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New Jersey lawmakers will consider new tighter oversight rules on charter schools in 2025

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New Jersey lawmakers will consider new tighter oversight rules on charter schools in 2025


TRENTON — State officials are considering new rules that could impose greater oversight on New Jersey’s 86 charter schools after a year of increased scrutiny from media outlets and politicians.

The state’s Senate Education Committee heard testimony Monday from experts who urged lawmakers to ensure that existing oversight laws were enforced and, in some cases, to write new laws requiring more public disclosure and oversight in regard to spending and administrator salaries.

“Clearly, there’s some work to be done,” said state Sen. Paul Sarlo of the 36th Legislative District, which represents 11 municipalities in Bergen and Passaic counties. “There are some bad actors out there.”

The legislators cited a series of reports from NJ.com and other media outlets that took aim at charter schools’ high administrator salaries, allegations of nepotism, and accusations that some former school leaders personally profited from their positions. The Asbury Park Press also scrutinized a charter network with campuses in Asbury Park and Neptune.

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Deborah Cornavaca, director of policy for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, urged legislators to establish a task force to review numerous impacts of charter schools, to require more transparency and add disclosure rules for charter schools.

“When we see things that are going wrong… it is incumbent upon us to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being responsibly spent and that the students… are the priority of where the money is going,” Cornavaca said.

Harry Lee, president of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, said that a majority of these publicly funded schools, which serve about 63,000 students, are not skirting rules, but are rather giving parents in low-income communities access to high-quality education. The schools are also improving academic outcomes for many of New Jersey’s Black and brown students, he said.

“In middle school, charter school students overall are outperforming the state average in reading, despite serving twice as many low-income students,” he said before the Senate Education Committee on Monday. “The longer you stay in a charter school, the more likely you will be able to read at grade level.”

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While charter schools are given more flexibility than traditional district-based schools to educate at-need students, they also use taxpayer money in their mission. Yet, charter schools are not held to all the same oversight rules and regulations that district public schools must follow, according to critics.

“It is a privilege, not a right, to operate a charter school in New Jersey, and there are simply higher expectations (for positive academic results),” said Lee. “We stand by that, and we agree that there should be accountability for schools that aren’t doing the right thing.”

The flexibility given to charter schools is why they are succeeding where nearby traditional districts are not, he said. Many charter schools have adopted longer school days and a longer school year to achieve results, he said.

When charter schools fail to meet their educational missions, they are closed, Lee said.

“That is the ultimate accountability,” he added.

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Since 2020, four schools have closed, surrendered their charter, or not had their charter contract renewed, according to the state Department of Education.

One of the charter schools that has faced criticism in the press is College Achieve Public Schools, which has sites in Asbury Park and Neptune. Michael Piscal, CEO and founder of the charter school group, made $516,084 in the 2022-23 school year, according to filings obtained through GuideStar, an organization that provides information about American nonprofit organizations.

Piscal also made an additional $279,431 in compensation that year from the school and related organizations, according to the tax documents.

For comparison, the average school superintendent pay in New Jersey was $187,737 last year, according to state Department of Education records.

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A representative of College Achieve told the Press that administrative salaries have since between reduced.

State Sen. Vin Gopal, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said he expected amendments to New Jersey’s charter school law to be proposed sometime in 2025.

“There needs to be more accountability on how that (charter school) money is spent,” he said.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 16 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

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Officials warn of NJ Transit train chaos if NBA Finals go to Game 6 with World Cup match same day

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Officials warn of NJ Transit train chaos if NBA Finals go to Game 6 with World Cup match same day


NEW JERSEY (WABC) — New Jersey Transit train riders should be prepared for chaos if the NBA Finals reach Game 6 at Madison Square Garden on June 16.

Getting to Penn Station from New Jersey will be nearly impossible after 5 p.m. becasue it’s the same day as the France vs Senegal match at 3 p.m. at MetLife Stadium.

NJ Transit will only run dedicated World Cup trains westbound from Penn Station New York from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ahead of the 3 p.m. match.

Eastbound NJ Transit trains will run into Penn Station New York, until the match ends at about 5:30 p.m.

