Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Whither, Part IV

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Whither, Part IV

Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Whither, Part IV

In the decade I've been writing this blog, I've seen some really horrible behavior towards teachers (a prime example here). But I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this:

This is from last September, when the Lakewood Education Association (LEA), the local teachers union, was, like all other local unions in the state, advocating for the health and safety of its members while districts made opening plans. 

Maybe you sympathize with the teachers; maybe you don't. But the truly obnoxious behavior of Michael Inzelbuch, the district's attorney, is remarkable. Inzelbuch wound up apologizing, as he should have, although as far as apologies go this one is awfully weak: CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Whither, Part IV

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part III

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part III

Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part III

Here are the other parts of this series:

- Part I

- Part II

What happens when a majority of citizens rejects its own public schools? We need look no further than Lakewood, NJ -- a town that I contend is an object lesson in the consequences of school privatization. Again, I believe at least three things will happen when public schools are left to wither, as they have been in Lakewood:

1. When a large part of a community abandons its public schools, chaos ensues and accountability dissolves.
2. Segregation is the inevitable consequence of school privatization.
3. Educators will be disrespected in a community that does not support its public schools. 

Regarding point #2: in the last post I showed definitively that Lakewood's public and private school populations are highly segregated. In this post, let's spend some time discussing point #1.

I'll note first that, as I've written before, there are plenty of examples of corruption and malfeasance in districts where the majority of children attend the public schools. And the problems with private schools enrolling special needs students in New Jersey have been well documented. 

But one of Lakewood's private schools had, according to the verdict of a jury, taken things to a new level (all emphases mine):

2/27/19: NEW BRUNSWICK - The founder of a Lakewood special education school is guilty of money laundering and misconduct by a corporate official, but not guilty of corruption involving public funds, a jury said Wednesday CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part III

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part II

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part II

Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part II

Here's Part I of this series.

In this series, I'm taking a look at Lakewood, NJ, with an eye toward what might happen if more communities abandon their public schools and, instead, embrace the idea of school "choice." Lakewood, in a state by some accounts with the highest ranked public schools in the nation, is a town where the vast majority of families choose to send their children to private schools.

The Star-Ledger explained what's driving this phenomenon back in 2017:

Lakewood has more than 6,300 students registered in its public schools and another 30,000 mostly Orthodox Jewish students enrolled in the town's 130 private schools. Under state law, towns must fund buses for students attending private schools more than two miles from their houses.

In the upcoming school year, Lakewood expects to spend $27 million on busing alone, more than it spends on classroom instruction, according to the school budget.

Town leaders say Lakewood is severely underfunded by the state, which does not consider the busing of large numbers of private school students when calculating how much state aid the district receives. A permanent source of school funding for busing and special ed would ease many of the town's problems, said Rabbi Aaron Kotler, one of the leaders of the Orthodox Jewish community.

"It would also make Lakewood a place where you wouldn't have people feeling that your children's future is at risk due to a budget problem," Kotler said.

As we'll see throughout this series, the argument that Lakewood is "severely underfunded by the state" is open to debate. For now, let's do what regular readers know always comes CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part II

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part I

Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part I

Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part I

If you follow K12 policy, you've probably noticed that the school privatization crowd has recently become reenergized. The folks from right-wing think tanks and the professional school "choice" promoters have been pushing the idea of school vouchers hard, certain that the pandemic has created widespread dissatisfaction with our current system of public school districts.

Many times I've seen these people make the argument that private schools are fully open, and the only reason public schools are not is the intransigence of teachers unions and fecklessness of school boards. Of course, it's hardly that simple: consider that many "no excuses" charter schools -- free of both unions and BOEs -- remain closed. We also really don't know how many private schools are open, or to what extent, or with what consequences.

Nonetheless, the privatizers see an opening. And considering the number of wingnuts out there who think COVID isn't a serious threat that requires extraordinary actions to secure schools, they may be right. School privatization was, to my mind, always a secondary part of the overall conservative agenda, but that may have changed, if only in the short term.

