House Subcommittee Approves Pallone Legislation to Repair School Water Fountains Containing Lead

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 13, 2017



Legislation was Successfully Attached to Safe Drinking Water Legislation During an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Markup

Washington, D.C. – Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment Subcommittee approved legislation introduced earlier this year by Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) to provide grant funding to public schools to replace lead drinking water fountains. The amendment was approved as part of a Subcommittee markup to reauthorize the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, a larger bill to update America’s drinking water infrastructure. Pallone serves as the Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

“Lead in school drinking water is an immediate and serious threat for children in cities across New Jersey and the nation,” said Pallone. “Today we are one step closer to eliminating one of the main sources of lead exposure in schools. My proposal will provide schools with funding to replace lead drinking fountains and continue to monitor lead levels in drinking water for years to come.”

Pallone’s amendment would authorize $5 million for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2021 to help replace older fountains and to supplement the costs of monitoring and reporting lead levels in the drinking water of schools of a local educational agency receiving such funds.

The New Jersey congressman has been a longtime leader in calling for action to improve water infrastructure and to remove lead from our drinking water. Earlier this year, Pallone led House Democrats in introducing legislation to comprehensively update the Safe Drinking Water Act, which has not been updated in more than 20 years.

Pallone’s school drinking water proposal will now advance to the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

DEMOCRATS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION RELEASES LIST OF BOLD-FACE NAME SUPPORTERS FROM ACROSS USA

DPE Momentum Continues To Grow

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, Democrats For Public Education (DPE) released a list of bold-face names who signed on as supporters for the newly-launched organization. DPE is a 527 formed to show that Democrats remain united around a core set of principles to ensure public education thrives for generations to come. Since officially launching on August 19th, 2014, scores of elected officials, party leaders and activists at all levels of government - and from communities in all 50 states - have already added their names as supporters.

"In less than two months since officially launching, its no surprise that Democrats for Public Education has already enjoyed such a flood of support," said DPE Co-Chair Denise Juneau, Montana State Superintendent of Instruction. "These folks understand that a high-quality public education is an economic necessity, a moral imperative and a pillar of democracy. We believe we should be lifting up and championing public education, teachers and our neighborhood schools - by investing time, energy and resources."

Below is just a small sampling of Democrats from all across America who have signed on to support DPE:

• Parris Glendening - Former Maryland Governor
• Mark Schauer - Candidate for Governor of Michigan, Former U.S. Representative
• Lon Johnson - Michigan Democratic Party Chair, DNC Member
• Ray Buckley - New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair, DNC Vice-Chair, ASDC President
• Wallace Collins - Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair, DNC Member
• Karen Carter Peterson - Louisiana Democratic Party Chair, Louisiana State Senator, DNC Executive Committee
• Diane Ravitch - NYU Research Professor of Education, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education
• Rita Solnet - Co-Founder of Parents Across America, Former PTA President and Former School Advisory Board Member for Palm Beach County Schools
• Alice Huffman - California NAACP President, National Board of Directors of the NAACP, DNC Member
• Doris Crouse-Mays - Virginia AFL-CIO President, DNC Executive Committee
• Minyon Moore - Former Assistant to the President, Director of White House Political Affairs and Director of White House Public Liasion under President Clinton, DNC Executive Committee, Democratic Strategist
• Maria Cardona - Former Senior Advisor and spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign, former Senior Vice President for the New Democrat Network (NDN), served as Deputy Press Secretary and Press Secretary at the Department of Commerce, former Communications Director the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Strategist
• Loretta Weinberg - New Jersey State Senate Majority Leader
• Martha Fuller Clark - New Hampshire State Senator, First Vice-Chair of New Hampshire Democratic Party, DNC Member
• Rich Madaleno - Maryland State Senator
• Bonnie Watson Coleman - New Jersey Assemblywoman, candidate for Congress
• Edie McClafferty - Member, Montana State House of Representatives
• Margie MacDonald - Member, Montana State House of Representatives
• Ellen Cogen Lipton - Member, Michigan State House of Representatives
• Mimi Stewart - Member, New Mexico State House of Representatives
• Joel Briscoe - Minority Caucus Manager and Member, Utah State House of Representatives
• Anita Bonds - District of Columbia Council Member At-Large, DNC Executive Committee
• Barbra Casbar Siperstein - New Jersey Democratic State Committee Vice-Chair and DNC Executive Committee
• Andres Ramirez - Vice-Chair, DNC Hispanic Caucus
• Karren Pope-Onwukwe - Attorney and DNC Member, Maryland
• Lottie Shackelford - Chair of DNC Women’s Caucus, Former Mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas
• Maggie Allen - Principal at Windsor Elementary School (Maine), DNC Member

Last month, Democrats For Public Education (DPE) released the results of a national voter survey showing voters back public education in large numbers. You can view the poll memo on its findings here.

