives through billions in competitive grants and waivers from provisions in the No Child Left Behind law.
By 2010, 46 states had signed on to the standards and agreed to implement them fully by this school year. Over the last two years, states have begun to realize the costs of quickly signing on to Common Core. By 2015, 15 of the original 46 states that agreed to Common Core have made efforts to withdraw from the standards and aligned tests. Four exited the standards completely—Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Louisiana.
The haste of Common Core’s adoption is felt across the nation—but the extent is not yet realized. The alignment of college entrance exams, such as the SAT and ACT, and advanced placement courses cause concern over the “voluntary” nature of the standards.
Yet, there is still hope. Many states are putting forth measures to reclaim autonomy over their standards and are beginning to practice competitive federalism, thoughtfully considering their state standards, Common Core and other state standards to make a set of standards and tests that are best for their students’ college or career readiness.
Education Commissioner David Hespe
N.J. limits its school choice program
FEBRUARY 1, 2015, 10:45 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015, 10:46 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
In an effort to cut down on rising costs, the state is capping a program that allows students to attend schools outside their own district at no extra cost, limiting some Bergen and Passaic schools to just a handful of open spots for the coming school year.
“It’s fiscally unsustainable,” state Education Commissioner David Hespe said in an interview. “The program has increased fivefold. The cost has increased fivefold.”
The education commissioner is also considering preventing additional students from high-performing schools, which would include many in Bergen County, from participating. The program was meant to give students access to better schools, but many of the students who took advantage already had good schools in their hometown, Hespe said.
State officials say they need to stop the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program’s growth because it has ballooned to about 5,000 students at a cost of $50 million a year. But supporters of the program say the decision to cap it seems to contradict the Christie administration’s stated policy of creating more taxpayer-financed options for students who don’t want to attend struggling local schools.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-limits-its-school-choice-program-1.1262801
How did Camden, N.J. come to have one of the highest spending AND worst performing school districts in the nation?
The recent history of Camden, New Jersey, which is the poorest small city in America, provides a case study of the tragic ineffectiveness of government programs at ameliorating poverty. State and federal taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on various redevelopment programs in Camden over the years, but the money never ended up where it was supposed to and the promised revival of this fallen manufacturing town never happened.
By far, the largest initiative to combat poverty with government largess has been directed at Camden’s public schools. New Jersey spends about 60% more on education per pupil than the national average according to 2012 census figures, or about $19,000 in 2013. In Camden, per pupil spending was more than $25,000 in 2013, making it one of the highest spending districts in the nation.
But all that extra money hasn’t changed the fact that Camden’s public schools are among in the worst in the nation, notorious for their abysmal test scores, the frequent occurrence of in-school violence, dilapidated buildings, and an on-time graduation rate of just 61 percent.
This is the story of how Camden became one of the nation’s best funded and worst performing school districts, which is the first in a three-part video series on Camden public school system.
Is Homeschooling Right for You?
Jan 23, 2015
Jessica A. Bush
10 THINGS TO CONSIDER: PART 1: The prospect of homeschooling is a daunting task as it has many advantages as well as some disadvantages. We know you want what is best for your children, and so if you are thinking of homeschooling, here are some things you should consider before making your final decision.
Why homeschool?
There are always a number of schooling choices in every neighborhood, so you need to have a really strong idea of why you want to homeschool. Homeschooling takes an enormous amount of your time, requires organization and a whole lot of work on your behalf, so having really strongly formed reasons for why you want to embark on this is important to keep you going.
What are the legal requirements?
Contact your local school boards for curriculums and the legal requirements you have as a parent. Each school board has materials and books for homeschooling that make it easier for you to create and follow a curriculum that covers everything your child needs to learn in each semester.
Join homeschooling groups in your area as they will have a wealth of information too. Register your family for homeschool and ensure that you know your legal responsibilities.
What is your homeschooling style?
As homeschooling develops, so does the number of homeschooling styles. From classic to eclectic to unschooling, select your style and ensure it fits with your child’s learning style.
Who will help you?
Most people have academic strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps you and your husband have different talents and can share the workload or perhaps you will need tutors to guide your child through those subjects that you don’t excel at. Ensure that you have a plan that covers the entire curriculum and don’t be afraid to ask for help; you don’t have to do everything on your own.