Given the renewed focus on vouchers, I think we're justified in taking some time to really CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Lakewood, NJ: Where Public Schools Are Left To Wither, Part I

Jersey Jazzman: January, 2021 Update on NJ COVID School Opening Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many

Jersey Jazzman: January, 2021 Update on NJ COVID School Opening Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many

January, 2021 Update on NJ COVID School Opening Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many

The estimable Colleen O'Dea from NJ Spotlight News continues to do New Jersey a service by updating the data on school instructional models during the pandemic. I've been collecting her updates, including the latest one from late in January, and matching it to enrollment and funding data from the NJDOE.

I did my first report on this for the New Jersey Policy Perspective back in October, and have updated my findings here several times since (here and here). Let me be clear: these are not reports about how many students and families are electing to participate in remote, hybrid, or in-person learning. Rather, I'm showing what the options are for students in their school districts. 

A school district, for example, may offer hybrid learning (a combination of limited classroom time and virtual learning at home) to its students; however, those students may choose to stay home full-time. But a student in a "remote" district won't have that option: they never get to decide whether they want to come to school at least part-time.

There are four categories of instructional models in the data

• In-person, where all instruction takes place in school (again, NJ law says students could still elect to learn from home).
• Remote, where there is no in-person learning available.
• Hybrid, where there is a mix of in-person and remote learning for the district's students.
• Combination (combo), where different schools within the district have different models.

The reports I've been doing, based on O'Dea's data, have been getting a fair bit of attention CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: January, 2021 Update on NJ COVID School Opening Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many

Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey's School COVID-19 Operating Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many Students

Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey's School COVID-19 Operating Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many Students

New Jersey's School COVID-19 Operating Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many Students

Earlier this year, I posted about the racial inequities in New Jersey's school reopening plans, which were all affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following that blog post, I used some updated data, refined my analysis a bit, and wrote about it over at the NJPP website. In both of these analyses I relied on data published at NJ Spotlight (an invaluable source for news about education policy in the Garden State).

Turns out NJ Spotlight just updated their list of NJ school districts and their COVID-19 operating plans. Let's first give props to Spotlight's Colleen O'Dea for keeping on top of these data updates.

With a few tweaks of my statistical program's code, it's not too hard to see how things have changed over the last few months. But let's review what I found back in September:

• About half of the state's students were in districts that only offered fully remote classes, while one-third were in districts that offered a hybrid of remote and in-person learning.
• White students were more likely to have the option to receive in-person instruction than Black or Hispanic students.
• The districts that offered only remote instruction were more likely to be underfunded -- according to the state's own law -- than districts offering hybrid instruction.

Before I get to the update, let me be clear about what I'm presenting. The analysis here is not what students are actually doing; it's what their districts offer. Governor Murphy has required all districts to offer fully remote instruction during the pandemic. But some CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey's School COVID-19 Operating Plans: Still Racially Biased, Still Inadequately Funded For Many Students

MARK WEBER: COVID-19 shows NJ school funding iniquities | NJ Spotlight News

Op-Ed: COVID-19 shows NJ school funding iniquities | NJ Spotlight News

 COVID-19 highlights racial inequities in school funding

Disparities in education are nothing new for New Jersey. But the current pandemic has heightened the differences in schooling between students of different races: The latest data confirm that white students are more likely to have access to at least some in-person schooling, compared to students of color.

And the differences in schooling, according to an analysis I’ve published with the New Jersey Policy Perspective, appear to be driven by differences in funding.

This past summer, the Murphy administration urged New Jersey’s school districts to prepare to open the doors of their buildings at least part-time for students. Districts could implement “hybrid” schooling plans, where students would mix online and in-person learning. Students would be separated into cohorts that would switch off between attending school and learning from home; this way, social distancing could be maintained in smaller classes.

It quickly became apparent, however, that some school districts would not be able to implement a hybrid plan in time for the September opening of school. Superintendents across the state began requesting waivers, which the state reviewed and, in many cases, granted.

A look at the available data

On Sept. 13, NJ Spotlight News published a list of districts that had been granted waivers, as well as the plans of most other school districts and charter schools for the fall. In our analysis, we combined this list with enrollment and fiscal data to determine how school reopening plans might be different for students of different races.

