Maxwell wrote his column as an open letter. He said he no longer trusts Florida leaders about education after they have cut essential subjects and punished schools for low performance — except when too many low grades would look bad for the state grading system.
There are fewer custodians and support staff in Florida public schools than there were in 2007.
A StateImpact Florida analysis of jobs in Florida public schools shows that while full-time staffing is almost back to pre-recession levels, one group of employees hasn’t come back: the support staff.
Since the recession began, Florida’s public school budgets have been hit with more than $2 billion dollars in cuts from state and federal funding, decreased property tax revenue and sequestration. StateImpact has been following the resulting layoffs and hard choices in schools across the state.
But at the start of last school year there were still about 15,000 fewer full-time jobs in Florida public schools than there were in 2007. Almost all of those jobs — 99.5% — are support staff positions. Custodians, secretaries, classroom aides—there just aren’t as many people filling those roles anymore.
LISTEN: WHAT IT MEANS TO LOSE SUPPORT STAFF
You can see a breakdown of year-to-year full-time employment numbers in Florida public schools here:
[Joan Cooper] says she’d rather the district take the money that would be spent on new stationery, signage and the like and spend it on things students actually need.
Proponents of the name change included 67 year old Wells Todd who moved to Jacksonville from Missouri 10 years ago. … “So you have people come here tonight who (say) you’ve got to keep the name, you’ve got to keep the name. It’s our tradition,” Todd said. “Was lynching a tradition? Tar and feathering a tradition? Dragging people onto chain gangs a tradition? Economic exploitation a tradition?”
Florida Parents Against Common Core protested a national meeting discussing the standards in Orlando in June.
The Florida Department of Education will hold public hearings on Common Core State Standards in Tampa, Davie and Tallahassee on consecutive days later this month, according to an email from House Majority Leader Steve Crisafulli.
Gov. Rick Scott asked the department to hold the hearings last month. Scott wants the public to present concerns about specific Common Core standards. Florida is one of 45 states which have adopted the standards, which outline what students should know in English and math at the end of each grade.
Florida is three years in to implementing the standards, which are scheduled to be used in every classroom starting next fall. But Scott said he wants to listen to community concerns about the standards. Activists on the political right and left have opposed the standards because of concerns about quality, loss of local control, cost, testing, data collection and more.
The Florida Department of Education has put it’s daily tweeting of Common Core State Standards on hold while the agency prepares for a series of public meetings on the math, English and literacy standards.
Tweeting out a standard a day, Follick said, might give the impression the agency was favoring certain standards over others. Scott has asked the public to come to the meetings prepared with criticisms of specific standards.
“For us to tweet out one a day could create the appearance we’re favoring some,” he said. “We’re asking everybody to review [Common Core]. I just want people to look at it with a clean slate.”
Follick said the practice could resume after the public meetings, which are expected later this month.
Students with disabilities are less likely to be students at charter schools.
The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington has released a study showing that charter schools in New York City are less likely to serve children with disabilities than traditional public schools in New York.
StateImpact Florida has reported on the exclusion of children with disabilities from Florida charter schools. It’s part of a national trend. A 2012 report from the Government Accountability Office highlighted national disparities in the numbers of students with disabilities attending charter schools.
This new look at New York City schools points out a certain amount of self-exclusion from charter schools, but goes on to detail how more factors are at play. From the CRPE summary: Continue Reading →
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