My eye muscle surgery was last Wednesday. It will take six weeks to heal. The surgeon is encouraging. Reading etc. takes effort, but it should improve.

In this world of complaints, a school in Australia came up with a response many of you will love. This is reported to be an actual list of telephone options for callers. Read and enjoy.

So why did Senator Montford support HB 7055 today? He had a list of reasons he thought were more important than the provisions he did not support. Montford is the long time head of the District Superintendents Association. He said many of provisions seemed small, but they were important e.g.

*consolidation of the scholarship programs under Step Up for Children
*support for the 300 lowest performing schools and SAI funding for low performing students
*adding prior year of teaching for qualifications for the Best and Brightest teacher bonus
*improving VPK regulations
*correcting Title I allocation by districts from last year’s HB 7069.
*Allowing a broader dual enrollment range of courses
*providing Reading Scholarships for students failing the FSA in grades 3-5 to give parents money to cover costs for tutors or other materials.

and most important, allowing districts to receive 100% of the 1.5 mills capital outlay and district flexibility to have schools that did not meet State K12 building code standards.

The big negative issues included:
*decertify teacher’s unions, but not police or fire unions.
*Hope Scholarships, paid for by sales taxes on new cars, for children who were documented victims of bullying or harassment.
*expansion of charter schools with independent governing boards.

There was a big emphasis on district accountability, a small provision to improve background checks for private schools, and a lessening of accountability for charters. This seems backwards.

A provision that requires districts to calculate financial efficiency indicators including the ratio of classroom expense to total operating expense, classroom instruction to total expense, and the ratio of full time students to administrators. These ratios are to be tied to student achievement for schools of similar size. The kicker in this provision would withhold salaries of district superintendents and school board members if the indicators did not meet a state standard. Sounds like more lawsuits in the making.

Clearly I still have last year’s bad bill HB 7069 in my head. In the post “Doomsday or Glimmer of Hope”, the bill the Senate sent back to the House was this year’s House bill 7055 which just got yet another number HB5001. The Senate bill number is now SB2500.

This madness is making me ‘dizzy’, but at least we were correct to question the process. Now, let’s hope the individual issues will be presented one at a time as they are supposed to be. Now, I really will take my dr.’s advice.

Hi Folks,

This past week I was told I need eye surgery. I am waiting for it to be scheduled. As a result, I have had to resign as the Florida League Education Chair. This blog will no longer represent the League. I am maintaining the blog for your convenience because of all the information in it. When I am able, I will add posts.

For now, you need to do nothing differently. I just wanted to let you know why not much will appear for awhile, especially once the surgery is performed.

Sue

The Governor of Arizona signed a voucher bill and public school supporters filed a ballot measure in response. Public school supporter gathered thousands of petitions to require the state to put vouchers to a vote of the people. American Federation for Children and other voucher support organizations filed a lawsuit to invalidate the petition drive. The judge ruled in favor of the voters. The voucher expansion vote will be on the ballot, if it is not overturned on appeal.

Florida’s Constitutional Revision Commission has filed P.4 to remove constitutional restrictions to fund private schools. This proposal will be on the ballot in Florida on November 6th. Help get out the vote to oppose the attacks on our public schools.