New Jersey

Office of the Governor | Murphy Signs Legislation Awarding a Second Round of Securing Our Children’s Future Bond Act Grants to Schools

Published

2 years ago

July 29, 2022

TRENTON – Governor Phil Murphy immediately signed A4224/S2830 and A4225/S2831 into legislation, awarding college districts and county schools a second spherical of grant funding by the Securing Our Kids’s Future Bond Act (SOCFBA). The grants will fund enhancements to and enhancements of profession and technical schooling (CTE) applications in county vocational-technical college districts (CVSD) and county schools all through the State. Funds from the SOCFBA should be used to straight broaden CTE program enrollment by setting up and/or increasing school rooms, laboratories, libraries, laptop amenities, and different tutorial constructions that can present direct advantages to college students.

“Funding that aids our profession and technical teaching programs in county vocational-technical college districts and county schools will give New Jersey college students the abilities they should stand out in a aggressive job market,” stated Governor Murphy. “New Jersey is the highest ranked state within the nation for public college schooling and I’ll proceed to place pen to paper on laws, like these two payments, that can assist preserve us on prime.”

The second spherical of grants, which the Governor transmitted to the Legislature for approval in Might, will complete practically $57 million and be distributed by the New Jersey Division of Training (DOE) and the Workplace of the Secretary of Larger Training (OSHE). Funds shall be disbursed on a rolling foundation contingent on last grant revisions and recipient submissions of reimbursement requests.

With this second spherical of funding, the State has awarded over $305 million in CTE initiatives. The primary spherical of grant funding for CVSDs and county schools totaled practically $250 million and was awarded final summer time. The SOCFBA is supported by $500 million in bonds authorized by New Jersey voters in November 2018 to broaden county school and vocational college CTE applications, improve Okay-12 safety, and assist water infrastructure enhancements in New Jersey colleges.

“The Securing Our Kids’s Future Bond Act has helped additional our mission to supply equitable entry to profession and technical teaching programs all through our state,” stated Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan, Performing Commissioner of Training. “The vary of initiatives from the chosen county vocational technical colleges are progressive and align with high-demand careers in New Jersey. Our college students shall be prepared for the careers of the longer term.”

“Equipping college students with industry-valued credentials by genuine studying experiences in high-demand fields is essential in immediately’s world,” stated Dr. Brian Okay. Bridges, Secretary of Larger Training. “These grants will allow our establishments to rise to the problem of guaranteeing our college students obtain the very best preparation for achievement within the world financial system.

“The signing of those payments marks an vital continuation of investments to spice up alternatives for coaching and experiential studying that can assist New Jersey’s subsequent technology of skilled-labor,” stated Meeting Speaker Craig Coughlin. “Ensuring we preserve and enhance entry to a big selection of academic alternatives, so all college students can pursue their pursuits and fulfill their full potential, helps propel innovation ahead. Equipping a strong workforce is about our future and stays critically vital to our state’s contributions right here at house and overseas as we develop and diversify our {industry}.”

A4224/S2830 appropriates $19,993,837 for County Faculty CTE Tasks. The SOCFBA allotted funds for county schools to assemble or broaden school rooms, laboratories, libraries, laptop amenities, and different tutorial constructions to extend CTE program capability.

The second spherical of the SOCFBA will fund six initiatives on this class, together with:

Camden County Faculty – $4,000,000
Essex County Faculty – $4,000,000
Passaic County Faculty – $3,381,337
Raritan Valley Neighborhood Faculty – $4,000,000
Rowan Faculty of South Jersey – $3,750,000
Sussex County Neighborhood Faculty – $862,5000

A4225/S2831 appropriates $36,960,028 for County Vocational College District CTE Tasks. The SOCFBA allotted funds for development initiatives that assist CTE program enlargement for County Vocational College Districts (CVSD), in accordance with labor market calls for and financial growth targets. These initiatives will fund renovation and new development to extend pupil capability in choose county vocational CTE applications, together with associated demolition, web site enhancements and bodily plant upgrades, and furnishings and gear in renovated, reassigned, or new areas associated to county vocational CTE program enlargement. Candidates had been required to exhibit that new pupil seats can be in county vocational CTE applications that put together college students for high-demand, technically-skilled careers.

The second spherical of SOCFBA will fund six initiatives on this class, together with:

Burlington (Medford) – $5,895,488
Burlington (Westampton) – $10,416,657
Cape Might – $14,450,859
Salem – $2,250,000
Hunterdon – $3,750,000
Passaic – $197,024

DOE and OSHE shall be saying further SOCFBA funding alternatives later this 12 months.