For more information – and to sign-up as a supporter – please visit www.DemocratsForPublicEducation.com.

Democrats For Public Education Op-Ed: It's All About the Children

Time and again, we hear this refrain from everyone who ever talks about education, from every angle. It's been the purported basis of speeches, documentaries and now lawsuits. But how can it be all about the children when you have some - under the guise of "education reform" - undermining America's public schools?

As kids across the country go back to school, it's time to get back to the basic values that bind us together. As one of the chairs of a new organization called Democrats for Public Education, I'm part of a group focused on just that - supporting public education. We believe in instilling critical thinking skills needed for 21st-century jobs and the new economy. We support superior standards and finding ways to make classrooms challenging and rewarding for both teachers and students. And we're committed to a level playing field for all with well-resourced schools responsive to the needs of our communities.

As a proud graduate of Louisiana's public schools, I know the importance of a good public education. I know just how tough it is to make something of yourself when you start off with little or nothing. Right now, a galling 22 percent of children in America - the richest country in history - live in poverty, and nearly half come from low-income families struggling to meet basic needs. The only way we can break cycles of poverty, while revitalizing and growing our middle-class, is to support our public schools. Frankly, it's the way we can provide a springboard for the working poor and preserve our American values.

Education is not a business. Students aren't robots, and they shouldn't be treated like assembly line workers at the test prep factory. Attempts to move our classrooms toward an unregulated, survival-of-the-fittest, business-first mentality ignores the purpose of education. Indeed, the very premise of "market-driven education reform" rests on a lie. It's an outright fallacy that our public school system is in crisis and that the only solution is to let the market pick winners and losers. Our kids are not losers! We must measure success not by how children score on a narrow standardized test, but by how they deal with the varied tests of life.

Tests don't inspire learning. Teachers and parents do. We should be championing educators as heroes. They're the ones dedicating their lives to shaping young minds. They're the ones in the classroom day in and day out. So when education professionals with decades of first-hand experience give constructive criticism, we should listen with open ears and an open mind. Simply put, they're the ones who know best.

Here's what dedicated parents and seasoned educators all across the country see: stalled reform efforts, poor implementation of programs and nervous students spending 30 percent of their school year on test preparation. By speaking out about this troubling pattern, teachers are exemplifying what it truly means to be answerable to and responsible for the well-being of children.

Teachers aren't afraid of real accountability. But the accountability of a teacher - or the achievement of a student - cannot and should never be boiled down to a few test scores per year. Further, it's doubly unfair to judge teachers on student performance, when the performance itself is being judged by an imperfect, dubious standard. According to a PDK/Gallup poll, three in four Americans believe the previous decade's obsession with standardized testing either had no effect or even hurt our schools. It's no surprise that nearly 60 percent say they don't support using test scores to evaluate teachers.

No one benefits when "education experts" - many with only a couple years in the classroom and some with none at all - tell teachers that their expertise doesn't matter and they don't have the best interests of children at heart. When you peel back the onion, it's clear these well-orchestrated attacks are coming from nothing more than a few well-funded, vocal groups intent on cherry-picking statistics and warping facts.

Public schools aren't just a cornerstone of our society, they're also critical democratic institutions. And every child deserves a chance. The assault on public education is an attack on the principles of democracy and the foundation of our country. The "I-Me-Mine" philosophy that drives Wall Street, the corporatists and would-be oligarchs and their political minions doesn't belong in the classroom.

Enough is enough. It's time we collectively push back against efforts to undermine America's education system, our teachers and the kids themselves. That's why, as classrooms start filling up again here at the end of summer, I'm proud to be part of an effort to help Democrats for Public Education get off the ground. It's time to lift up public education and remind everyone that this truly is about our children. The way to do that is by working together in every community to ensure our public schools endure - and thrive - for generations to come.

Don't let Gov. Christie sneak school vouchers into the budget

From the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey:

If at first you don't succeed, slip your plan into a budget bill when you think no one's looking. That's exactly what Gov. Chris Christie has done by stuffing a $2 million private school voucher program into the budget.

The only way to remove a proposal slipped into the budget is if our legislators take it out. Email your lawmakers in Trenton: Tell them that shoehorning vouchers into the budget is unconstitutional.