Our analysis shows that only about one-third of New Jersey’s students are in a district that CONTINUE READING: Op-Ed: COVID-19 shows NJ school funding iniquities | NJ Spotlight News

MARK WEBER: New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective

 New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective

 New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates

To read a PDF version of the full report, click here.

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Executive Summary

Maintaining a high-quality teaching workforce is critically important for the future of public education in New Jersey. Federal data, however, show cause for concern: New Jersey is producing far fewer teacher candidates than a decade ago. In fact, the number of candidates completing teacher preparation programs has dropped 49 percent between 2009 and 2018. These declines, which are part of national and regional trends, cut across both gender and race. The dwindling number of teacher candidates creates instability in the teaching profession and jeopardizes the ability of students to learn.[1]

While reasons for the decline in teacher candidates are complex, we know that New Jersey’s teachers are paid considerably less than other college-educated workers, even when controlling for age and time worked.[2] Of particular concern is that the evidence suggests fewer college graduates see teaching as a viable career option with adequate compensation. New Jersey must aggressively address these problems if it wishes to retain its status as having one of the best education systems in the nation.

To stem the decline in teacher candidates, New Jersey should work to make the teaching profession more attractive by raising teacher pay, shoring up benefits, and increasing the respect and appreciation shown to New Jersey’s educators.

This report explores enrollment and completion data in teacher preparation programs, gives context around state policy changes affecting education professionals, reviews the level of teacher demand in the state, and examines the change in demographics within the profession over the past ten years.

Background

This past September, NJPP published an analysis of the New Jersey teaching corps entitled, New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce, 2019.[3] Among its findings:

• While factors outside of school are the strongest influences on student achievement, teacher quality is the most significant in-school influence.
• The research on teacher quality suggests that qualified people become teachers based, in part, on how well teaching pays compared to other jobs.
• Despite the importance of teachers, there is a significant gap in wages between New Jersey teachers and other college-educated workers in the state, even when accounting for differences in time worked.
• Pensions and health benefits do not fully close the pay gap between teachers and college-educated workers in other professions.
• New Jersey’s teaching workforce is mostly white and female; there is little evidence of a trend toward a more diverse teaching workforce.
• New Jersey’s teacher workforce is aging, suggesting a new wave of retirements in the next several years.

These findings are similar to other analyses, which show a significant pay gap for teachers compared to other college-educated workers.[4] Critics suggest, however, that these studies are flawed in that they don’t fully account for differences in benefits and other non-pecuniary compensation, unmeasured differences in talent between workers, and other factors. Teachers, they argue, are actually well-compensated, even in today’s tightening labor market.

To test these criticisms, this report examines whether more or fewer workers are becoming teachers. If teacher pay and benefits have kept pace with compensation in other sectors, we would expect to see workers respond in kind, and continue to enter the profession at previous rates. Because compensation levels influence workers’ decisions to go into teaching those workers would judge the benefits that teachers receive as adequate to close the teacher pay gap and continue to enroll in programs to prepare to become educators.[5]

The data, however, tell a different story. Fewer workers in New Jersey are electing to enter teacher preparation programs, a clear indication that teaching is not as attractive a career option as it once was.

Findings

Teacher Preparation Programs: Enrollment & Completion CONTINUE READING:  New Jersey’s Shrinking Pool of Teacher Candidates | New Jersey Policy Perspective

Bruce Baker: New Jersey spent 35 years and $100B trying to fix school inequity. It still has problems. - POLITICO

New Jersey spent 35 years and $100B trying to fix school inequity. It still has problems. - POLITICO

New Jersey spent 35 years and $100B trying to fix school inequity. It still has problems.

New research suggests the state’s failure to fully fund its approach to education spending has left a significant gap between white and Latinx students.

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey spent more than three decades and over $100 billion targeting money to its most struggling school districts in an attempt to rectify generations of inequity in its education system.

In the end, it just solved one problem and created another.

