StudentsFirst Florida Adds New Staff, Including Former Gov. Scott Spokesman

Lane Wright / Twitter

Lane Wright, a former spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, is now handling press questions for StudentsFirst Florida.

Lane Wright, a former spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, is now working for the Florida arm of national education advocacy group StudentsFirst.

Wright is one of a handful of personnel moves the group announced Wednesday, including hiring a state outreach director and field coordinators for Tampa and Orlando, and Miami. StudentsFirst was founded by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.

“Florida is so important, diverse and politically complex when it comes to education,” Nikki Lowrey, state director for StudentsFirst, said in a statement. “We have built a team that will help get our message out and help people understand how elevating teachers, empowering parents, and spending our tax dollars wisely will improve our children’s education.”

Rhee is a lightning rod in education circles, in part, because of her support for test-based teacher evaluations and criticisms of teacher’s unions.

StudentsFirst has been a leading voice pushing for “parent trigger” legislation, which would allow the majority of parents at a school earning a failing grade to choose how to overhaul the school. Options include firing administrators or staff, closing the school or converting to a charter school.

The bill has been the most controversial piece of education legislation the past two years. In 2012 and 2013, the bill failed on tie votes in the Senate.

StudentsFirst has also donated to a dozen legislative candidates in 2012.