“Profession and technical schooling trains college students for a variety of jobs, equivalent to engineering, structure, social companies, schooling, hospitality, and performing arts,” stated Senator Linda Greenstein. “As our college students put together for all times after school, it’s crucial we guarantee they’re able to enter the labor market; this cash from the ‘Securing Our Kids’s Future Fund’ will profit quite a lot of New Jersey school college students.”

“Many college students start their post-secondary schooling at county schools, and it is important that we make sure these colleges have the assets wanted to help and elevate the training expertise,” stated Senator James Seashore. “This legislation (S-2830) is a essential asset in guaranteeing that our county schools are capable of ship a world-class profession and technical schooling to our college students.”

“Our vocational colleges present a singular supply of schooling, permitting college students to obtain each tutorial and technical schooling whereas studying the information and abilities wanted to achieve their discipline of labor,” stated Senator Vin Gopal. “The funds made accessible below this legislation (S-2831) will make sure that our vocational college students proceed to obtain a top quality schooling that can totally put together them for careers past commencement.”

“Giving New Jersey county schools the entire instruments essential to ship aggressive profession and technical schooling alternatives to college students is essential,” stated Meeting members Gabriela Mosquera, Roy Freiman and Mila Jasey, sponsors of A-4224. “Whether or not these college students select to proceed pursuing greater schooling or enter the workforce after leaving our county schools, the ‘Securing Our Kids’s Future Fund’ ensures they’re ready and able to succeed.”

“With the ‘Securing Our Kids’s Future Fund’, we’re equipping New Jersey’s vocational colleges with the assets crucial to show job-ready abilities to college students throughout our state,” stated Meeting members Sadaf Jaffer , Herb Conaway and Clinton Calabrese, sponsors of A-4225. “That is an funding in our workforce, and it’ll profit numerous college students at New Jersey vocational colleges now and for years to return.”

“New Jersey’s Neighborhood Schools are grateful to Governor Murphy and the Legislature for making a $20 million funding in educating and coaching the following generations of New Jerseyans for high-tech, high-wage jobs. The counties served by the six schools that acquired funding stand to learn by a greater educated workforce, higher alternatives for residents, and more healthy communities,” stated Aaron Fichtner, President, NJ Council of County Schools.

“On behalf of New Jersey’s 21 county vocational-technical college districts, we thank Governor Murphy for this funding in profession and technical schooling,” stated Jackie Burke, Govt Director, NJ Council of County Vocational-Technical Colleges. “There’s large demand from college students, mother and father and employers throughout the state for career-focused academic alternatives that put together highschool college students for high-paying jobs in key industries proper right here in New Jersey. These grants will allow county vocational-technical colleges to broaden amenities and add technical applications that handle New Jersey’s abilities hole and launch college students into profitable careers.”

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New Jersey

What is digital ID and why doesn’t New Jersey have it?

Published

1 hour ago

December 26, 2024

Press Room

What is digital ID and why doesn’t New Jersey have it?

In the age of digital wallets and contactless convenience, a growing number of states are embracing the option to add driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet.

These digital IDs can be added to iPhone users’ Wallet app alongside digital credit cards, boarding passes and event tickets.

New Jersey, though, isn’t one of them.

What states have Apple Wallet IDs?

As of now, several states have partnered with Apple to enable digital IDs. They can be added directly to Apple Wallet and used in airports, businesses, or government offices.

For instance, TSA checkpoints at several airports, including LaGuardia, JFK and Newark Liberty, already take digital IDs, and more are being added.

But, New Jersey doesn’t yet have digital driver’s licenses.

In early 2024, state lawmakers moved a bill directing the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission to develop digital driver’s licenses. But that measure gives the state six years to make it happen. The bill is winding its way through the legislative process.

Apple, though, continues to expand partnerships with more states to create Wallet-compatible IDs.

Connecticut, for example, was one of the first states to announce a digital ID rollout but hasn’t yet launched it. Lawmakers in West Virginia, New Mexico and Montana have said digital driver’s licenses are a priority.

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New Jersey

Fresh snow coats some North Jersey towns for a white Christmas

Published

13 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

Fresh snow coats some North Jersey towns for a white Christmas

2-minute read

New Jersey experienced a frosty December — and Christmas has proved no exception.

Christmas morning temperatures accross the Garden State dipped into the low to mid-20s in much of the state, and even into the teens in higher elevations, forecasters said. While most towns saw little to no overnight snow accumulation, some lucky areas awoke to a white Christmas.

How much snow did North Jersey see?

