Newsroom

Star Ledger
Editorial
June 25, 2010

The governor and the Legislature have worked hard to find consensus on a difficult budget but there’s one more change both sides should come together on: restoring $7.4 million to the state’s family planning program.

And the best part, it’s budget neutral. State bean counters projected a 10 percent increase in the cost of the state employee drug plan; now they say it will be far less, closer to 4 percent. Sen. Loretta Weinberg and others say that even allowing for a 6 percent increase, that frees up enough money to bring family planning back up to speed.

“That means there is enough to pay for it without new taxes or fees,” said Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union). “It’s redirecting existing funds.”

Some 140,000 men and women use the program’s services, which include physical screenings, birth control counseling and substance abuse programs. State funds are never used for abortions in the family planning centers.

Bills to restore the $7.4 million passed Senate and Assembly committees on Thursday. The bills also require the state to apply for federal funds that would extend family planning services to more low-income people under Medicaid. There’s no sense at all in leaving money on the table that can help improve the lives of residents and save scarce state funds by preventing catastrophic illnesses.

Eight NJ High Schools Teach Students Personal Finance, Budgeting in Pilot Program
Star-Ledger
Kristen Alloway
June 25, 2010

ELIZABETH — As Bayron Ortiz of Elizabeth and heads off to technical school, he is confident he will have a handle on how to manage his own money.

First, he’ll try to establish good credit and avoid racking up bills as he begins Lincoln Technical Institute in the fall.

"If you can’t afford it, it’s better not to buy it," said the 18-year-old graduate of Alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy. "That debt drags on for the rest of your life."

The recent Elizabeth High School graduate owes his knowledge of credit cards, interest rates and budgeting to the high school economics course he took this year, which included a hefty dose of personal finance.

Elizabeth is one of eight New Jersey districts that will pilot a program this fall to teach high school students personal finance — budgeting, credits cards and debt, saving and investing. As part of the revamped high school graduation requirements the state Department of Education unveiled a year ago, the high school class of 2014 — this fall’s freshmen — will be required to take a financial literacy course before receiving their diplomas.

Educators say the current economic downturn and sub-prime mortgage meltdown make it imperative that high school students learn how to handle money. Some question whether New Jersey’s requirement teaches enough economics and whether schools already strapped for cash because of budget cuts have the appropriate teachers.

This article recently appeared in The Council--the magazine of the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities. I was proud to be a co-sponsor of this bill in the State Assembly:

State and Federal Efforts to Remove "R-Word" from Laws Advance
from The Council, July 2010 issue

A US Senate committee has approved legislation to remove the words "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" from federal labor, health and education laws. The bill, sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Senator Michael Enzi, R-Wyoming, was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Commitee. It would replace the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" with "intellectual disability" and "individual with an intellectual disability."

The bill makes language used in federal law consistent with the language used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the White House through the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

The bill would not affect services, rights or educational opportunities for people with disabilities, and a preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found no cost associated with the change.

The bill now moves to the full US Senate for consideration.

In New Jersey, the State Senate has voted to approve legislation that would remove outdated terms for individuals with developmental disabilities from state law.

Courier Post
Barbara Rothschild
June 21, 2010

Three South Jersey schools are included in Newsweek magazine's list of top high schools in the nation.

Haddonfield High School and both Cherry Hill High School West and East appear on the magazine's list of America's Best High Schools 2010, now available on Newsweek's website.

The list includes 1,623 high schools across the country and is based on how hard school staffs work to challenge students with Advanced Placement and similar college-level courses and tests.

According to Newsweek, 6 percent of the nation's approximately 27,000 public schools made the list.

Rankings were calculated using an index ranking achieved by taking the total number of Advanced Placement tests, International Baccalaureate exams and/or a third little-utilized exam known as the Cambridge tests given at a school each year and dividing that figure by the number of seniors graduating that spring. To appear on the list, schools had to achieve a ratio of at least 1.000, meaning they had as many tests taken by members of the Class of 2009 as they had graduates.

Each list is based on the previous year's data, so the 2010 list has numbers for 2009. The 1.000 index can be achieved if half the students at a school take one AP test during their junior year and another one in their senior year, for example.

In this year's list, Haddonfield came in at 1,022 with an index of 1.574. Cherry Hill West was ranked 1,441 with a 1.164 index and Cherry Hill East was ranked 1,559 with an index of 1.058.

Sell Ad Space at Toll Plazas

Courier Post
Editorial
June 11, 2010

The state should be eager to raise money for road projects without hiking tolls or taxes.

The state's transportation trust fund is nearly empty. Lawmakers in Trenton saw this coming for years and have long debated whether to raise the state gasoline tax. We have the third-lowest gasoline tax in the nation here -- a most unusual circumstance in a state where virtually every other tax ranks among the highest in the nation.

Because all our other taxes are so inflated, state legislators have, rightly, been afraid to raise the gasoline tax and shake more money out of New Jerseyans' pockets.

But the transportation trust fund, which provides money for major road repair and renovation projects, still desperately needs an infusion of cash. There are dozens of major roadwork projects on the drawing boards that have waited years for state funding.

Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt, D-Camden, and Assemblyman Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, have a common sense proposal for how to generate some cash for these projects without raising any taxes or tolls -- put ads at the toll plazas on our highways.