The foundation was started by former Gov. Jeb Bush, and graded lawmakers based on their votes for a handful of bills.
The group supports raising standards for students, holding teachers and schools accountable and expanding public and private school choice.
Included in the tally were bills expanding access to online or virtual schools, allowing students to graduate early, and expanding a program which grants tax credits to fund private school scholarships.
Polk County business leaders are so excited about the new Florida Polytechnic University (FPU), they held a news conference this morning to announce their support. It was part of a rally at the United Way of Central Florida in Lakeland.
More than 60 community and business leaders have formed Florida Poly Vision, Inc. to show their support for Florida’s 12th public university. Members say they are providing a much-needed voice for the new institution.
And that got former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s attention.
Bush wrote a letter to committee members asking them to abandon their plans to officially condemn Common Core. The committee took Bush’s advice last year, though ALEC has since opposed Common Core.
UPDATE: ALEC education task force director Adam Peshak says that a task force approved a resolution opposing Common Core in December, but the Board of Legislators has yet to vote on the resolution. The resolution is not ALEC policy until the board votes, Peshak says. More on those distinctions here and here.
The incident is an example of the unique national position Bush occupies on education. He’s able to work with Democratic groups — such as on federal Race To The Top grants — while standing up to the conservative wing of his own Republic Party on issues Bush supports, such as Common Core.
Teachers protest budget cuts and Senate bill 736 -- the law establishing merit pay -- in Miami in 2011.
What if you threw a party, but no one who was invited appreciated your hospitality?
That’s what happened with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which recently sponsored a teacher town hall meeting as part of the American Graduate project. A group of Hillsborough County teachers boarded a bus to Jacksonville for the event.
The teachers were there to talk about their concerns. But when WUSF reporter Sarah Pusateri gave them an open mic, it was Hillsborough County’s pay-for-performance plan that bugged them most.
You know — the same merit pay plan funded with a $100 million grant from the Gates Foundation. Hillsborough County is in the second year of the three-year project.
Mitt Romney’s education plan would effectively erase school district boundaries — allowing city students to enroll in the surburban schools they’ve eyed enviously, James E. Ryan writes in the New York Times.
Mr. Romney’s proposal, if put in place, could change that. Most directly, and perhaps most dramatically, Mr. Romney’s proposal would force — yes, force — suburban districts to accept city students, a step that the Supreme Court refused to take back in 1974. As Mr. Romney said in a white paper also released last week, he would require states to “adopt open-enrollment policies that permit eligible students to attend public schools outside of their school district.”
In doing so, Mr. Romney’s proposal would target the real source of educational inequality in this country: school district boundaries, which wall off good school systems from failing ones. The grossest inequalities in educational opportunity today exist between school districts, not inside them.
If Mr. Romney’s proposal is sincere, it would place him far to the left of the Obama administration when it comes to educational opportunity. Mr. Obama has focused on improving teacher evaluations, promoting common academic standards, turning around failing schools and increasing charter schools. Fine and sensible? Maybe. Bold? Hardly. Bold is giving poor city kids the right to attend good suburban schools.
Attorneys listen to the judge at the merit pay hearing.
A judge in Tallahassee is hearing a legal challenge to a state rule regarding teacher evaluations and merit pay.
The Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 736 last year, known as the “Student Success Act.” It sets standards for teacher evaluations and pay based on performance. Once the law went into effect last summer, state education leaders started crafting rules to carry out the law.
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.”
A new poll finds Latino voters are more concerned about education than immigration. The survey looked at five battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, including Florida.
While jobs and the economy are at the top of their list, Latino voters are clearly concerned about improving K-12 education.
A press release from the American Federation for Children says voters in five states “were surveyed by the Democratic-leaning polling firm Beck Research on a host of education and other issues that will prove critical to deciding the 2012 presidential election. Continue Reading →
Gov. Rick Scott has talked a lot about the need to improve education and increase the number of college grads with STEM degrees. From a business perspective, he thinks that’s how Florida will be able to compete globally and lure companies that will bring high paying jobs to the state.
The Florida College Access Network (FCAN) is out with a report that says one way to success may be as simple as getting adults back in school. About 22 percent of working Floridians between the ages of 25 and 64 went to college, but they didn’t stay long enough to get a degree.
Work has begun to get Florida’s 12th public university up and running.
Florida Polytechnic University (FPU) will be a member of the State University System after splitting off from the University of South Florida (USF). It was known as USF Polytechnic in Lakeland until the Florida Legislature voted to make it an independent, standalone university.
A select committee of the Board of Governors (BOG) met this week for the first time since Florida Gov. Rick Scott approved the change in April. Members had a lot to talk about: money, construction, enrollment, hiring, and day-to-day operations of the new university.
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