New Omnibus Bills Pass Senate Appropriations

japan-82123_1280The two new bills heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee today were not really new.  Senator Gaetz collapsed a number of existing bills into two omnibus bills.  The recess bill did not get included.  The limit on capital outlay for public school facilities was included.

The second bill relates to early childhood education, open enrollment, dual enrollment, private school sports participation, and charter school accountability.

These bills move on next week.  A lot of negotiation will happen between the House and the Senate.  The specifics follow:

 

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Money or Ideology?: Why Does the State Board of Education Overrule Districts?

money-40603_1280Sometimes the sun shines, and sometimes it rains.  I guess it is climate change??  It rained on St Lucie and Indian River’s school boards.  They had voted to reject three Somerset charter schools.  There were the usual complaints that the charters offered little new and also disrupted district desegregation efforts.  These new charters were proposed under the High Achieving Charter law that allows charters to locate in other counties if they have a charter school with at least two A’s and a B somewhere else.

School grades being school grades, high performing means little.  We all have schools that change from an ‘A’ to a ‘C’ depending upon how zone lines change.   Charters can maintain grades by strategic choice of location, students, and dismissal policies.

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2016 Education Budget Battles:

dollar-163473_1280Money talks.  This budget battle speaks volumes about what is important in the legislature this year.  Everyone promises more money to education–sort of.  The biggest issue is over how much of the increase local property taxes must pick up.  Governor Scott allocates 85% of the increase to local communities.  Senator Gaetz has expressed concern about the tax burden on local property taxes.  He is suggesting a 50-50 split between the State budget and the local effort.   There is likely to be about a $175 increase per student which will at least equal the 2007 funding.

This is how the money wars break down:

 

Governor Scott:  $500 million increase with $75 million each for charters and public school facilities

House:                $601 million increase with $90 million for charters and $50 million for public school facilities

Senate:               $650 million increase with $ 50 million only for public schools

There is another battle brewing over funding for school facilities.  As long as so many charters are run by for-profit companies, it is hard to be sympathetic to charter claims that they deserve more public money for their privately owned school buildings.  Representative Fresen is leading the charge for facilities funding for charters this year.  He is trying to discredit public school construction projects.  He argues that the 650 charter schools should receive $90 million for facilities while the nearly 4,000 traditional public schools would receive only $50 million. 

The fact that Representative Fresen’s wife and brother-in-law run Academica, the largest for-profit charter management firm with 100 schools, would not factor into his thinking, of course.  You do remember that these large management firms have their own real estate companies that buy and/or lease facilities to the charter boards.  Some of these leases are over a million dollars per year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reality Checks on School Choice

Florida and Arizona are the big school choice states.  Nationally, most (86%) of children attend traditional public schools.  In Florida, about 80% of school age children attend public schools.  Not surprising is the fact that both states are near the bottom in public school funding.  Somehow choice is marketed as a way to improve educational opportunity, but the reality is different.  Choice is cheaper but not better.  A summary of the National School Board report follows.  The full report can be accessed here.

This week is the National School Choice Week. But what does choice really mean? Where does choice exist? And most importantly, what does it do for student ​achievement?

As one of the most touted education reform strategies, let’s take an unbiased look at what choices are and what research says about their effectiveness. After all, what parents and communities want mostly are good schools. And “choice” is no guarantee for good schools. As the Center for Public Education pointed out in its report, school choices work for some students sometimes, are worse for some students sometimes, and are usually no better or worse than traditional public schools.

You might also be surprised to find out that parents overwhelmingly choose to send their children to the neighborhood public school, and that more students are enrolled in a choice school within the public school system than outside of it.

Some reality checks on choice

  • A relatively small percentage of school-aged children are enrolled in schools of choice: 16 percent in public schools of choice, 13 percent in non-public schools of choice.
  • Nearly 90 percent of children attend public schools, a percentage that has remained constant for 40 years.
  • Public schools offer choice programs including magnet and charter schools, inter- and intra-district transfer, etc.
  • The national on-time high school graduation rate in public schools is at all-time high.
  • About three-fourths of charter schools performed about the same as or worse than traditional public schools.
  • Private school vouchers and tuition tax credits (funded by tax dollars) have no conclusive evidence of effectiveness.

Check out the entire report School Choice: What the Research Says.

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