The Murphy Administration recently announced a trio of programs designed to combat learning loss within New Jersey as a result of the pandemic. The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) said the three initiatives would focus on evidenced-based strategies to promote academic recovery for students who were impacted by learning loss associated with time away from school. The initiatives would favor elementary-aged students, saying evidenced-based research had found these students experienced more significant developmental setbacks during the pandemic when compared to other student cohorts. “As a state that prides itself on delivering the high-quality education our children deserve, addressing the effects of learning loss on our students’ progress remains a top priority,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. North-JerseyNews.com
The New Jersey Department of Education released details of the proposed funding allotments for each school district March 2, amounting to more than $830 million in additional aid statewide, for a total record-high of $20.5 billion in school funding. In all, more than 400 districts will see increases ranging from a few thousand dollars in small communities like Bay Head and Byrum to $114 million in Newark and $46 million in Elizabeth. But 157 districts are facing cuts under Murphy’s latest plan. The cuts will be under $100,000 for almost half of those districts, but for 25 of them the cuts will be over $1 million. The outlier is Jersey City, whose funding will be cut by another $50 million. NJ Spotlight News
The State Senate Education Committee heard testimony for two hours of the mental health challenges facing teen March 2 at the Statehouse in Trenton on what schools in the state can do to prevent student suicides following a high-profile case in Bayville and a national report on adolescent mental health issues. “When school counselors lead suicide prevention efforts, students benefit, and the programs can help students help other students,” Jessica Smedley, legislative chair of the New Jersey School Counselor Association, told the committee. NJ.com
Two high profile New Jersey political figures are associated with new political action committees centered on fighting the current culture wars in the Garden State. Former Rep. Tom Malinowski filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to forward money left over from his 2022 re-election campaign into Districts for Democracy PAC to counter efforts by groups that want to restrict what is taught in public schools. On the other side of the political spectrum, conservative radio personality Bill Spadea is serving as honorary chairman for the recently launched Elect Common Sense PAC. The mission statement of the PAC states in part it wants to reverse the “woke culture dominating our schools and government institutions.” North-JerseyNews.com
The House Ethics Committee announced March 2 that it had opened a broad investigation into Rep. George Santos (R-NY) questions about his campaign finances. The committee’s top-ranking Republican and Democratic members said in a statement that they would seek to determine whether Santos had failed to properly fill out his House financial disclosure forms, violated federal conflict of interest laws or engaged in other unlawful activity during his 2022 congressional campaign. The committee will also examine an allegation of sexual misconduct from a prospective congressional aide who briefly worked in Santos’s office. The New York Times
House ethics investigators said they have evidence Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) ran afoul of congressional rules after she was slow to reimburse vendors for clothing and other expenses tied to her participation in the 2021 Met Gala. The Office of Congressional Ethics stated in its June 2022 report that Ocasio-Cortez “may have accepted impermissible gifts” in the form of hair and makeup services, attire for the event and transportation provided by magazine publisher Condé Nast, fashion brand Brother Vellies and other vendors associated with the event. Those services totaled over $5,000, above the limit on gifts for lawmakers set forth in federal law and congressional ethics rules. The Wall Street Journal
A New Jersey State Trooper was shot in Paterson in an area that Rep. Bill Pascrell said was just “feet from our door” of his home. According to Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, the incident occurred around 12:50 a.m. March 2 in the area of 28th Street and 9th Avenue. Pascrell, in Washington during the time of the incident, offered prayers for the trooper who was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital to have surgery after being shot in the leg. “Right now I am rushing back from Washington to check in on my wife and my neighbors,” said the Paterson native. “Gun violence is a plague on America. If a shooting can happen on the street of a member of Congress, it can happen anywhere.” North-JerseyNews.com
More than 6 in 10 New Jerseyans continue to give positive ratings to their home state as a place to live but the quality of life has dropped significantly among urban residents according to the latest Monmouth University Poll. Compared to a year ago, the index score for urban residents has dropped by 15 points but only declining by 2 points among those who live in stable growth towns and increased by 2 points among those in New Jersey’s growing suburbs. While a disparity between these community types has been evident throughout the history of the Garden State Quality of Life Index, the gap in the current poll is among the largest seen since the first reading in 2010. InsiderNJ.com
