The Star Ledger published the following article on November 14, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
N.J. education committee considers $5 million ‘innovation fund’ to support new school ideas
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
on November 14, 2013 at 10:55 AM, updated November 14, 2013 at 11:05 AMThe Senate Education Committee this morning passed a bill that provides $5 million to spark innovation in the state’s schools.
Introduced by Sen. Teresa Ruiz, (D-Essex), the bill would give $5 million to the Department of Education to develop and administer a competitive grant program for schools that want to try new things.
“The key to this is if a district has a phenomenal way of doing something, this will provide support to a project that would not otherwise get funded,” Ruiz said at the start of the hearing at the State House in Trenton.
Ruiz said the promise of the grants would be to share ideas. “If there’s a teacher, working in a project in special ed or with technology, this extends that to other schools and teachers. It’s an opportunity for us to discover and explore things that do work and don’t work.”
The bill calls for the department to create a five-member advisory panel, which would include at least one member of the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union, to advise the Commissioner. It also requires that an independent entity be contracted to review the program’s effectiveness.