New Florida Bill: District Home Rule

daytona-beachRepresentative Taylor from Daytona Beach wants flexibility for public schools.  His bill, 0829, would exempt districts from certain laws in Florida statutes Chapters 1000-1013 governing  public schools.   What is interesting is what is not exempted:  assessment, school grading. students with disabilities, student health and safety, and various public records laws, personnel salary schedules and performance evaluations.

The purpose of the bill is to expand local control as currently authorized for charter schools to public schools in order to initiate innovation and implement financial efficiencies.  So what is gained in this bill?  It appears that facilities regulations would disappear and public schools would have flexibility in how they spend lottery money.

Will these changes help students?  Maybe not.  It could just be a way to legalize what is already happening with the class size regulations.  Public schools could adjust class sizes as long as they met the average class size at the school level.  This is the standard charters must meet.  Once more it is all about the money, not the children.

 

 

 

Tennessee: When is Enough, Enough?

by Anne-Marie Farmer

dollar-726881_1280Receiving this post from Anne-Marie is pure serendipity.  I spent several hours looking for examples of how states determine how much funding is needed to provide a high quality education for all students.  High quality education is mandated in Florida’s constitution. What does it mean?  How is it funded?  When is enough, enough?  The State is in a lawsuit about this.

Then, this post arrived from Tennessee.

Tennessee appears to have approached funding for education differently than Florida.  Our state seems to decide how much it is going to spend and then divides the money among districts using a per student funding formula.  Tennessee uses a  complicated system of 45 components to determine what education should cost.   Afterwards, they do a budget.  Sometimes what should be and what is do not match.

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Arne Duncan Visits S. Pinellas Failure Factories

FAILED1 South Pinellas schools are a civil rights problem said Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education.  The Tampa Bay Times series ‘Failure Factories’ on the five schools seemingly abandoned by the district received national attention.  Secretary Duncan, his heir apparent, John King, U.S. Representative Kathy Castor met with parents and district officials yesterday.

Duncan said that the children were not failures, but the adults had failed the children.  They praised the efforts of the current superintendent to improve the schools, but much is yet to be done.  Duncan acknowledged that there were ‘tremendous unmet needs’ for family services and early childhood education.  A parent called for after school services and more experienced, quality teachers.

What happens next remains to be seen.  The Florida Department of Education is investigating whether or not their has been misuse of federal Title I funds designated for children from poor families.

Even though some progress has been made under the direction of the current superintendent,  the schools cannot solve the impact of their neglect by themselves.  The solution to the problems at the schools will require intensive community involvement.  Yet, only two school board members attended the event.  The Chair of the board said she was not invited. One former parent simply called the event a ‘press conference’.  Let’s hope it was more than that.

You can watch the video and read the Tampa Bay article here.

 

 

 

 

Can States Opt Out of Federal Testing and Teacher Evaluation Programs?

hat-157980_1280Annual testing is federal law, but not all states follow it.  Using test scores as part of teacher evaluations is the law, but not all states use scores this way.  The basic question is: Who is in charge of education, the states or the federal government?  Where is the line when federal support becomes federal intervention?

Can states opt out of federal testing and teacher evaluation mandates?  This really is a tricky question.

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Florida Education Funding: Holding the Purse Strings

taxes-646512_1280Does Florida short change its students?  Where does the education funding come from and where does it go?  Answers to such questions require some ‘tax literacy’.  Florida is one of seven states with no income tax.  As a percentage of personal income, Florida has the fourth lowest tax rate in the country.  Corporate taxes currently are 2.9% of Florida’s revenue.  Yet, Florida is not a poor state; some areas are quite wealthy.
Now there is a legislative proposal to eliminate property taxes.  What are the implications of such an idea?  Clearly, sales taxes would have to go up.  The question prompted me to put together Florida’s funding stream for education.  I asked some questions:
  • How much of its budget does Florida allocate for education?
  • How does Florida’s education funding compare to other states?
  • How much of the education budget is funded from states sales tax, the lottery, local property taxes and the federal government?
  • How much is diverted from the education budget by corporate tax rebates for private school scholarships?
  • How much money is diverted from school districts to charter schools?
The answers to these questions explain a lot.  We can understand the power of the federal purse when we oppose federal mandates on testing and accountability programs.  We can understand public school districts’ concerns about the attempts to privatize the educational system.  We can evaluate the impact of proposals to reduce taxes.  Most of all, we can examine our state’s priorities.

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Buying Elections New Orleans Style. Is This the Future?

musicians-651293_1280 (1)Did you know that New Orleans was once the most integrated city in the U.S.?  Now it is one of the most racially and economically segregated cities and a school reform target.  After all, how can you not help struggling students whose  homes were ravaged by floods?  The Broad and Walton foundations are pouring in money.  They also are funding elections to make the reforms stick.  Is this the future of American education?

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Comparing Teacher Salaries to Similar Professions

teacher-23304_1280Teaching, like nursing used to be thought of as “women’s work”.  I remember my own father saying that it was a good way for a woman to combine a job and family responsibilities.  I also remember my first salary as a teacher, $5,200.  The world of work for women has changed dramatically since then.  Many of those early attitudes, however, linger.

I became curious about the comparative status of the teaching profession with similar occupations.  Salaries, benefits, and hours/days worked are figured in.  How do you compare teachers’ and pilots’ work time?  These are not idle issues.   They are at the heart of attacks on teacher unions and the teaching profession.  What is fair; what should change?

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False Promises Bring Big Profits?

money-40603_1280The numbers are ringing alarm bells.  I discovered something about charter failure rates and the number of years they were open.  The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch has compiled a state by state list of charter school failures.    Florida has the second largest number of failures (308) next to Arizona.

The cost of failure is high.  CMD reports that the federal government has spent 3.3 billion dollars on charter school development.  The funding is sent to the states to distribute.  Federal auditors estimate that $200 million has been lost due to fraud and waste in the past decade.   In 2011-12, Michigan had 25 charters that were awarded $3.7 million and never opened.  Florida’s case is more dramatic.

In Florida, charters may receive up to $350 thousand before they open.  In 2011, the Florida’s legislature created a new fund with an additional $30 million to expand charters.  The Department of Education used the money to create a partnership with a venture capital group headed by a former KIPP school executive.  There is a lot of money in starting charter schools.

What did the tally of the number of years charters were opened before they closed reveal?  First, a third of the closed charters appear to have never opened!  I knew this happened, but I did not realize how big the problem was.  An additional thirty four schools closed after one year.  Only one-third of these schools remained open for three or more years.  We do not know how much start up money these schools received.  The Florida Department of Education did not keep track.  In a recent post, we reported that in a four year period, over $67 million in federal start up costs in Florida could not be accounted for.  Strange business practice for a state that touts its strong accountability process.

A recent State Board of Education rule now allows districts to do background checks on groups who propose new charters.  It is easy to assume the independent operators are more likely to be inexperienced managers with inadequate financial resources.  They do account for many school failures.  The SBE rule, however, may not go far enough.  Two of the largest charter management firms, Academica and Imagine, had many schools that failed to open.  Given that these firms have substantial resources, one wonders why these schools closed before they opened.  Did these companies also receive large start up funds?  We do not know.  Will some agency in charge of charter accountability take notice?  Who is in charge?

To Tax or Not To Tax, That is the Question? No, How to Tax

taxes-646512_1280Governor Scott’s proposed education budget would increase spending for K-12 education by $476 million.  Sounds good, right?  It amounts to $104 per student and might help Florida keep its ranking of 42nd in per pupil funding in the nation.  All but $50 million of the increase comes from local property taxes.

How to we respond?

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