Three Questions: Andy Ford On Policy Priorities For Florida Teachers’ Unions
In his State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Rick Scott promoted his $18.8 billion budget for education.
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FEA President Andy Ford
But if it were up to Florida Education Association president Andy Ford, there would be even more money going to Florida’s public schools.
The Florida Education Association is the state umbrella group for Florida teachers’ unions. Before the legislative session began, Ford sat down with StateImpact Florida to talk about policy priorities this year.
Q: Where is FEA on the Common Core State Standards now?
A: We support the standards and even the Florida version of the standards. We think those improvements were actually for the better. But we have some problems with the implementation. There hasn’t been sufficient time put in place to move from one system to the other. We also don’t have the resources to be able to make the transition. And we’re just moving too quickly, we need to slow it down a little.
This year teachers are teaching the standards. The test the kids are going to take is based on the old standards. So there’s going to be some confusion there.
As we approach the next school year, we’re going to continue using the new standards. And we don’t know what the test is yet because it hasn’t been selected. So we don’t know if it’s going to be valid and reliable because they’re not going to have time to field-test it.
Q: What are your legislative priorities this year?
A: We’re always looking at the budget and making sure there’s enough money. What’s proposed from the Governor doesn’t get us back to the ‘07-‘08 school year—which was our high level before the economy went down.
We are hoping we’re going to hit the pause button on some of the high-stakes decisions made based on the testing. We hope the legislature will step up to the plate and give us a break. Not throw everything out… but let’s have some time to actually get everything in place that makes sense. So that if a school has an A, we know it’s earned that A. And if the school has an F we know that there are serious problems there.
Q: What do you anticipate will be the toughest things to get done?
A: I think the pension issue is also an obstacle. That’s going to be one of the ones that we’re going to focus on that will be very tough.
The retirement security of public employees is extremely important—and the system we have in place right now works. It’s well funded. It performs well in good times and in bad times. At this point there’s no reason to tinker with it. Some of the changes the legislature’s talking about could put that plan in jeopardy. We have to try and stop that.