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After 5:30 p.m., the trains will discharge all passengers at either Newark Penn Station or Newark Broad Street Station, where passengers will be directed to either PATH or Newark Light Rail to get to Hoboken, and ultimately to the PATH 33rd Street Station. PATH will transport those passengers at no extra cost.

Knicks fans traveling into Manhattan for the 8:30 p.m. game may have to transfer through Newark and take the PATH into the city.

After discharging the passengers, the NJ Transit trains will then become dedicated World Cup trains for the next three hours to bring up to 40,000 fans back to Penn Station New York.

Regular eastbound service will resume about three hours after completion of the World Cup match, or about 8:30 p.m.

NJ Transit will advise Knicks fans headed in to Game 6 to arrive at MSG before 5 p.m., or be prepared to change trains in Newark.

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At the conclusion of the Knicks game, regular rail service out of Penn Station New York back to New Jersey on all rail lines will be available.

Knicks fans will not have to utilize PATH to get back to New Jersey after the Knicks game.

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The House Is Our Firewall. NJ-07 Is How We Build It. – Insider NJ

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The House Is Our Firewall. NJ-07 Is How We Build It. – Insider NJ


I do not come to this fight as an abstract matter of principle. I come to it as an immigrant, as a woman, as an LGBTQ+ ally, and as a mother of two daughters. I have spent a decade fighting to advance protections for marginalized communities — in policy committees, in legislative hearings, in the unglamorous work of advocacy that rarely makes headlines. And I can tell you: what is happening right now is different. The rollbacks are no longer incremental. They are structural. And they are personal.

When I think about what is at stake in this moment, I think about my daughters. I want them to live in a country where they are free. Where their identities are not questioned. Where they never have to wonder whether they belong. This past year has shown that that future is not guaranteed. It has to be fought for. And right now, that fight runs directly through the United States House of Representatives.

The current administration is executing a coordinated assault on the institutional frameworks that protect civil rights and foster inclusion. The weaponization of anti-DEI policies is erasing marginalized identities from public and corporate spaces. Voter suppression tactics are systematically targeting Black and brown communities. Federal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals — particularly queer and trans youth — are being dismantled in favor of discriminatory policy. The threatened gutting of the Department of Education puts public schooling, the single greatest engine of upward mobility, at risk — with the heaviest burden falling on low-income students and students of color. And for immigrants, the threat of mass deportations and family separation is not a hypothetical. It is a daily reality.

When the executive branch operates with such open hostility toward equity, a compliant Congress is not a passive failure. It is a dangerous liability.

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We need a House of Representatives that will aggressively assert its oversight authority, use the power of the purse to defund harmful initiatives, and hold this administration fiercely accountable. That firewall can only be built by flipping competitive seats. And the path to the House majority runs directly through New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District.

To win NJ-07, we need a candidate who can neutralize the standard partisan attacks used against challengers in swing districts — and Rebecca Bennett is exactly that candidate. As a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and Air National Guard officer, her patriotism and national security credentials are unimpeachable. As a healthcare business leader, she brings private-sector credibility that resonates with this district’s voters. And as a working mother who understands what is actually at stake for families, she brings the moral clarity this moment demands.

Biography alone does not flip a district — infrastructure does. Bennett has built a campaign capable of going the distance in one of the nation’s most expensive media markets, with a top-tier team, formidable fundraising, and the organizational depth to compete against incumbent spending. She is not just a compelling candidate. She is our ONLY shot at defeating Tom Kean Jr.

I got into this work because I believe that the arc of history bends toward justice — but only when people work to bend it. I want my daughters to inherit a country that is still bending. Rebecca Bennett is running to make sure it does. That is why I am with her, without reservation, and without hesitation. 

Anjali Mehrotra is a fierce advocate for representation and gender parity in all walks of life but especially at all levels of elected office. She served as a National Board member for National Organization for Women, on the state board for American Association of University Women of New Jersey and on the cabinet of Emerge New Jersey. All three organizations actively work to increase the number of women in Congress.

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Protesters clash with ICE outside New Jersey detention facility

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Protesters clash with ICE outside New Jersey detention facility


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Protesters have clashed with ICE agents outside of Delaney Detention Center in New Jersey amid reports of inhumane living consitions inside of the facility. NBC New York’s Checkey Beckford reports.

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