LWVeducation
If you want to take the pulse of charter school legislative priorities, watch this video. It is yesterday’s Florida Senate Education Committee workshop on charters. They have a long list of proposed bills to consider, and they are looking for ways to combine bills in order to move forward.
The two most comprehensive bills were from Senator Montford and Senator Legg. Continue reading
You can think of this bill SB 263 by Howie Morales as the “It is time to check the checkers” bill. It appears that some legislators want real data with valid results. It has just been introduced, so passage is a ways off.
The summary of the bill states that the “State Auditor shall adopt quality and accuracy audits of teacher evaluations, merit pay, and school ratings conducted by the Department of Education. Look at what the auditor be required to do. It will bring a smile to many. It makes me think that others have read “Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”.
We will do a series of posts on educational issues likely to come up in the Florida legislative session. We would like to hear from other states as well. Let’s begin with the accountability of the Florida Tax Credit (FTC) scholarship program.
What are the children learning; where is the money going, and how is it spent?
Keeping track of the $86 million for 67, 142 students in over 1400 schools is no easy task. Transparency issues in reporting have arisen in charter schools. Senator Legg, Chair of the Education Committee indicated that remedies would be made. How can he improve transparency in the private school sector for tax credit vouchers?
Remember the post on Profit Trumps Public Interest? It was the one the National Council of State Legislatures put out on for-profit education management companies. We discovered that National Heritage Academies had some serious problems. Propublica published a follow-up article on the for-profit National Heritage Academies.
Where Does the Money Go?
The Michigan State Board of Education has now asked the legislature to outlaw “sweep contracts” to for-profit companies, but the legislator did not listen. Continue reading
The blog is one month old. We can celebrate a little. Thus far we have had 4500 hits on our site, and our subscriber list is growing. Let people know.
It is also a good time to take a minute and think. Are we contributing useful information on school reform issues? What is helpful? What is missing? Reflect on the following list and make suggestions. I will summarize your suggestions and respond.Continue reading
Need Oversight
by Meredith Machen
This is an updated post of the struggle between the Public Education Commission (PEC) and the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) over proper supervision of charter schools. The PED is not responding to State auditors’ requests for information following a federal investigation of charters there. Continue reading
The National Council of State Legislatures should be commended for bringing together two people with very different views of charter school for-profit management. On the surface, the webinar: Charter School Networks: Does Profit Status Matter? seemed to be a reasonable, thoughtful discussion about management issues.
The discussion was polite. Responses to questions were forthcoming. The rationale for-profit status was discussed and management issues were raised. The fact that both for-profit and non-profit management companies have fiscal management problems was acknowledged. Yet, the meat of the topic was only alluded to.
If you want to really understand the issues, read on. Continue reading