This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — Analysts say a new state revenue report could change Gov. Chris Christie’s budget plans and force new spending cuts.

In a memo sent out earlier this month to lawmakers, the Office of Legislative Services reported April revenues were less than expected, but didn’t say by how much. They also were on pace to trail the same period a year earlier.

Lawmakers last week asked State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff to provide specifics on the shortfall. But he declined, saying it wouldn’t be prudent to do so.

The new revenue report is due out today.

OLS officials say there’s not much breathing room in the current budget. That means low revenues could force budget cuts and changes in budget plans for the coming fiscal year.

The state constitution requires a balanced budget.

This is an article from the MSNBC.com, here is a link to the article:

By Mark Lagerkvist
New Jersey Watchdog

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — a rising star in the national Republican Party — called an overhaul of the state pension system his “biggest governmental victory.” He now faces embarrassment from flaws his reforms failed to fix.

The sweeping new laws increase contributions from public workers, decrease benefits and halt cost-of-living hikes. According to Christie, the changes should save the state $120 billion over the next 30 years.

But his reform did little to stop the age-old New Jersey practice of double-dipping, in which employees “retire,” start collecting a pension, and then are rehired, often the next day. Christie’s own deputy chief of staff collects $219,000 a year from the state — a $130,000 salary as a top aide to the governor plus $89,000 in state pension.

Worse for Christie, a criminal investigation is under way involving his running mate, New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

As a county sheriff in 2008, Guadagno made false statements to enable her chief officer to pocket nearly $85,000 a year in retirement pay while drawing an $87,500 annual salary. The double-dipping scheme first was reported by New Jersey Watchdog in 2010.

The state’s investigation is assigned to the Attorney’s General’s Division of Criminal Justice, a unit where Guadagno once served as deputy director. Despite the apparent conflict, Christie has not appointed a special prosecutor.

A spokesman for Christie and Guadagno declined to comment. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to questions.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

By MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — With fewer than two months before the state budget is due, Gov. Chris Christie said this morning he wants the state Legislature to deliver laws changing the tenure system for public school teachers in a way that will result in decreased taxes for New Jersey residents.

“I want to make one thing really clear to the state Legislature: Do not send me watered down B.S. tenure reform,’’ he told a crowd of more than 450 at a town hall meeting in Monmouth County.

In this Republican-heavy county that delivered big for his election in 2009, Christie delivered his usual criticism of Democratic lawmakers who he said have finally agreed to cut taxes.

“Now the Democrats in Trenton, are not arguing with me anymore about whether they should cut your taxes,’’ he said. “They just argue about how we should cut your taxes.’’

But he saved the majority of his rant at the National Guard Armory in Freehold for teachers unions, who he said spent tens of millions of dollars in attack ads against him the past two years “because I have dared to speak out against their monopoly.’’

“Well, $20 million later, here I am,” he said to an enthusiastically supportive crowd.

He called state aid to failing school districts, including nearly $30,000 per pupil in Monmouth County’s Asbury Park “an obscene waste of money’’ and reiterated his call for merit pay for teachers rather than automatic tenure after three years on the job.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

By Megan DeMarco and Jeanette Rundquist / The Star-Ledger

PLAINSBORO — New Jersey high school students will need to pass as many as 12 end-of-year tests to earn their high school diplomas, under a plan unveiled today that’s designed to ensure “a New Jersey high school diploma is a meaningful measure of college and career readiness.”

The proposal calls for a multi-year phase-in of the tests, which will be given to 9th, 10th and 11th graders and start to “count” for students now in the fourth grade. The state’s current graduation tests, the High School Proficiency Assessment and Alternative High School Assessment, will be phased out.

Students will be tested in language arts, math, science and social studies. However, neither the number of tests that will be required for graduation nor the passing scores have been determined.

The proposal, unveiled by Gov. Chris Christie and Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf during a press conference at West-Windsor Plainsboro High School North, was billed as the culmination of work by the state Department of Education’s College and Career Readiness Task Force.

“We need to make sure that the students we send from New Jersey’s high schools either into the workforce or into higher education are prepared on that first day to sit in that college classroom or to perform the job that a business has asked them to perform,” Christie said.

The plan came under immediate fire from some educators.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

Revamped formula for N.J. graduation rates
District officials had mixed reactions to the release of graduation rates for each New Jersey district and public high school Tuesday. The figures use a revamped formula that has clipped back previously reported rates.

Some officials said the new rates just underscore additional work that needs to be done in their districts. Others said more work needs to be done on the new formula, required by the federal government.

While announcing plans Monday for new high school state assessments, Gov. Chris Christie had announced that the statewide graduation rate under the new system is 83 percent, rather than the nearly 95 percent that had been cited under the old formula.

The new formula differs in that it requires schools to document that individual ninth-graders who don’t graduate with their class transferred to another school, state or country or died, rather than just generally report the number of students who drop out. Because the formula has changed, comparisons to past years aren’t possible.

Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent Charles Sampson said the new graduation rates “provide baseline data,” but “the formula does not account for those students who do not exit our system until the age of 21.” He did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how many students the district has at that age. The combined rate at the district’s six schools is 95.18 percent.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today said the days of making it easier for public employees to serve as lawmakers in Trenton should come to an end.

He said if police officers, teachers and other public employees want the responsibilities — and salary — that come with being a lawmaker, they should be required to take days off from their full-time jobs when coming to Trenton for votes and committee meetings.

