SenateNJ.com

The incident began when officials at the Horace Mann Elementary School said Aiken Chaifetz was becoming violent. But his dad, Stuart Chaifetz, says he had never shown such tendencies before, which is why he sent his son to school wearing a wire.

Stu Chaifetz says, “They (bully teachers) can really destroy lives. I saw my son changing. I saw the light leaving his eyes.”

The attorney for the teacher involved in the Chaifetz matter denies the allegations.

Julio Artuz says he was bullied by a teacher too. He explains, “He would threaten me and say he would beat me up. It was an every day thing……..I just want this to stop. I don’t want anybody else to have to feel the way that it made me feel.”

After hearing audio recordings of the teacher and an aide mocking and swearing at the boy most New Jerseyans feel the teacher should be fired immediately. It’s not as easy as that. Terminating a tenured teacher takes a long time, costs a lot of money and in the end the teacher everyone feels should be fired might never be fired anyway. One state legislator is looking to change that for teachers who are bullying kids

State Senator Diane Allen sponsored the bill that became the state’s anti-bullying law. She says she’s looking into amending that bill or drafting an entirely new one to make it easier to fire tenured teachers if it is found that they bullied a student in school.

Allen is proposing legislation that will speed the disciplinary process for teachers and other school officials found to have engaged in bullying, intimidation, or harassment of students.

Under the bill reported incidents of bullying by teachers must be investigated by the school’s anti-bullying specialist within four to ten days. If evidence is found to substantiate the accusation, the school’s superintendent must immediately report said finding to the district’s board of education, and tenure charges must be filed by the board against the employee within three days. In the case of a non-tenured employee, substantiated misconduct would result in immediate termination and revocation of his or her state certifications.

“My bill extends New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act to bullying that is conducted by teachers and other school employees,” says Allen. “Thankfully, these incidents are rare. However, recent events in Cherry Hill and Camden illustrate that current law does not provide for adequately swift or severe punishment of school staff who engage in this behavior.”

The Call For Shorter Investigations

Allen says the entire investigation should take no longer than 6 weeks.

Mike Yaple with the New Jersey School Boards Association says firing a tenured teacher right now starts with a lengthy hearing. He explains, “The process takes about a year. It can cost in the six-digits because that includes attorneys fees, paying for a substitute teacher and paying the teacher because after 120 days, by law the teachers’ salaries are restored”

Even if it is decided that the teacher in question should be fired, that doesn’t mean the teacher will be fired. Yaple explains, “It’s up to the state education officials to decide whether or not that teacher would lose their job…..Because of the time and the cost and the unpredictability, you really only see the worst of the worst cases being brought forth.”

In New Jersey, teacher tenure is job protection that is acquired after working three years and a day in a school district. Tenure was established over a century ago before the myriad of statute, regulations and case law that we have today.

Schools today operate with the oversight by the NJ Department of Education, and must follow decisions made by the New Jersey School Ethics Commission, grievances heard by the Public Employment Relations Commission, anti-nepotism regulations, and an accumulation of years of labor laws. In addition, school employees have one of the most well-financed labor unions in the state.

To remove someone with tenure, “tenure charges” can be filed for conduct unbecoming (most common); inefficiency (doing the job poorly); incapacity (person is physically or mentally unable to perform his/her job duties); or abandonment of job. Any person can file tenure charges, but it’s usually it’s a principal or school administrator. The charges are first brought to the school board secretary, who notifies the employee that tenure charges have been filed. The employee has 15 days to respond to the Board of Education. The Board of Education holds a hearing and decides whether to proceed. If the school board believes there is not probable cause, the matter is dropped.

If there is sufficient evidence, the board files the tenure charges with the state Commissioner of the NJ Department of Education. The Commissioner assigns an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) to hold a hearing, and there is a process similar to a court case, with evidence presented, etc. The ALJ makes a recommendation, and the Commissioner can accept, reject or modify the ALJ’s recommendation. In some cases, the Commissioner may decide the person should only experience a loss in pay, or not lose their job at all.

There are typically two to four dozen instances a year when a board files tenure charges with the Commissioner, but some of those cases are settled or become moot if the teacher moves or quits, etc. The Commissioner only adjudicates a handful of those cases: It can range from 8 or 9 a year, and in some years it might be around 12 to 20 cases that are decided. That is a very small number out of 136,441 certified school staff throughout the state for 2010-11.

