Scutari Lies About OPRA Bill & Murphy Plays Dumb, NJ DOE Invests in Tutoring, NJ Students Behind in Math,Primer on “the Line,” Incarcerated Waiting on Approved Pay Increase & the Worm Moon

Scutari Continues to Lie About OPRA Bill, and Murphy Does His Best to Pretend Not to Know
northjersey.com

We are all in on transparency,” he said. “I would think if you get something that would address some of the things I just mentioned in a fair way that doesn’t undermine transparency, that’s something that I’m open-minded to … I haven’t seen anyone with nefarious behavior here. I think there are people who are legitimately trying to address some issues with the system, but we are all in on transparency most importantly. Period. Full stop.” Read Full Story

NJ Department of Education Putting Money Towards Tutoring
NJ Education Report

High Impact Tutoring is designed to enable school districts and charter schools to work with educational service vendors, nonprofit organizations, and colleges and universities to provide tutoring services. The schools receiving the awards are also able to utilize existing staff for tutoring programs outside of regular classroom instruction. The first round of High Impact Tutoring grants, announced in November, awarded $41 million to approximately 240 school districts and charter schools. Read More

NJ Students Lagging Behind in Math as Well
NJ Spotlight News

A new Harvard-Stanford study finds New Jersey is one of 17 states where students remain lagging in math. And the disparities are worse for students of color and those from low-income districts.

“Even though we are technically out of COVID, the impact of COVID continues to linger,” said Mary Coogan, the president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, said. Read More

Primer on “The Line” Controversy
NY Times

New Jersey election ballots have long been designed to benefit the favored candidates of local political leaders. But now, in the middle of a high-stakes Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, a move to declare the ballot design unconstitutional could upend the state’s entire electoral system.

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Ms. Murphy’s path to victory is heavily dependent on the institutional support she has amassed from Democratic leaders in the state’s most populous, urban counties who are close to her husband, Gov. Philip Murphy. The livelihoods of many party officials backing Ms. Murphy are dependent on state government, making it difficult to know where their support for her ends and self-preservation begins. Read More

Pay Raises Promised to Incarcerated Continue to Stall
New Jersey Monitor

We know that incarcerated people are already struggling to afford things like phone calls to their loved ones, emails with their loved ones. It costs them money to seek mental health care, medical services, all of that stuff. And it is so important that they’re able to make a fair wage, and right now they don’t,” Ubel said.

People used to have to pay $5 for a medical visit — that’s a week’s worth of wages for someone working one of the system’s lowest-paying jobs — although that charge was dropped during the pandemic and hasn’t yet been reinstated. Prisons do charge for some medications and other services. Read More

Be on the Look Out for the Worm Moon
NJ.com

All eyes will be on the biggest sky event of the year — the total solar eclipse of 2024. But two weeks before the moon blocks the sun to darken the daytime sky, the full March “worm moon will be glowing in the night sky and bringing a partial lunar eclipse.

The March moon officially turns full at 3 a.m. on Monday, March 25, so it will look 99% illuminated Sunday night, 100% illuminated Monday night and 99% illuminated Tuesday night during its waning gibbous phase. Read More

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