TRENTON — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fired his education commissioner Friday, days after it was revealed that a simple mistake on an application form might have cost the state a $400 million education grant.
The dismissal of Commissioner Bret Schundler comes after New Jersey became the top runner-up for the Race to the Top grants, missing out by only a few points. The Star-Ledger of Newark later reported that budget figures for the wrong years were supplied in one section of the application.
Christie had defended Schundler on Wednesday and blamed the U.S.
Education Department for considering form over substance. Christie said this week that Schundler gave the federal government the missing information during a meeting in Washington this month. But a video released Thursday by the federal Education Department shows that wasn’t the case.
“I was extremely disappointed to learn that the videotape of the Race to the Top presentation was not consistent with the information provided to me by the New Jersey Department of Education and which I then conveyed to the people of New Jersey,” Christie said in a statement Friday.
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ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Another Georgia football player has gotten into trouble, and this time it’s one of the team’s top running backs.
Tailback Washaun Ealey, who led the Bulldogs in rushing a year ago and expected to share carries this season with Caleb King, was suspended for at least one game after being arrested early Friday.
Ealey was charged with hit and run and driving on a suspended license. Coach Mark Richt said the sophomore definitely won’t play when the No. 23 Bulldogs open the season Sept. 4 against Louisiana-Lafayette and left open the possibility of adding more games to the suspension.
“I’m not happy with it. It’s foolish. He knew better,” Richt said. “But no one thinks it’s going to happen to him. He knew his license was suspended and we knew his license was suspended. As a matter of fact, we spend a lot of hours checking on every single player to make sure their licenses are up to date and if they’re not, making them aware of that.”
University police chief Jimmy Williamson said Ealey was driving his roommate’s Chevrolet Impala when he hit a parked truck in a school parking deck at 3:19 a.m.
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This is hilarious and educational. Ze Frank explains how to vent one’s impotent rage when replying to e-mails while maintaining one’s professional integrity. Herein lies Ze Frank’s exquisite advice.
A friend of mine struggled with tests as a child. Any time an assessment was coming up, his mind would go blank and he’d panic. The pressure of passing weighed down on him to such an extent that no manner of revision or study took him any further.
A couple of days before another test, the worry became too much and he asked his Dad for help. His Dad, being a schoolteacher (and his Dad!), was a pretty good person to talk to.
Dad said, “You don’t need to worry about tests if you always try your best. There’s more to life than getting full marks.”
The father went on to say that an interest in learning is far more important than focusing on a test result. If you can honestly tell yourself that you worked with a view toward learning and discovery, the results should follow. Get 0% or 100%, the mark doesn’t matter if you work hard in the process. The results will come naturally.
My friend continued his preparation for the test. This time, the learning was more fun. He felt less stress and more connection with the learning materials.
On the day of the next test, he turned up at school with a totally different perspective. There was a sense of peace. Terror didn’t pin him
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HADDONFIELD, N.J. — Failure to follow directions may have prevented New Jersey from winning a $400 million federal education grant.
Scoring documents from the Race to the Top grant competition show New Jersey received no points on one section. That’s because the state provided budget figures for 2010 and 2011 where the application sought numbers from 2008 and 2009.
Ohio, the lowest-scoring state to be awarded the grant Tuesday, got just three points more than New Jersey.
The gaffe was first reported by the Star-Ledger of Newark.
State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver calls it “a stunning mistake that is going to hurt New Jersey’s children.”