Tenure reform proposal in the state Legislature would create a multi-tiered evaluation system for teachers and principals based on merit (e.g., using student performance as one measure of success). Tenure for teachers or any principal would be revoked if they do no show improvement after two poor annual evaluations. In addition, it would take at least four years for new teachers to obtain tenure.

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The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development reports the private sector created 63 hundred new jobs last month, while the public sector lost 37 hundred positions, so the net gain was only 26 hundred jobs.

Pat O’Keefe, the Director of Economic Research at JH Cohn, says “the numbers tell us April was another month of sub-par job growth here in New Jersey – and very similar to what we’re seeing nationally…when we look at total employment, we gained a small number of jobs in April – just about offsetting the loss that we incurred in March.”

He says for the better part of 2 ½ to 3 years, job growth has been weak, and if we take a step back, “New Jersey- at the end of April- had almost 2 percent fewer jobs than back in January of 2000- at the beginning of the millennium…and compared to where we were immediately prior to the recession – back at the end of 2007- we’re approximately 200 thousand jobs below that pre-recession level…at the current rate we’re adding jobs – just taking the average job gain over the past 12 months – it will take us another 5 years to get back to where we were in December of 2007.”

O’Keefe adds nationally, the private sector “has added jobs for 26 consecutive months – here in New Jersey the private sector has been off again, on again in terms of adding jobs…the pace at which we’re doing it is reminiscent of a Yugo going up Pikes Peak- its moving very, very slowly and stopping quite frequently.”

He says what happens during a prolonged downturn is job-seekers become frustrated with the lack of opportunities, “and that frustration causes them to withdraw- to stop looking for work – one of the early signals that the labor market is improving is when we see people – previously discouraged job seekers – returning to the jobs market in the belief that there are opportunities out there…that may be happening now -and it may be why the unemployment rate is slightly higher – but we’re not sure….the job growth is so weak that it’s difficult to say with any certainty that people are coming back into the labor force because they think there are a lot of openings out there.”

The national unemployment rate has now fallen to 8-point-1 percent.

Flickr User Kerry Woo

The proposal was made by the Governor during his first year in office as a way to add to the state’s general revenue stream.

On Thursday, the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee advanced legislation that would overturn the law. If a repeal doesn’t occur in the current budget cycle, the law takes effect.

“This is our last opportunity to overturn this,” said Democratic Senator Paul Sarlo. “Otherwise, those gift cards that are currently on the street – the government will begin to seize that money.”

Sarlo said the unused gift card law is an example of state government overstepping its boundaries.

He continued, “It’s seizing one’s gift. The government has no business going in and reaching in and taking these gift cards if they’re not redeemed in a timely manner.”

Sarlo noted the bill is having a “chilling effect by driving retailers out of the market.”

In April, American Express announced that it would cease selling its gift cards in New Jersey. Shortly after, Blackhawk Network and InComm, two companies that act as third-party retailers for gift cards from multiple suppliers, announced they would also exit the state’s market rather than comply with the law.

Governor Christie said he was not worried by the companies’ announcements.

“I’m not losing sleep over that one,” he said during an April press conference. “If they want to move out, move out.”

The New Jersey Retail Merchants Association and the Retail Gift Card Association released an analysis estimating New Jersey would lose out on $64-94 million in sales tax revenue. In the current FY2012 state budget, the Christie Administration estimated the law would net the state $500,000.

“It’s incredible that the administration would so strongly defend a policy that is having a chilling effect across the state, all for less than two-one-thousandths of one-percent of a $29.7 billion budget,” said Sarlo.

In March, the full Assembly approved a measure to repeal the unused gift card law. The next step for the bill in the Senate is a vote in the full house. Governor Christie, though, has the final say.

NJSenDems.com

The State Treasurer reported a $230 million revenue shortfall early this week and another $121 million shortage was reported Wednesday. Christie’s $32.1 billion proposed budget relies on 7.3% revenue growth.

Christie proposes to reduce personal income tax rates, across-the-board, for every New Jerseyan, by 10% with the three-year phase-in of the cut with this budget. He says 10% tax cut for every working New Jerseyan will help families to keep more of what they earn and make the state more competitive with other states and attract more new jobs to New Jersey.

Asked if the bleak new revenue picture means Christie’s plan is dead, Senate Budget Committee chairman Paul Sarlo says, “I don’t think it’s dead. I believe the Governor is still out there pushing it out there, but he’s going to have to be responsible.”

