John O'Connor is the Miami-based education reporter for StateImpact Florida. John previously covered politics, the budget and taxes for The (Columbia, S.C) State. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the University of Maryland.
A Florida lawmaker has introduced a bill to earmark gaming revenue for education. Lawmakers are likely to debate allowing megacasinos.
A Jacksonville state Senator has filed a bill that would earmark gambling money for K-12 education as state lawmakers prepare to debate allowing megacasinos, according to the Jacksonville TImes-Union.
The bill would set aside 2 percent of gaming revenue for a Department of Education endowment and juvenile justice.
But is it a good idea to rely on gambling to fund schools?
Lawmakers have had to restrict eligibility for the lottery-funded Bright Futures scholarship program as revenues have flattened, and eventually declined, in the past few years. Lottery revenues typically plateau as they reach “maturity,” experts say.
The Academy of Arts and Minds in Coconut Grove used to be a shopping mall. But no one was buying space, so the owner of the property founded a charter school and now rents his property to his school. The campus still looks like a shopping mall. There are wrap-around balconies on every floor and the classroom have floor-to-ceiling windows very much like a store front.
Miami-Dade school district officials say a Coconut Grove charter school is “heading in the right direction” and they will not close the school this month, according to the Miami Herald.
The school — which is A-rated — has drawn criticism for a handful of practices:
• For years, Arts & Minds has charged fees ranging from $15 for classes like math, reading and physical education to $60 for classes like dance, graphic design and photography. School district officials say some of those fees are illegal, and want to examine the records.
• This year, Arts & Minds fell behind in evaluating and crafting education plans for special-needs students.
• Some classes had neither teachers nor textbooks for the first five weeks of school, parents said.
Parents have also questioned the role of the school’s founder, Manuel Alonso-Poch, who serves as the school’s landlord, manager and food-service provider. His cousin, Ruth “Chuny” Montaner, is the chairwoman of the governing board.
“I was informed during the EET (Evaluating Effective Teachers) orientation session last year that I would only be observed by a peer teacher that had experience in my level and field,” Thomas wrote in an email to evaluator Justin Youmans on October 7. “I thus refuse to be evaluated by any teacher who has no experience teaching Social Studies in a Hillsborough County High School.”
Gov. Rick Scott is pointing towards U.S. Census data to support his argument that state universities should focus on STEM degrees.
Gov. Rick Scott is stoking his feud with social scientists, adding some data to his argument that state universities should push more students toward degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields.
Scott’s press office sent around a link to a Wall Street Journal collection of unemployment rates by college major. The database was compiled by the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce from 2010 U.S. Census data.
“This effective tool shows which majors have the highest employment and unemployment rates along with their associated earnings,” spokesman Brian Burgess noted in an email sent Friday.
Scott drew the ire of anthropologists last month after the governor singled them out as one field where future job prospects are lacking. State resources should not be spent educating students who are less likely to find work, he argued.
Florida International Academy charter school students in Opa Locka, Florida.
Charter schools are public schools, but the two public options have a stronger appeal for some students than others.
Here are five differences between district school students and charter school students according to a StateImpact Florida analysis of Florida Department of Education 2010-2011 school year data.
Charter school students are:
More likely to be Hispanic – Hispanics comprise a larger percentage of charter school students, marking the most significant difference between the demographics of traditional public schools and charter schools.
Ohio voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide the future of public worker unions. The vote may be a sign of things to come in Florida.
Ohio voters head to the polls Tuesday to vote on a law limiting public employees’ collective bargaining rights, including teachers. Florida residents might want to keep their eyes on that decision.
Gov. Rick Scott and allies such as Patricia Levesque of the Foundation for Florida’s Future have made no secret of the fact that they would like to strip teachers’ unions of their collective bargaining rights.
Republicans have the political muscle in Tallahassee, but there’s a rub: The state constitution guarantees the right to collectively bargain for pay and benefits.
A parent is asking Gov. Rick Scott to reconsider a new state law requiring Bright Futures recipients submit a federal financial aid application.
Why should a student need a parent to fill out a financial aid application to renew a merit-based scholarship if the student pays for his or her education?
And why should a parent put their personal information at risk if they receive no benefit from the scholarship?
That’s what Palm Beach County resident John Loeffler is asking in a letter he wrote to Gov. Rick Scott last week.
“It’s kind of crazy, it doesn’t make sense,” Loeffler said.
Teachers are paid 52 percent more than their market value, according to a new study.
Teachers, did you know you are overpaid by 52%?
That’s the conclusion of a new study by conservative-leaning think tanks The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
Taxpayers, they conclude, are “overcharged” $120 billion each year from the difference in teacher salaries and compensation compared to similarly credentialed private sector workers. Teacher benefits are often far more generous than the private sector, the study notes.
Florida's black and Hispanic students are closing the difference with white classmates faster than the national average.
Florida’s black and Hispanic students trail their white classmates by smaller margins than the national average, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress results released Tuesday.
And Florida has been closing difference in reading and math scores between white and black and Hispanic students faster than the national average over the past decade.
Eliminating the so-called achievement gap is a major goal of the federal No Child Left Behind education law. Tests such as NAEP allow states and researchers to break down test scores by most demographic possibilities.
2011 NAEP results show testing gains have stalled and Florida ranks in the bottom half of states on everything except 4th grade reading scores. But Florida’s ability to reduce the achievement gap is a silver lining.
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