Education committees heard presentations this week by The Parthenon Group, the consulting firm hired by the BOG to come up with options for expanding online learning.
Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Opa Locka, doesn’t like the idea.
“I am very concerned with the concept of having a standalone online university,” Stafford said. “It could have the potential to have a negative impact on the other universities in that we would limit what they would be able to offer online.
The law is slated for full implementation in the 2014-15 school year, the same year Florida fully transitions to Common Core standards.
Kathy Hebda, Deputy Chancellor for Education Quality, told the committee that all 67 school districts have requirements to follow, but they have a lot of flexibility in choosing how to evaluate teachers.
“One of things that we go back to all the time when we talk about evaluation systems is that…these are really supposed to support student learning and student learning growth,” Hebda said. Continue Reading →
Commissioner Tony Bennett says his two main agenda items are the implementation of Common Core and teacher evaluations.
The Senate Education Committee peppered education commissioner Tony Bennett with questions today.
He was supposed to share the podium with Gov. Rick Scott, but the governor canceled his appearance at the last minute.
So Bennett got more attention than he probably anticipated.
He acknowledged that the only thing he has mastered in his eight days in Tallahassee is the route from his home to the office.
But Bennett stayed put until the committee was done with him. Here is a sampling of the question and answer session, greatly condensed.
Q: From Chairman John Legg, R-Lutz: Can you maybe just hit on some of your high level agenda points?
A: I can speak from experience that the one thing we have to get right is the implementation of Common Core because it will transform the way our children learn, transform the way teachers teach, transform the way we assess our children and know that they are college and career ready.
Florida Taxwatch recommends the Bright Futures program be more selective in granting scholarships to college students.
Bright Futures money is being targeted again, this time by a government watchdog group that says the state should raise requirements for the merit-based scholarship program.
The lottery revenues which fund the scholarships aren’t stretching as far as they used to.
Now, Florida Taxwatch has released its annual list of recommended cost savings for the Legislature. The 25 recommendations add up to a potential savings of over $1 billion for the state.
The only item listed under “Education Reform” is Bright Futures.
Now, the state teachers union is blasting lawmakers for imposing what it calls a tax on working families.
The law has been in legal limbo since it went into effect a year and a half ago.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the ruling, Florida Education Association (FEA) President Andy Ford said his group has no further recourse.
“We believe that our arguments were correct and that the justices just didn’t understand what they were doing to a half a million Florida families,” Ford said.
BOG Chairman Dean Colson says the State University System is doing more with less, but the decline in state funding is not sustainable.
Florida Board of Governors Chairman Dean Colson had much to brag about in his State of the System address this morning.
He told the people who govern the State University System that Florida’s universities are affordable, a good value, and excelling in graduation rates.
But Colson said, “If you want our system truly to serve as an economic engine for the state, we must have the resources to recruit the best and the brightest. Simply being ‘good’ is not good enough.”
As state funding for universities has dropped by more than a billion dollars over the last six years, “System enrollment grew by 9% — an increase of over 35,000 students.” Colson said. “In essence, our System has grown by the equivalent of a sizable university while losing enough state funding to support an entire university.”
Colson said the universities are more efficient than ever, but the decline in funding is not sustainable.
Bennett began by telling the 13-member committee he has been an admirer from afar.
“I was taught at a very young age that you can always tell a person’s priorities if you would look at two things: their checkbook and their calendar,” Bennett said. “The forty-eight hours I have spent here, I have been amazed at the amount of time and discussion around how we make sure Florida’s children are the best educated in the United States.”
Florida’s education budget for the current fiscal year is about $20.3 billion dollars. That’s nearly a third of the entire state budget.
Charters are now serving a record 2.3 million students based on estimates from the current school year. But a pro-choice non-profit says Florida school districts are preventing more charters from opening.
Data collected by the Alliance show charter schools now make up more than five percent of public schools in the country.
It took two decades to get there. Most of the growth happened in the last five years.
Since 2007-08, the Alliance reports “the public charter sector has added 1,700 schools – almost a 50 percent increase – and is serving an additional one million students – an increase of 80 percent.”
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