The Senate Democrats proposal would provide a property tax relief credit through the gross income tax return, for all residential homeowners with incomes up to $250,000 in the amount of 10% of the first $10,000 in property taxes paid.

Sarlo won’t say that plan is dead either. He points out that it is the Governor and the Treasurer who certify revenues and, “Once they certify the revenues then we will ultimately decide what should be in (the State Budget) and what shouldn’t be in…….If the revenues are such that a tax cut plan doesn’t work I’m going to be vocal about it.”

Right now, Sarlo is not optimistic about revenues and feels more bad news about a deficit is coming. He explains, “I think, in my discussions with the Office of Legislative Services, for the two fiscal years combined it could be a billion dollars.” He thinks cuts in the current budget will have to be made.

“Last year they (Sarlo and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald) put $816 million in additional spending in the state budget and had no tax revenues to pay for it. They knew their numbers were fake and they sent it to me anyway purely for politics” Christie said Wednesday during a Town Hall meeting.

Even though April tax collection revenues are down and are increasing at half the rate necessary to meet the governor’s 4.8% projected growth this year, Christie turned the focus of his town hall to Sarlo and Greenwald.

The Governor said, “These same jokers are back now…they want us to trust them on their revenue numbers..and its coming from the same people who last year were completely wrong and wanted to inflate the budget over $800 million with no way to pay for it.”

The Assembly Democrats property tax cut plan works the same way as the Senate’s proposal, but would provide a 20% savings and be partially funded by a millionaires tax increase which Christie has already vetoed twice and vows to veto again.

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Flickr User James Wilcox

The Dow closed down 156 points at 12,442. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 20 to 1,305, its lowest close since Jan. 17. The Nasdaq composite fell 60 points to 2,814.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said manufacturing slowed in the mid-Atlantic region for the first time in eight months. The Conference Board reported that its measure of future U.S. economic growth fell in April after six months of increases.

These gloomy reports were a surprise and came as investors continued to fret about developments in Europe, where Greece seemed headed for an exit from the euro bloc.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Mitt Romney (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

But he offered no examples, telling reporters he would leave it for them to assess.

Romney commented Thursday after supporters abandoned a potential $10 million ad strategy that would have highlighted Obama’s ties to his controversial former pastor.

Campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla., Romney said he repudiated that effort and called it the “wrong course” for a campaign or supporters to pursue. Romney said he would prefer that his allies focus on the economy and jobs.

A group of Republican consultants had pitched the ad campaign. After a New York Times report Thursday on the proposal, the billionaire businessman who considered bankrolling it shelved the idea.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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Whoever is hired will head a new, stand-alone security department that will centralize all safety and security functions across the Port Authority’s different departments.

The goals of the new department are to improve coordination and communication internally and between the Port Authority and law enforcement agencies and to increase security efforts at the agency’s facilities. These include bridges, tunnels, airports and the redeveloped World Trade Center site.

The creation of the security department was recommended by a consultant group headed by former U.S. Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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Casino and political leaders at the East Coast Gaming Congress on Thursday predicted online gambling will become a reality on a state-by-state basis. New Jersey hopes to become the “Silicon Valley of Internet gambling,” and its legislature is working on a bill to legalize it.

Richard Bronson, chairman of US Digital Gaming, said 40 million people visited Las Vegas last year, but 40 million people visit Facebook every five days. He said that shows the potential market for computer gambling.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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The sponsor, Sen. Paul Sarlo, says government would be overstepping its bounds if permitted to claim unused gift cards after two years.

The state saw idle gift cards as an untapped revenue source to help balance the budget. But retailers sued and the state has realized almost none of the more than $50 million it hoped to claim.

On Thursday, the Senate Budget Committee advanced a measure removing gift cards from the unclaimed property law.

The Assembly approved a similar bill in March.

Sarlo also says significant cuts will have to be made from Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed state budget to match a continuing slump in revenues.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Passaic County Prosecutor's Office

The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday that Juan Martinez, 30, of Paterson, and Jonathan Lopez, 29, of Hackensack, have been arrested on several charges.

Prosecutors say the two men were driving an OEM vehicle in Paterson on April 17 and following behind a motorcycle at a distance of 100 feet or less while improperly activating the siren.

Prosecutors allege that Martinez and Lopez then witnessed the motorcycle crash and did not stop to render aid or contact police or their superiors.

The driver of the motorcycle, 31-year-old Randolph Waddy of Paterson, died from his injuries.

It is not immediately clear who is representing the defendants.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)