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Candidate Questions
The Brookings Institution’s Michael Hansen has generated five questions he would ask state and national candidates in the upcoming election. You can read his rationale for these questions here. These may or may not be your questions. You can read my thoughts.
This Judge Did A Doubletake
Passing third grade depends in part on the district a child attends. Some parents who opted their children out of the Florida State Assessment were dismayed to learn their children would be held back in third grade. These are not low achieving students based on their grades on report cards. The federal law requires that states administer annual assessments, and the government can penalize states with fewer than 95% of students participating.
Florida had no problem meeting the federal requirements, but some districts decided not to allow students without test scores to advance to fourth grade. Parents could send their children to a summer portfolio session, in some districts, or they could sit an alternative assessment. Parents sued Pasco and Hernando school districts. The Leon County Circuit court heard the arguments on Friday. Judge Gievers was troubled but thought any ruled she made would be immediately appealed.
Today Judge Gievers reconsidered. She will rehear the case next Monday. The children are now enrolled in third grade classes. Maybe next week they will be fourth graders. Something is wrong with this picture. Whatever the policy may be, it should at least be the same for all children in the state.
Florida Court: Remedy is at the polls
A Florida Appeals court refused to hear the lawsuit against the Florida tax credit voucher program. Judge Lori Rowe argued that current law supporting tax credits was different from the previous law against direct payments from the legislature to private schools. Now, the legislature allows corporations to give money owed to the state to private schools. Somehow this is legal according to the 1st District Court of Appeals.
In the opinion, the judges’ opinion stated that it was not clear that the public schools were hurt by the loss of tax credit funding. There was no guarantee that the legislature would have allocated the money to public schools if it had decided to collect it.
The judge added: …”the remedy is at the polls”. We will have to wait to see if the Florida Education Association will appeal to the Florida Supreme Court once again. In the meantime, an election is coming.
When is Poor Really Poor?
Which children do charter schools serve? Students are identified based on their demographics including free and reduced lunch (FRL) status. Yet, half the student population in Florida qualifies. FRL status may just mask what is really happening.
Children who qualify for FRL are not all alike. Nearly half of the FRL children, about 950,000 live in deep poverty. The difference is between families of four earning about $47, 000 vs. about $24,000 i.e. those who qualify for reduced cost lunch and those who qualify for free lunch. How many truly poor children attend charters?
Remember the post about Duval County charters? Between 2013 and 2014, the percentage of students classified as economically disadvantaged dropped in most cases about 30%. The reason was a change in the definition of economically disadvantaged by their charters. Skewed enrollment in charters has become a civil rights issue.
In a report from the August 14th New York Times, 14% of all children persistently qualify for free lunch (not reduced cost lunch) over time. A University of Michigan study shows the achievement gap of the persistently poor is a third larger than generally reported by NAEP and other measures. Grouping children in FRL together masks the real achievement gap between lower and higher income groups.
In Florida, 24% of all children fall below the federal poverty level. This includes about 950,000 children below the age of 18. Another 25% qualify for reduced lunch. These are not just statistics. They are real children with lives complicated by the trappings of poverty. If charters are ‘skimming’ students from the public schools, their percentage of students who qualify for free lunch not just for reduced cost lunch, will be much lower.
Charters are supposed to find innovative ways to solve academic problems. They may just be masking them. It is time to take the mask off and see which children are being served.
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- League Members visit the office of Senator Marco Rubio
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- League Members wait to see Senator Bill Nelson
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- Education Team at the Department of Education
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