“They should take time when they come down and serve,” Christie said during a news conference in Plainsboro. “People in the private sector are not getting that benefit, so I don’t know why people in the public sector should.”

The comments come a day after a Star-Ledger report showed there are 15 lawmakers — 14 Democrats and one Republican — who have accrued about $850,000 worth of unused sick and vacation time that they could turn into cash.

Topping the list of lawmakers is State Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-Hudson), whose 445 unused sick days at his job as assistant school superintendent at the North Bergen School District are worth $331,970, records show.

Sacco, who is also mayor of North Bergen, has been coming to Trenton for votes and committee sessions for two decades, but has never taken a sick or vacation day when making the trip. That’s because a state law intended to expand participation in Trenton says he doesn’t have to.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), who works as an Essex County administrator, said the law is vital to ensure a diversity of opinion in Trenton.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — The Christie administration’s failure to swiftly approve or deny requests for emergency repair work at dozens of dilapidated schools across the state has prompted a Newark-based law group to file suit against the state Department of Education.

The complaint, filed with the Office of Administrative Law, alleges that evaluations of requests made by 31 of the state’s neediest districts have ceased, preventing leaky roofs, broken heating systems and crumbling brick facades from ever being fixed.

“The law clearly requires the state to address hazardous school conditions and almost nothing has been done in the last two years,” said Eric Little, an attorney who helped prepare the complaint.

Once the Department of Education has approved a district’s request for emergency repair work, the Schools Development Authority must complete and finance the repair work required.

Districts like Newark, Camden and Trenton have filed more than 700 requests for emergency repairs since last summer. Last month, the SDA flagged 76 projects for “initial advancement” and allocated $100 million to complete the repairs, but the projects are not under way yet.

“The Department did not issue any final decision on the projects and has provided no timeline for when those decisions will be made and, more importantly, when these unsafe and dangerous conditions will be addressed,” according to a statement from the law center Wednesday.

A spokesman for the state Department of Education had no comment on the lawsuit, but a spokeswoman for the SDA condemned it as “frivolous” and “uninformed,” rejecting the claim that work has stalled.

This is an article from the NJSpotlight.com, here is a link to the article:

The Christie administration’s slow pace with court-ordered school construction and repairs is now heading to court, this time with a twist on who actually is being sued.

The Education Law Center, the Newark-based advocacy group representing school children under the Abbott v. Burke litigation, yesterday announced it had filed a lawsuit over what it said was the administration’s failure to move on scores of so-called “emergent projects” in the state’s poorest districts.

They include more than 100 roof repairs, and dozens of air conditioning and heating system replacements, and a host of fire safety upgrades. Newark alone has more than 100 projects in need, the lawsuit reads. Trenton has 99 and Camden another 95.

The lawsuit cited more than 60 repair needs that potentially imperil students’ health and safety.

And while the usual target of complaints has been the long beleaguered Schools Development Authority, which oversees this work, the twist is the lawsuit is against the state Department of Education. The SDA oversees and manages the eventual work, but it is the department that determines and approves the projects, the key point in the suit.

“The law clearly requires the state to address hazardous school conditions, and almost nothing has been done in the last two years,” said Greg Little, the lawyer working on behalf of the ELC in the case.

This is an article from the NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

HIGHLAND PARK — Marilyn Valentine of Franklin Township was one of the few African-Americans in the audience the other night at Highland Park’s Bartle School. She came to hear a panel discussion about charter schools. Much of the discussion was critical of state policies concerning the privately managed but publicly-funded alternatives.

Valentine, who raised two children into successful adulthood, said she understood the criticisms but pointed out that many parents who looked like her despaired of traditional public schools. “Where are the solutions?” she asked.

If charter and other privatized schools aren’t the solution—and she didn’t say they were—then what are parents to do? “You’re telling the people there is nothing for you.’’

Valentine’s complaint reflects what Gov. Chris Christie and other proponents of privatizing public education—especially in the cities—have been saying. Christie insists a child’s education should not depend on a zip code.

Her questions raised the most fundamental issue in public education: What is the responsibility of the state to the education of its children. What should it do in response to continued failure?

The debate about privatization—about charters and vouchers and increased aid to private schools—really is a consequence of the failure of what was once thought to be the ultimate school reform: The state takeover of failing schools.

One panelist, Michelle Fine of Montclair, an author and professor at City University of New York, called privatization “just an exit ramp for some people.’’ Because charters and other forms of privatization don’t take in all children, she said, they “cannot be considered a systematic, equitable strategy’’ for reform.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

Christie talks to Dems about proposals
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — Now in his second year of trying to push changes to public education through the Legislature, Gov. Chris Christie said Monday those plans have a better chance if an agreement over income-tax cuts can be reached relatively quickly.

Christie said he’s been talking with Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver about tenure, merit pay, charter schools and the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which would give tax credits to businesses that donate to programs providing school vouchers to poor children.

The governor said he doesn’t have commitments about what will pass — but that he wants to avoid having the debate over income-tax cuts drag into June and distract attention from other priorities.

“How much we get done is going to be a product, I think, of how good we are at some of the other things we’ve talked about. How quickly do we come to an agreement on tax cuts and the income tax? How quickly do we come to an agreement on the budget?” Christie said, after a visit to Bordentown Regional High School, where he touted the school aid proposed in his budget plan.

“If we’re able to get those things squared away, that leaves open space for us to do the education reform,” he said. “If those things tend to dominate every day between now and the end of June, it gives you less space for it.”

Christie has proposed a 10 percent cut for all income tax brackets.