This $2 million plan for private school vouchers violates the New Jersey Constitution in three ways:

• The state Constitution forbids officials from using the budget process to create substantive new policies, but that's exactly what's happening with vouchers. It's one thing to consider legislation through an open process with public input; it's another to sneak an unpopular, controversial, constitutionally questionable program in the state budget.
• NJ's Constitution calls for a "thorough and efficient" education, and it spells out how: through a "system of free public schools." It explicitly states that money for that system of free public schools should be used only for that purpose and nothing else.
• Private school vouchers use government money to support religious organizations. "Private schools" range widely, but the most affordable ones, where the majority of tuition can be covered by the vouchers, tend to be parochial schools. (More than half of private schools nationwide are religiously affiliated.) That means private school vouchers encourage enrollment in religious schools, and when state money goes to a parochial school, it violates the state Constitution's ban on public money supporting religious institutions . What's more troubling is that legislators have said publicly they hope vouchers will support religious schools with financial struggles. That is not why we pay taxes.

When school vouchers are discussed in the public arena, they're not popular – and for good reason. They divert public education funding to private and religious schools where civil rights laws, transparency regulations, and state standards don't always apply.

When a reporter asked the Christie administration about potential legal action challenging the constitutionality of Christie's actions, his spokesman replied: Bring it on.

Well, right now you can bring it on – by bringing your voice to your legislators.

Our hard-earned dollars should be spent on educating our children, not diverting money into unaccountable, secretive schools that have no imperative to respect students' or employees' civil rights.

ACLU of New Jersey
www.aclu-nj.org

Best High Schools In NJ; Middletown HSS and Middletown HSN Lagging Behind

I don't know how many people last weekend saw this but the Star Ledger Magazine, Inside Jersey, published an interesting article about the "Best High Schools In New Jersey" and ranked them based on test scores, zip codes and medium home values or what is called a District Factor Group (DFG), the exceptions of course being the various vocational schools around the state such as High Technology High School, located in Brookdale Community College; Biotechnology High School in Freehold; Communications High School in Wall; Academy of Allied Health and Science in Neptune; and Marine Academy Science and Technology housed at Fort Hancock Historic District on Sandy Hook, which ranked much higher than all the classic public high schools in the state.

Within its DFG, Middletown South was #19 and Middletown North was #50 and were out performed by the several schools that make up the Freehold regional system, Edison's J.P Stevens High School as well as Camden's Eastern High.

Of the 26 public high schools in Monmouth County, Middletown HSS is 6th best behind  Rumson-Fair Haven, Holmdel, Marlboro, Colts Neck, and Manasquan. 

Middletown HSN trail behind at 14th with the likes of Manalapan,Wall and Red Bank Regional in front of it.

The big divide between our two high schools raises a few questions, especially the efficiency of our Board of Education. The socio-economic divide from east to west in Middletown can't be that great to justify a 31 placement difference within the DFG. It definitely lends to the argument that many residents have about our schools being separate and unequal.

I hope that our Superintendent of Schools, Bill George and our BOE, take this survey as a wake-up call and seriously consider what can be done to bring our two high schools closer together in performance.

NJPP Monday Minute 10/4/10: 'Friending' schools in Newark

There are those in New Jersey, among them Governor Christie, who argue that the state spends too much money on too many things - including its public schools. But in order to have an honest, informed debate about that public investment, it's important to compare the rhetoric with the actual numbers to see if they match up.

Sometimes they don't.

Take for example state spending on Newark's public schools. Compare the numbers discussed publicly in recent weeks and the actual numbers reported by the state. And then contrast those figures with the pledge of $100 million of Facebook stock to the Newark schools that was announced September 24.

A day before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made his announcement, alongside Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Christie, on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the governor decried the deplorable and wasteful state of education in Newark, telling the Star-Ledger that New Jersey spends a whopping $24,000 per student in the Newark school system.

That figure is incorrect, according to data from the governor's own administration. The New Jersey Department of Education's Office of Fiscal Policy and Planning puts per student spending in Newark at $16,911 in the 2009-2010 school year budget (down from $19,756 the previous year.) The 2009-2010 state average for per student spending is $13,860, according to DOE.

The Education Law Center, a non-profit legal advocacy group that focuses on public school finance, says even that overstates the true cost per student, which varies widely by district. ELC argues a "weighted" calculation is a more accurate measure than simply dividing the total school budget by the number of students because it factors in the higher cost of educating students who might be impoverished or have special learning needs or limited English proficiency. The ELC's weighted calculations from its March 2010 analysis, which is based on state figures, puts spending per student in Newark at $10,517 for 2009-2010.

