LWVeducation
The testimony and closing arguments have been made. Now both sides need to put their arguments in a particular format for the judge by April 25th. He then takes the arguments under consideration and will make a ruling. Win or lose, the decision is likely to be appealed.
When you listen to the two sides, a few points stand out:
The Washington Post, posted a letter that tells it like it is in Washington D.C. I could feel the heart break. I will tell you about the data, but this is not about numbers. You can read the real story below.
The Tampa Bay Times has education writers who use their critical thinking and problem solving skills. They provide four reasons why Governor Scott should veto the education bill HB 7029:
The final version of SB 7029, the charter school bill, took awhile to locate. Here it is! There is along list of provisions, some minor and some major. The highlights follow. They are easy to scan. Most do little damage. Some good things happened. Considering what could have been, we can put our energies toward making good things happen next year.
The New Mexico charter debate is particularly interesting because the state has tried to responsibly regulate charter management. In yesterday’s post, I mentioned the 59 state managed charters, but there are also 43 district chartered schools. Clearly the state’s Public Education Department is overwhelmed even though they only manage a few more than half of the charters.Superintendent Vitti’s testimony was a straight forward account of the demographic makeup of the county schools. The district is 44% African American and 36% white and 11% Hispanic. Nearly half of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch (FRL). About 56% of FRL students were below grade level, and their graduation rate was 67%.
How the needs of students are met was the subject of his testimony. Are districts funded adequately to meet these needs?
I watched the trial yesterday and again this morning.
MONDAY
The witnesses yesterday spoke to the relative funding support for education in Florida vs. other states. While Florida’s funding is very low, the defendants argued that cost comparisons are not indicative of quality. They cited the Florida NAEP fourth grade reading scores that are slightly above the national average. What was not mentioned in the testimony is that about 12 states retain third graders based on their states’ assessment scores. Florida is one of those states. Thus, Florida’s fourth grade NAEP scores are likely to be elevated compared to other states. Florida retains approximately 20% of third graders. In addition, Florida has one of the highest percentage of students with tax credit scholarships whose scores are not included in the NAEP assessment. These FTC scholarships are need based and would include a high percentage of low scoring students from public schools.
The second witness discussed the academic deficiencies of homeless students. The percentage of homeless in Florida is increasing, and these students do less well than students from low income families who have homes.
TUESDAY
This morning, Professor Smith from UCF discussed the Florida DOE comparisons of traditional and charter schools. The DOE reported raw results in which charter students tended to score higher than traditional public school students. When scores were adjusted statistically for the percentages of free and reduced lunch and minority students, based on school scores, charter school students scored somewhat lower than public school students. This comparison also revealed that charter schools had relatively fewer students with FRL and minority status which accounts for the decrease in adjusted scores for charters. Bottom line, charter schools do not out perform traditional public schools.
I had to sign off when the cross examination began. More later
This AlterNet article chronicles the Walton Foundation’s $1 billion dollar investment in charter schools. The business approach parallels the Walmart approach of driving out competition and then closing stores that are not financially successful. In the education sector, public schools are to be displaced leaving ‘education deserts’ where charter schools choose not to locate. It is not a pretty picture. Visit this site paydayloansnow.co.uk
This is one of those comic videos that tells the story in about two minutes. Is it funny or does it cut too close to the bone?
Monday three of us from 5forChange met with the group of legislators known as the Black Caucus. We had been advised by our local representative, Clovis Watson, that we should talk to the broader black community. He believed they would be supportive of our message about the need to preserve diversity in our public schools. They were. We were able to explain the Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit and why it mattered to each of us.
These are personal, emotional remarks from the heart by parents of children in our public schools. We represented diversity just by looking at us.
Tarcha Rentz spoke first. She is a former teacher who grew up in our community and received her Ph.D. in Special Ed. She held everyone’s attention. Here are her remarks: