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The Worst of a Bad Budget
The League is adding its voice to calls for a veto of HB 7069. Share with everyone. We need a blitz.
The WORST of a BAD BUDGET
Florida revenue is up, but education funding has been cut. The legislature sent a message that our schools, teachers, and students are not valued. What’s the evidence?
House bill HB 7069:
- Substitutes a teacher bonus system for a few rather than give all teachers a needed raise in spite of a looming teacher shortage. Teachers in most charters have lower salaries and no benefits which seems to be the attraction to many politicians even if quality is compromised.
- Takes desperately needed local school facility funding and gives it to privately owned charters. Miami-Dade schools alone estimate an $81 million dollar loss.
- Strips local control of low performing schools from districts and turns them over to charter chains. Then, it provides $140 million in State funds to these privately owned chains.
- Creates High Impact Charter Systems that are independent of locally elected school boards. If things go wrong, parents must complain to Tallahassee.
The Florida House promotes school choice instead of supporting schools governed by elected school boards. The consequences are becoming clear. The U.S. Department of Civil Rights cited Florida for increasing segregation through its charter system. Charters also select fewer students with disabilities and language learners.
It is time to recognize that, in the charter system, parents do not choose schools; schools choose students. If the choice does not work, the students are ‘counseled out’.
Charters have high teacher turnover, real estate debt, and according to the national CREDO Urban Cities study, lower student achievement than comparable public school students. After three years, Florida public school students, initially matched on test scores, clearly out performed charter students in five of seven of our cities.
Parents do have a choice to make. Will they ask Governor Scott to veto this attempt to take over our schools? Will they tell the legislature that our children deserve better?
Right These Wrongs, The League Says
Governor Scott is considering vetoing the entire budget as well as HB 7069, the massive education bill. Encourage him! (850) 488-7146. The Miami Herald published the League call to action.
The budget:
- reduces per student funding.
- shares capital outlay with charters. Charters already get a disproportionate amount of available state capital outlay money. Many districts would be unable to maintain roofs and air conditioning.
- creates Schools of Hope which are charter take overs of district schools. The bill is acknowledged to be difficult to implement. It gives money to struggling schools after charters take them over, not before when districts could do something to help.
Charters in Florida are not known to do as well as public schools, according to the latest CREDO Urban Cities report. Over three years in four of six major Florida cities, public school students outperform students matched on initial achievement scores.
High performing charters in other states are known to have student high attrition. Students who do not do well are ‘counseled out’. Forty percent of black males leave KIPP schools between grades six and eight, according to a 2017 Ed Week report.
What is the advantage of dismissing nearly half of your students? This is the turn around Schools of Hope. Give the funding to districts and help them succeed. They are OUR schools.
League Calls For Budget Veto: You can too!
Choruses of voices are calling ‘foul’ on this year’s legislative budget. The League of Women Voters sent a letter to Governor Scott detailing the savaging of public schools and the back room approach to doing so. Short shrift for Florida Forever as well makes this budget an agenda driven attack on the public interest. Want to call his office? Use: (850) 717-9337.
See the letter written by Pamela Goodman. The announcement was made in yesterday’s Capital Report.
HB 7069 Education Train Bill Needs to be Vetoed
Legislation
The Senate narrowly passed SB7069 with a 20-18 vote. There are reasons for concern. The best course now is to urge Governor Scott to veto the bill. Here’s why:
- 1) For local districts to share local capital outlay with charter schools is untenable. It will cost districts already struggling with aging facilities, millions of dollars.
- 2) The Schools of Hope proposal allocates $140 million for charter school takeovers of low performing public schools. Yet, the CREDO Urban Cities report just published a devastating account of poor charter school academic performance in Florida cities.
3) Creating High Impact Charter Systems that control groups of charters surely must stress the Florida constitutional requirement for a ‘uniform system of high quality schools’. These charter systems become their own local education agencies. This is a legal term that is now allocated for elected school boards. The charter systems would be able to receive funding directly with no oversight from districts.
4) Allocating Title I funds to individual students in many schools will spread funding too thinly to support extra reading, tutoring and other services many children need.
5) Without funds in the State budget for teacher raises, the looming teacher shortage will increase.
Why would Florida want to advertise itself as anti education to a world where academic achievement attracts the kind of business and industry we seek? This bill is the result of destructive behind closed door power politics, not rational public interest.
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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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