Workshop Headliners Include Kennedy Townsend, Ellis and Clift

New Jersey Teacher of the Year to be Honored at Workshop

Registration Full for Advanced Board Member Training

Forty Districts Receive NJSBAIG Safety Awards

Poverty No Factor in Special Education Classification

Suit Attempts to Restart School Construction

Voucher Suit Dismissed

Presenting the 2007 Communications Competition Winners

Court Allows Hitler Youth Buttons at School

NJSBA Board of Directors to Meet

NJSBA Executive Committee to Meet

Calendar

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A Superior Court Judge last week dismissed a suit that called for a voucher system to allow students in low-performing New Jersey schools to attend the public or private school of their choice.

The case, Crawford v. Davy, was filed by Van-Ness Crawford, the father of three children who attend school in Newark, against the state and 25 districts.

The lawsuit defined “failing schools” as those where a majority of students taking at least one of the state’s standardized tests are not provided with the skills and knowledge necessary to pass the tests. The plaintiffs sought to leave these schools with their share of per-pupil state and local funding to attend schools of their choice.

Not in Isolation Mercer County Superior Court Judge Neil Shuster, in the Oct. 4 opinion, said the court should not make critical education decisions in isolation, without the expertise of education and policy specialists. His ruling stated that “problems with our education system are inherently practical and societal ones, and therefore, it is not easily determined what constitutes the best remedy for resolving such problems. Plaintiffs would have the Court ignore these practical problems, but ignoring such problems effectively ignores what may be the most vital piece to the puzzle.”