Sunday Leftovers

The New Jersey Charter Schools Association issued a report that shows the inequity in facilities between traditional public schools and charters. From the Star-Ledger:

Almost three-quarters of New Jersey's charter schools that participated in a recent survey were built before 1970, and a third are housed in buildings not originally built as schools, according to an analysis released today.

The study by the New Jersey Charter Schools Association and two other charter school groups, found a majority of the state's charter schools are "outdated," most don't have their own athletic fields or access to one that's nearby and many students do not attend class in specialized instructional spaces such as science labs, art or music rooms.

New Jersey is one of the few states that doesn’t provide facilities aid to charters, but forces them to rely on private aid. It’s a win-win for charter-opponents: they can both deny aid for brick-and-mortar and also excoriate charter schools for using private donations. Also, here's coverage from The Record.

NJ’s Anti-Bullying Task Force has issued its Interim Report, which, according to NJ Spotlight, recommends “that schools be allowed more discretion in identifying and investigating possible acts of bullying.”

Speaking of the anti-bullying law, the Star-Ledger reports that “[i]n the first two cases challenging the merits of New Jersey's tough new anti-bullying law, state education Commissioner Christopher Cerf upheld decisions by school boards in Tenafly and East Brunswick to discipline students found to have bullied classmates. Also see NJ Spotlight coverage.

Chris Boyajian argues in an editorial in the Star-Ledger that the Legislature should pass the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which he describes as a “tax credit-funded program designed to help children in the state’s seven lowest-performing school districts by offering them scholarships that allow them to attend the school of their choice.” (Of course, the Assembly only gets to have a vote if Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver assigns the bill to a committee.)

The Florence Board of Education is actively fighting a plan by the local Riverbank Charter School of Excellence (which also serves kids in Burlington Township, Mansfield, Medford, Mount Holly and Willingboro) to expand from a K-3 school to a K-5 school. From Philly Burbs:

The board authorized Mount Laurel law firm Parker McCay to legally challenge the use of public funding for the expansion, which by law must be funded by private or federal money. The board takes issue with a line item in the charter school’s expansion budget that allocates $150,000 of public funds for the purchase of land/improvements.

Riverbank disputes the characterization and says that the expansion would be paid for under the charter’s operating budget.

From the Courier-Post: “Female students at a Catholic high school in North Jersey have taken a “no-cursing” pledge at the request of school administrators, though some question why no such demand was made of male students.”

The Millburn Board of Education, recently in the news for losing a court case by trying, according to her parents and their advocates, to shortchange a young girl with autism (see earlier coverage here and here) is appealing the Administrative Law Judge's ruling.

In an animated comment section of Diane Ravitch's blog, Save Our Schools-NJ tries to justify why it denigrates charter schools for fostering "segregation" yet supports magnet schools.

In today’s New York Times, Christina Hoff Sommers, author of “The War Against Boys,” details the “boy-averse” trends in early education, “like the decline of recess, zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, the tendency to criminalize minor juvenile misconduct and the turn away from single-sex schooling. As our schools have become more feelings-centered, risk-averse, collaboration-oriented and sedentary, they have moved further and further from boys’ characteristic sensibilities.”