New Jersey

DFER opened a New Jersey branch in February of 2010.  Their State Director, Kathleen Nugent, couldn’t be much happier with Governor Christie’s education reforms.  ”It’s a great time for education reform in New Jersey,” reports Charles Stile of NewJersey.com.  She cheered (albeit cautiously) when the state’s Race to the Top application included opening the door to merit-pay based, at least in part, on test scores.  Nugent also said the recent appointment of Fordham’s Andy Smarick is a “huge win for our state.”  The love, evidently, is mutual Smarick praised the “admirable Democrats for Education Reform” for their Race Smarter briefs in an April 19th Flypaper posting.

Keep your eye on the New Jersey Scholarship Opportunity Act, a tuition tax credit program DFER is likely to support.  You can read some great critiques of the Act on Rutgers Association Professor Bruce Baker’s blog, SchoolFinance101.