Denise Ridley, a two-term Jersey City Councilwoman, has emerged as a serious candidate to succeed State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-31) due to health reasons. Hudson County Democratic sources have confirmed that the 39-year-old Ridley is under active consideration for the Senate seat but noted that the final choice would rest with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. At one point, longtime Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea was viewed as the front-runner but is no longer in contention. But Fulop, a likely candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2025, reportedly does not want to be viewed as replacing a Black woman with a white man. New Jersey Globe
The Hoboken city council voted unanimously to introduce a raise to the maximum salary for the city’s police chief from $255,000 to $260,000. Chief Steven Aguiar was appointed in February 2022 and awarded a raise to $255,000 two months later. The police chief position salary at the start of 2022 was $226,000. Since then, former Police Chief Ken Ferrante was hired as public safety director at an annual salary of $155,000 and Hudson County Board of Commissioners member Anthony Romano, a retired police captain, was appointed to a part-time position as public safety advisor at a salary of $50,000 annually. The Jersey Journal
Donald Trump can be sued in civil lawsuits that seek to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the Justice Department argued March 2, declining to back the former president’s claims of “absolute immunity” from allegations he sparked the violence that disrupted the peaceful transfer of power. While expressing no view on the truth of the allegations, the Justice Department urged a three-judge appeals-court panel to reject the former president’s immunity claims in lawsuits brought by Capitol police officers and Democratic lawmakers that say he incited his supporters to storm the Capitol. The Wall Street Journal
Frustrations boiled over on March 2 in the largest public confrontation yet between the people of East Palestine, OH, and Norfolk Southern, the operator of the freight train that derailed nearly a month ago. Residents vented and pleaded, describing how their families were still living in hotels or experiencing lingering health problems, including repeated vomiting and rashes. They told the officials how they felt trapped, with few resources to move away from the homes they had spent their lives building, and demanded more answers about the validity of the testing done on their air, water and soil. The New York Times
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) urged Democratic colleagues to hold talks with Republicans on cutting federal spending, ahead of a Summer deadline to reach a deal on raising the country’s debt ceiling. Manchin said he wants a short-term deal to bring down spending this year as well as a longer-term plan to tackle future fiscal challenges. “My Democratic friends don’t want to say a word about our out-of-control spending and are outright refusing to even talk to Republicans about reasonable and responsible reforms,” Manchin said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We’re going to pay our debts, we have to pay our sins of the past, but can’t we at least sit down and discuss? Can we even talk about that and see if there’s a pathway forward?” The Wall Street Journal
Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation lawyer whose family long exerted influence in small-town courtrooms across parts of South Carolina, was convicted of murdering his wife and son on March 2. The guilty verdict followed a nearly six-week-long trial as the jury took only three hours to reach a verdict. Murdaugh will be sentenced on Friday morning with prosecutors seeking a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The New York Times
An Essex County jury awarded $1.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages to two white veteran educators who charged they were denied vice principal jobs at Newark high schools because of their race and age. Instead, the jobs went to younger people of color who, the suit charged, were less experienced and less qualified. The suit was filed jointly in 2015 by Anna D’Antonio, 69, a former athletic director at Weequahic High School, and Donna Stridacchio, 65, who was chair of the math department at Barringer High School. NJ.com
Reconfiguration of grade levels in River Edge district schools will not take place in the upcoming school year. Superintendent Cathy Danahy said during the March 2 school board meeting that she and the board have repeatedly heard concerns from community members about the reconfiguration process moving “too fast, too soon” and concerns about the safety of students moving to and from school. The proposal would make the Cherry Hill School campus, which includes the district’s New Bridge Center, home to pre-kindergarten through third-grade classes. Roosevelt School would host fourth through sixth grades. The Record
And finally…New Jersey Catholics are be given dispensation to eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day this year as it lands on a Friday. The Daily Record