The funding helped level the playing field for Black students, ensuring children in the state’s poorest cities got the same amount of funding as those in some of the wealthiest towns. But new research suggests New Jersey’s failure to fully fund its approach to education spending after achieving those goals has left a significant gap between white and Latinx students.

New Jersey’s 30-year experiment shows how hard it is to truly fulfill promises to make public schools equitable, something that has been a cornerstone of protests this year after George Floyd’s killing in Minnesota that brought attention to racial and socioeconomic inequities across the U.S. The progressive policy became the subject of never-ending court battles, rancorous debates from Democrats and Republicans alike over who deserves state resources and a cost driver for the state budget, a third of which now goes to education aid.

Instead of making continual progress on funding, New Jersey is "backsliding," says researcher Bruce Baker.

“For the last decade, it’s really kind of fallen apart,” Baker, professor at Rutgers University‘s Graduate School of Education, said of school funding in New Jersey. “New Jersey schools now are about as equitable as they were in the early 1990s.”

New Jersey employs one of the most ambitious school funding approaches in the nation, using a complicated and controversial formula to redistribute state tax revenue to ensure all of its roughly 600 districts spend enough to meet the needs of every pupil.

But it hasn’t been enough. The state’s failure ever to fully fund the formula left many middle-of-the-road communities with fewer resources than either the poorest or richest districts. CONTINUE READING: New Jersey spent 35 years and $100B trying to fix school inequity. It still has problems. - POLITICO

Jersey Jazzman: Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Jersey Jazzman: Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Nothing makes me crazier than hacky discussions of tax and fiscal policy. And if you want the hackiest hacking about New Jersey's taxes, there's only one place to go: the Star-Ledger's opinion pages, where you'll find conservative Mike DuHaime and "liberal" (snort) Julie Roginsky hacking out the hackiest fiscal hacking imaginable:

Mike: Trenton Democrats will never let a good crisis go to waste. They are using COVID to raise income taxes, raise business taxes, raise taxes on healthcare and borrow billions. I am surprised Sweeney and Coughlin are supporting an income tax increase. The top 1% of earners in New Jersey are paying 40% of New Jersey’s income taxes. The top 10% pay 70% of the taxes. Wealthy people are leaving New Jersey, and as they leave, it is the middle class who keep getting more and more of the tax burden.

Julie: This deal fell into place because Speaker Coughlin was committed to provide real relief to working middle-class families and was finally able to spearhead an agreement that does just that by providing families with children with the money to pay for back-to-school expenses and other bills next year.

Mike: This is less than one-half of 1% of a tax credit for the average New Jersey household. Taxpayers deserve structural reforms that lower the cost of government and lower our heavy tax burden.

Julie: I agree, Mike. But in all the years a Republican governor was at the CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Jersey Jazzman: Racial and Class Bias In New Jersey's School Reopening Plans

Jersey Jazzman: Racial and Class Bias In New Jersey's School Reopening Plans

Racial and Class Bias In New Jersey's School Reopening Plans

Most New Jersey school districts are starting the 2020-21 school year this week -- although the way they are starting varies quite a bit. This year, some districts are fully remote, while others are offering a limited form of in-person instruction known as a "hybrid" model. Many of the districts offering the hybrid are rotating students in cohorts that switch between in-person and remote instruction; this way, students get at least some time in their school buildings.

The Murphy administration initially wanted all districts to offer some form of in-person instruction; however, many pushed back, saying they were not prepared. A large part of the problem is staffing: many districts are having trouble finding replacements for the wave of teachers who retired early or took leaves of absence rather than return during a pandemic. Governor Murphy has since allowed districts to apply to start the year remotely.

NJ Spotlight published a list late last week of which school districts -- including charter schools and private schools approved for special education -- would be implementing which model to start the year. I thought it was worth taking some time to crunch the numbers, even if many plans are, as of this writing, still under review. The list I'm using omits almost 200 districts, including every one in Hudson County. Still, it's instructive to see where we are as of now.