Snowfall leading up to Christmas was light but enough to dust parts of the state with festive flurries. Bergenfield reported one of the highest accumulation, measuring 1 inch of snow on Christmas Eve. Nearby, Ramsey recorded 1.1 inches, and Sparta with 1.6 inches of snowfall.

In New Providence, Paramus and Stewartsville, snow totals were less than an inch, with each town reporting between 0.6 and 0.8 inches. Somerset logged an inch, while Wantage received 1.3 inches.

For those dreaming of a white Christmas, Bergenfield, Ramsey, Sparta and Wantage offered picturesque views, with enough snow to blanket the ground in holiday cheer. Meanwhile, other areas in the state settled for a chilly but snow-free holiday.

Whether blanketed in white or simply bundled up, New Jersey residents should brace for continued cold as the year comes to a close.

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New Jersey

A Modest Theory About Those Drones Over New Jersey

Published

22 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

A Modest Theory About Those Drones Over New Jersey

(Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The welter of stories about unidentified drones over New York and New Jersey multiply, as do the myriad speculations. Thus far the narratives fall into three categories: private drones, those deployed by hostile foreign actors, those belonging to US authorities on a shadowy unacknowledged mission. The media has taken up the cause and the story has gone mainstream, with baffled officials furnishing no unified explanation – and President elect Trump weighing in. This installment of the column will add one more theory to the growing noise, but a theory grounded in full context, covering all the known facts and hopefully all the more plausible for that albeit.

To begin with, let us dismiss the private drone scenario quickly. Any private entity causing such panic would soon admit it and apologize for fear of being found out. The authorities via satellite would know whence they came, track them and reveal the facts. Next, the foreign actor theory – again, as Donald Trump says, the military or intelligence people would know. They might stay silent about it for fear of provoking a confrontation with a foreign power. The US is, sadly, prone to such deliberate passivity, the latest example being the Havana Syndrome findings by Congress which rejected the intelligence community’s previous report that the Syndrome doesn’t exist and no foreign power is responsible. The recent ad hoc Congressional Committee officially found that the Havana Syndrome is real and a foreign state is likely behind it.

So, back to the drones: do the authorities know that a foreign power is responsible for the drone outbreak but won’t say so? Timing is everything in such events. The Biden White House, as we have seen with aid spikes to Ukraine and granting permission to hit inside Russia, is not shy of adding last minute foreign policy complications to the incoming administration. Were it a hostile power, we would know all about who unleashed the drones. Which leaves the third and last category, that the drone phenomenon was a government initiative which authorities do not wish to acknowledge, a stealth operation that went public inadvertently. As this column is focused on geostrategic affairs, the possible explanation falls into its bailiwick.

Nobody has quite understood why the US and Germany refused, until recently, to allow Ukraine to use allied weapons to strike inside Russia (Germany still refuses). All manner of theories have swirled but nothing coherent obtained, other than an abiding fear of Russian retaliation. Yet Washington gave the go-ahead for Ukraine to use American weapons across its border in recent months, especially after Trump’s electoral victory. Did the Russian threat to retaliate against the US diminish? Did the US suddenly get safer? And why did it take so long to grant permission? The truth is, any sort of highly visible and attributable strike against the US was never a risk because Moscow would have suffered devastating retaliation. But an anonymous catastrophe in a major US city would work. A kind of secret Samson Option, or hidden nuclear device in Germany or America should Russian soil be bombed by allied weapons. The great efficacy of such a threat lies not in its use but entirely in the threat, the ambiguity. And the restraint or doubt it induces.

Nor should the threat be too visible or public. Anything that detonates massively raises an outcry, puts pressure on the authorities to find a return address, a clear culprit. No foreign power would risk such a big provocation that it would be identifiable and cause retaliation. Witness 9/11. One has to conclude, therefore, that the real version of such a threat would be scary rather than hugely destructive. The device would need to be constructed discreetly and stowed or delivered equally discreetly. And no foreign state actor would take responsibility. So, a small radiation device fits the bill. And this is precisely what New Jersey officials have been saying about the drone activity, namely that it’s our side looking for a small medical isotope gone missing, one that was aboard a container ship and went missing. But a federal agency has just denied the US was flying drones in search of nuclear radiation. All of which is standard procedure for stifling panic.

Finally, there’s this: the foreign actors would not deliver a direct threat. They would retain deniability, as in the Havana Syndrome. If, indeed, it’s a radiation device, nobody knows who was behind it, though the technical sophistication suggests only rival superpowers qualify as suspects. Which brings us back to the Russian dark ops and the inexplicable restraint of the Biden White House over helping Ukraine.

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