WordPress converting & to & # 038; in search script

Hi All,

I am currently in the process of updating our site, and after updating WordPress and WP E-Commerce Predictive Search, I am getting the following error…

Timestamp: 10/24/2014 3:55:16 PM
Error: SyntaxError: illegal character
Source File: https://raymondleejewelers.net/redesign/products-page/jewelry/page/221/
Line: 1655, Column: 42
Source Code:
  if (jQuery("#pp_course_5").val() != '' & # 038;& # 038; jQuery("#pp_course_5").val() != '') {

WordPress is converting the JS ampersands to & # 038; (spaces deliberate). I found solutions in modifying wp-includes/formatting.php, but I really don’t want to go changing the core system code with the possibility of it reverting after the next update.

Does anyone know a way to fix this?

Thanks!

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-e-commerce-predictive-search/