I should note before I start that a hybrid program does not require a student to attend CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Racial and Class Bias In New Jersey's School Reopening Plans

School Year 2020-21: We Are Asking the Wrong Questions | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

School Year 2020-21: We Are Asking the Wrong Questions | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

School Year 2020-21: We Are Asking the Wrong Questions

It is perfectly understandable that many in our country want public school buildings to be open for in person instruction this year. Among the many hardships of COVID-19 lock downs school closures were especially hard on children and families. Essential workers with very young children suddenly found it impossible to provide childcare and supervision. Parents who could work from home had to juggle the incompatible tasks of doing their own work while keeping an eye on children learning from remote. Remote schooling further demonstrated how unequal a society we are with millions of newly distant learners suffering from lack of reliable technology and sudden separation from the critical social and health services that rely upon school buildings to be delivered.  And, of course, a hastily cobbled together remote learning plan in response to a swiftly growing and deadly disease was a poor substitute for in person learning and the social and emotional growth it looks after.

So it is perfectly understandable that people wish to regain in person learning inside of school buildings in whatever way is possible given the reality of America’s situation. Children’s well being and our worsening economic situation would both benefit from a return to something resembling normality. Many of our largest school districts have had to back away from plans to reopen school buildings, and many other districts are seeing the consequences of opening buildings when conditions are not optimal. Despite these warnings, the nation’s largest school district, New York City with 1.1 million students, still plans a hybrid reopening of its 1700 schools by September 10th.

In all of this, it appears that our leaders – local, state, and national – mostly have been asking the wrong questions.

It has been said by others, but it bears repeating here: Schools never closed. School buildings closed, and teachers, administrators, and families scrambled to CONTINUE READING: School Year 2020-21: We Are Asking the Wrong Questions | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

Marie Corfield: An Open Letter to Gov. Murphy on School Reopening

Marie Corfield: An Open Letter to Gov. Murphy on School Reopening

An Open Letter to Gov. Murphy on School Reopening

Dear Gov. Murphy,

Within the next two weeks, school districts across New Jersey will be reopening in some way, shape or form. And while every district's plans will, no doubt, look different, one thing is the same from High Point to Cape May: this is a hot mess. 

In March, you gave us a clear directive to prepare for 100% virtual teaching until the end of that month. Educators across the state rose to the challenge as you very sensibly guided us through the rest of the school year one month at a time, checking the spread of the Coronavirus and its impact on our state's population. During that time, we were able to hone our skills and fine-tune our plans to deliver the very best virtual curriculum we could. We were proud of what we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time, and I personally was so proud to count my governor, whom I supported from the get-go, right up there with Gov. Andrew Cuomo as one who took this pandemic seriously and took decisive steps to contain it despite the heavy criticism you faced. You did it right and your efforts paid off. 

But as spring rolled into summer, the numbers started to rise—especially in children. Just last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "children and teenagers account for a growing share of coronavirus cases in Camden and Gloucester Counties, mirroring a national — and ominous — trend as young people rebel against social distancing rules, health experts say." 

Over the past few months, administrators, boards of education, community members and staff in every district have been working diligently on reopening plans (I was proud to serve on my district's reopening committee), the logistics of which often resembling a Rube Goldberg concoction. But now, with mere days until students arrive, many districts are ditching those plans and going 100% virtual—mine included—leaving parents and staff in the lurch as we all scramble to figure out how we are going to make it work in our homes and in our classrooms. Many districts have cited any or all of the following as their main stumbling blocks to reopening:

• Back ordered PPEs
• Inadequate HVAC systems and lack of air conditioning in many schools
• Many classrooms without windows or operable windows 
• Mold
• Inadequate classroom space to properly social distance
• Students having to eat in their classrooms
• Inability to social distance students on busses
• Staff members who are at high risk requesting medical leaves
• Shortage of substitutes to fill those positions
• Proper accommodations for students with special needs
• Available staff to properly clean buildings at the end of the day
• Inability of staff to clean equipment and certain classrooms in between classes

All of that costs money—which is in chronically short supply in many districts. Add to CONTINUE READING: Marie Corfield: An Open Letter to Gov. Murphy on School Reopening