Gracie Fowler dropping her son, Jackson, and daughter, Havilah, off at karate lessons. She wants Florida to expand access to Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to ensure coverage for her kids and herself, but doesn't think it should come at the expense of schools.
Gracie Fowler earns $11 an hour at an Orlando title company. It’s just enough that sometimes she earns too much for her two kids to qualify for Medicaid.
That’s what happened for two months earlier this year.
“Luckily they didn’t get sick but that was like the only couple of months where they didn’t have a little ear infection or they didn’t need to be tested for strep,” she says. “If they would have needed to go to the doctor then it would have been an emergency room visit. ”
Fowler, 35, recently got insurance through her job. But she’s worried she or her children, Jackson, 8, and Havilah, 6, could lose health coverage again. Sometimes it depends on whether Jackson and Havilah’s father pays child support.
And if Florida expands Medicaid to cover more adults, she’d be eligible — and that could save her $120 a month.
“That’s heavy-duty to me. My phone bill is $50,” she says, one of many tough budget choices she makes in her household. “I’m scared. I’m a single mom. This rides on me. These children are with me 99 percent of the time.”
But Gov. Rick Scott is worried about a heavy-duty bill for expanding Medicaid.
Sheri Leitch with her son Austin Beaucage, 16, hold up a pictures of their son and brother Shayne Ijames, 13 who committed suicide on May 2, 2012.
When a sixth grader at Southport Middle School hung himself at his Port St. Lucie home, his school made the announcement to some students the next morning.
A crisis intervention team went to every class 13-year-old Shayne Ijames attended to tell sixth graders their classmate had committed suicide.
His mom, Sheri Leitch, is outraged.
“They should have waited a couple of days and really thought about how they were going to sit the children down and talk to them about it,” Leitch said.
“At least say he passed away. But to tell them that I think was awful. This was life-altering for all of these children.”
Janice Karst with Port St. Lucie schools says the district handles crisis situations differently depending on the ages of students, they type of incident and the time of day. Continue Reading →
Austin Beaucage, 16, at his home in Key Largo, Fla. He doesn't want to go back to school after the summer break because he says there is too much school bullying.
Freshman Austin Beaucage has been picked on his whole life.
He’s small for his age and socially awkward.
But the bullying was never like last month at Coral Shores High School in Key Largo, Fla.
“Some senior locked me in a closet in my 6th period and he wouldn’t let me out,” he said.
“And I was banging on the door and then the other kids in the class were laughing.”
Austin, 16, speaks with his head down. His lips hardly move.
He says he was locked in the closet for most of the period.
According to his school district policy, this is not considered school bullying.
Shamika Jeff, posing with her younger brother, graduated from Miami Central High School on June 5, 2012. The 18-year-old says she did not go to the entire last week of school.
Florida students have already taken all the big tests. They’ve finished their homework. But some students are still in school.
So what do teachers and students do during the final days of class?
Educators throughout Florida say teaching should be going on every day students are in school.
But students say that isn’t usually what happens.
“In class I just hang out with friends and just remember all the memories that we had,” says Sophonie Pierre, a 7th grader at Plantation Middle School in Broward County.
“Our teachers they just let us enjoy it and talk.”
A former employee with Pearson, the company that created and scores the FCAT, says the people who score the essays also lower their grading standards to produce the test results states predict their students will get, though Pearson denies the practice.
We spoke to Todd Farley, author of the book Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry.
President Obama praised former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's education leadership at a Miami school last year. Nationally, both Republicans and Democrats are listening to Bush's education ideas.
Indiana education superintendent Tony Bennett was new to office and looking to make dramatic changes to his state’s schools. The biggest? Require third graders pass a state reading test or get held back.
But the state lawmakers were hesitant.
So Bennett and Gov. Mitch Daniels, both Republican, called in some help: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He pioneered the third grade reading requirement a decade ago.
“Jeb Bush has…a big mind and a big heart for education reform,” Bennett said. “I believed in my heart that he had a great blueprint.”
Florida International University senior Courtney Johnson works 20 hours a week as a secretary on campus. This summer she's taken out $2,700 in loans to pay for summer tuition. She only took out $600 in loans for the full 2011-2012 fall and spring semesters.
College students who need to go to summer school have few choices for grants and scholarships.
And their options just shrank.
The federal government is no longer giving out a need-based Pell Grant to help students pay for summer tuition.
And the replacement is more loans.
Senior Courtney Johnson has taken summer courses at Florida International University for the past two years.
She received the federal summer Pell Grant each time.
It’s covered most of her summer tuition.
But this summer she’s taking out $2,700 in student loans. That just happens to be about the amount of a full summer Pell Grant.
“And then I still have to buy my own textbooks and I still had to pay $350 out of my own pocket because they didn’t offer enough loans,” she said.
A lot of students max out their student loan options during the fall and spring semesters. Continue Reading →
Students at Power U Center in Miami advocate for keeping students in class and out of in-school suspension.
There is a place on school campuses for students who break the rules.
In some Florida schools, it’s called SCSI.
Marcus Pryor, a junior at Miami Northwestern Senior High, thinks it stands for School Criminal Scene Investigation.
SCSI actually stands for School Center for Special Instruction. And in Miami, it’s where students go when they get an in-school suspension.
It’s an alternative to out-of-school suspension Florida schools can use for offenses considered minor, like consistent tardiness, wearing baggy clothing or cutting class.
The idea is that students will learn more during an in-school suspension. But being on school campus does not mean students are actually in class or receiving instruction.
Pryor got an in-school suspension for consistent tardiness when he was in middle school. He said the other kids in the classroom were a group of friends who had all cut class.
“They all have their friends in there with them and that’s the time they really want to make fun and criticize,” Pryor said.
At Booker T. Washington High School, students likes Danna Contreras, took turns taking the online FCAT reading test because there aren't enough computers for sophomores to take the test at the same time.
Danna Contreras doesn’t like the new FCAT.
The sophomore at Booker T. Washington High School in Miami emigrated from Colombia three years ago.
She wears thick, pink-rimmed glasses and she squints a lot. She says the new computerized version is harder to take.
“I think I am better with paper, not on the computer because sometimes my eyes hurt,” she said.
That’s not the only reason she’s worried about her reading score.
“I have difficulty speaking English and the vocabulary is really hard,” she said.
Students are taking a new, harder version of the FCAT this year, called FCAT 2.0.
The test is supposed to be harder to pass and the stakes are higher than ever.
Click on the map to see which school districts have the most students taking advanced courses.
Florida high schools are being judged by the number of students enrolled in college-level classes. It’s tied to bonus money from the state.
But in Florida’s rural counties, small schools say they can’t compete with the opportunities at large urban schools.
Ashley Carr, a senior at Sneads High School in rural Jackson, Fla., is worried about how her course schedule will look to college admissions counselors.
“My senior year looks really ridiculous because I have 3 PE classes,” she said.
“But it’s not that I’m lazy, there’s just not anywhere else to put me.”
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