Both the Department of Education's and the Education Law Center's figures are substantially lower than the figure cited by Governor Christie. The Governor's Office of Communications referred a question for clarification to the DOE's Office of Communications. A DOE spokesman said Newark's per student cost of $23,600 - rounded up to $24,000 by the governor - covers all expenses in Newark, including transportation and "other" costs. The spokesman did not respond to a follow-up inquiry about what "other costs" are included in that more expansive calculation.

Per student spending is one thing, but how much does New Jersey spend in total on Newark's public schools?

"For context, we spend $900 million plus or minus in the City of Newark school system right now in state funds," Governor Christie told reporters at a news conference in Newark the day after the Oprah announcement.

The actual figure is $815 million -- $85 million less than the figure given by the governor, according to state Department of Education documents. The Education Law Center also cites the $815 million total as the state's contribution to Newark.

To give the governor his due, he did say $900 million "plus or minus," but rounding up from $815 million amounts to almost all of Zuckerberg's donation. It's unlikely the governor would want to equate the Facebook CEO's gift with a rounding error. A Department of Education spokesman did not respond to inquiries about the difference.

The state has cut total state aid to all school districts by $1.2 billion since January (which amounts to 10 percent of the yearly total in a state that already ranks near the bottom in state spending on schools). In Newark, to date, the Christie administration has cut $56.3 million in public school aid -- $13.7 million in mid-year FY2010 cuts and $42.6 million in FY2011, according to both DOE and ELC.

That lost aid makes Zuckerberg's $100 million matching grant very important to Newark. Zuckerberg's grant even dwarfs the $23.7 million that Newark received from the federal legislation signed by President Obama in August to help school districts rehire laid off teachers.

While Zuckerberg's largesse might be welcome, it raises complicated issues.

The money is focused entirely on one city, to the exclusion of neighboring Irvington or other urban cities like Camden or Trenton. That raises questions of fairness and favoritism in a public school system established on the ideal of equal education for all students.

It is also an unprecedented injection of corporate money into a public school system, which raises questions of governance and democracy. Decisions in the public schools are supposed to be driven by the local voters through the school board and state Department of Education - not 26-year-old fledgling billionaires. In the words of ELC founder and Rutgers Law School Professor Paul Tractenberg to the Star-Ledger's Bob Braun, "This is a very dangerous moment for public education. Instead of facing up to our responsibilities to support the schools, we are tearing them apart. We are destroying the very values that created the public school system."

The least we could do, then, is get the numbers right.

NARAL Pro-Choice America Praises Introduction of Lautenberg-Lee REAL Act

Press Release

WASHINGTON - March 17 - Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice American and a former teacher and state education official, today praised Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) for leading the effort to establish the first-ever federal program for comprehensive sex education.

The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would fund honest, realistic sex education for young people in public schools around the country.

"This bill reflects the American value that our teens should get honest, realistic information in the classroom," Keenan said. "As someone who spent 25 years as a teacher and state education official in Montana, I commend Sen. Lautenberg, Rep. Lee, and all the bill's supporters for answering the public's call to move away from the failed Bush-backed 'abstinence-only' policy. Americans, especially parents, want to provide teens with the truth about contraception and other ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and avoid unintended pregnancy. The parents I talk to believe that values are taught at home and the facts are taught at school. The REAL Act reflects this principle."

This year, in a departure from years past, Congress heeded the public's call for a focus on commonsense solutions to prevent unintended pregnancies and to cut funding for failed "abstinence-only" programs of the Bush era by $14 million.

Currently, states and localities can only receive federal funding if they agree to teach "abstinence-only" programs in their schools. That means teachers must censor information about the health benefits of contraception. Under the REAL Act, states could apply for federal funding to teach honest and age appropriate sex-education classes in their schools.

NARAL Pro-Choice America will continue to work with lawmakers to advance this legislative measure as a part of its Prevention FirstPrevention First initiative in 2005 to advance commonsense policy solutions to prevent unintended pregnancies and therefore reduce the need for abortion. initiative. NARAL Pro-Choice America launched the

For more information, please visit www.ProChoiceAmerica.org.

For more than 30 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has been the nation's leading advocate for privacy and a woman's right to choose. With more than one million members and supporters, NARAL Pro-Choice America is fighting to protect the pro-choice values of freedom and privacy. With the Supreme Court one vote away from overturning Roe v. Wade and many state legislatures under anti-choice control, our work has never been more important.