Another possibility is to share classes with other homeschooling families in a homeschooling co-op. This will help to reduce your work load and will ensure that your children are getting a great education from like-minded individuals.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
It’s really important to be honest about this; sure we would love to do everything ourselves, but we have to provide the absolute best for our children. If you are poor at discipline or schedules, then ask for help making one that the family has to stick to. Know your strong points and play to them; know your weaknesses and illicit help from your family members, homeschooling community and tutors.
What is your support base?
Create a support base for yourself that will create a community of learning that supports your children. Friends, family members, other homeschooling families and tutors will help you to create a community in which your children are free to learn, grow and play. This community is also there to help you and to provide the support you need to enjoy your homeschooling experience and to provide advice and ideas that you can adopt so your homeschooling practice evolves and grows with your family.
Tutor Doctor of North Jersey
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/homeschooling-right-you-jessica-a-bush
Chris Christie Reviews Plan for School Vouchers
As New Jersey Governor Chris Christie moves toward a decision on whether to run for president, he is touting his education success stories, including tenure reform and more charter schools. Yet one victory has eluded him – the Opportunity Scholarship, a voucher program for students in the worst-performing public schools. (Sullivan/Forbes)
The Next Step in School Choice
Education Policy, The Heritage Foundation
In their classic work, Free to Choose, Milton and Rose Friedman described four basic ways of spending money. People can either spend their own money or someone else’s money, and they can either spend it on themselves or on someone else. The Friedmans argued that people generally have a stronger incentive to economize when spending their own money than when spending someone else’s money. Likewise, people generally have a stronger incentive to maximize value when spending money on themselves than when spending on someone else.
The lack of incentive to reduce costs or maximize value is particularly acute when the spender does not know whose money he is spending or on whom he is spending it. For instance, a person is more likely to purchase a lavish dinner with a corporate expense account than when a close friend is paying. Likewise, someone is less likely to maximize value when buying a gift for the office holiday gift exchange than when buying a gift for a significant other. In the latter scenario, the spender’s knowledge of what would provide the greatest value is also considerably higher when he knows the recipient well.
Public-school officials, like all government bureaucrats, primarily engage in the worst kind of spending: They spend other people’s money on children who are not their own. As competent and well-meaning as they may be, their incentives to economize and maximize value are simply not as strong as those of parents spending their own money on their own children…
If traditional public-school systems work by spending someone else’s money on someone else’s children, taxpayer-funded vouchers allow parents to spend taxpayer money on their own children. Parents have a strong incentive to maximize the educational value that their children receive from the voucher, but since a traditional voucher must be spent in a lump sum, there is no incentive to economize below the value of the voucher.
Though Education Savings Accounts are still taxpayer funded, the way they are structured makes for a dynamic closer to the one involved in spending your own money on your own children: Parents still insist on the best quality education but have more incentive to find a bargain. ESAs are not the equivalent of cash because the funds are restricted to approved categories of educational expenses, but they do provide families with much greater flexibility in how to spend (or save) the funds than vouchers do. As a result, parents have the ability and incentive to economize in a manner that more closely resembles their spending of their own money — with both economy and value in mind — which in turn fosters the development of a real education market
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Only 19 Paterson Students Ready For College
Posted: Dec 01, 2014 10:43 AM EST Updated: Dec 01, 2014 10:43 AM EST
By Tamara Laine, @ChasingTamara
Paterson, New Jersey (My9NJ) –
In Paterson, New Jersey only 19 kids who took the SAT’s are considered college ready. This means that they scored at least a 1500 out of 2400 on the standardized test, and this number is truly shocking considering how large the school district is.
Paterson resident Jason Williams is one of the lucky ones. He just graduated high school last year and has been enrolled in college since September, after taking the SAT’s three times determined to score over 1500. He says that the key to his success was not falling victim to the streets.
“Just last summer, my friend and teammate, he was shot and killed that summer and that really affected me,” he said.
https://www.my9nj.com/story/27515692/only-19-paterson-students-ready-for-college
NJTPC Will Host Guest Speaker Rabbi Israel Teitelbaum
For further background on universal school choice, you may wish to view this short broadcast of Liberty Action Network
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJnphl_uT4&feature=youtu.be
