Patrick Farrell / Miami Herald Staff
Jeremy Rosende participates in his first-grade art class at the Renaissance Charter School in Coral Springs.
Florida charter schools are a $400 million business operating with little oversight whose business interests occasionally conflict with their educational mission, according to the first story in a Miami Herald three-part investigation published Sunday.
The story boils the issues down to these:
www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/
Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is out with the math and reading scores for fourth and eighth graders in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA).
The first TUDA was offered in 2002 and is given every other year. It assesses the performance of public school students and compares scores for 21 urban districts across the nation. It continues to grow, and every district that was invited to participate this year agreed to do so.
2011 is the first year the Hillsborough County school district participated, and the results show Hillsborough students get some bragging rights. It turns out they largely outperformed their peers in the other 20 urban districts that took part, and performed above the national and state average.
Joe Raedle / Getty News Images
Gov. Rick Scott proposed adding $1 billion to K-12 budgets Wednesday.
Here’s a sampling of coverage of the budget proposal Gov. Rick Scott unveiled Wednesday. Scott wants to add $1 billion to K-12 education, but it could come at the expense of Medicaid and other state programs.
Scott vowed to veto any budget that did not increase K-12 funding.
From the Palm Beach Post:
Florida Department of Education
Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson is recommending higher 10th grade reading requirements.
Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said his decision to raise reading test requirements means fewer students will pass, but that state teachers and students will rise to the occasion
Of particular concern are the new reading requirements for 10th graders on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Students must meet a minimum score in order to be considered proficient and graduate from high school.
School district superintendents have said the current scores are too high. A panel of school, college and business experts recommended a score of 243.
Robinson announced Wednesday he recommends 10th graders score at least 245.
www.flgov.com
Gov. Rick Scott has unveiled his proposed budget for the next fiscal year. It’s $4.6 billion less than the current state budget, but education gets a big boost. Scott is seeking a $1 billion increase in education spending with a focus on grades K-12. “Despite tough economic times,” said Scott, “this investment will provide the third highest level of state funding ever into Florida’s 67 school districts at 9.5 billion.”
It’s an about-face for Scott, who proposed a 10 percent cut in education last year. Lawmakers ultimately gave him an 8 percent decrease. As Scott’s popularity ratings took a nosedive, he started looking at how education could play into his plan to create 700,000 jobs in the state over seven years. Continue Reading
Joe Raedle / Getty News Images
Gov. Rick Scott listens at a Miami business roundtable meeting in August.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to add $1 billion for Florida education, according to the News Service of Florida, despite an expected $2 billion budget shortfall.
Scott will release his budget today, but News Service of Florida said he gave school leaders a preview Tuesday:
In a conference call with state school superintendents Tuesday, Scott, who will be proposing his second budget since getting elected in 2010, said he plans to call for lawmakers to increase per-pupil spending from $6,262 to $6,372, even after factoring in expected growth of about 30,000 more students over the current school year.
A spokesman for the governor said late Tuesday that officials in the governor’s office believe it would be one of the largest increases in K-12 spending in recent history if lawmakers were to go along…
His spokesman, Lane Wright, declined to say Tuesday where the governor will propose to cut spending to be able to afford the proposed boost in education spending a cut that will need to be even larger because of revenue projections that are off by nearly $2 billion over what legislators earmarked this year.
goodereader.com
Gov. Rick Scott sees a brighter future for Floridians through higher education. In a letter to newspaper editorial boards around the state, Scott said education pays off through “higher earnings and lower unemployment rates.” Then he addressed the money issue.
For the school year beginning next fall, he wrote that Florida’s student population is expected to climb by at least 30,000. If funding levels stay the same, Scott says that’s an automatic increase in education spending of $191 million. But local revenues continue to slide, leaving districts with $200 million less than they currently have to spend. Then there’s the loss of $780 million in federal funding. It’s ugly, and the result, says Scott, is an expected budget hole of $1.2 billion dollars just for the state’s schools.
Florida House of Representatives
Republican Rep. Janet Adkins has introduced a bill intended to equalize funding for charter and district school students.
A new charter school advocacy group has just one item on their Legislative agenda come January — Equal funding for charter schools students.
The group, the Florida Charter School Alliance, said a 2010 Ball State University survey showed Florida charter schools receive $2,749 less, on average, per student than district schools.
That 25.1 percent gap put Florida among states with a “severe” difference in funding charter and district schools Most of that Most of the difference comes from the roughly $2,000 additional dollars district schools receive in local tax dollars.
So the group is getting behind HB 903, sponsored by Fernandina Beach Republican Rep. Janet Adkins. Adkins sits on a number of education committees, and is vice-chairman of the PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee.
tampabay.com
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating the death of a Florida A&M University (FAMU) student who had reportedly been hazed by his fellow band mates. 26-year-old Robert Champion died shortly after he collapsed on a bus in Orlando, where he and other members of FAMU’s famed Marching 100 were performing.
Governor Rick Scott decided the state should be involved in the death investigation. In a meeting with reporters last week, he said, “I think it’s very important that we do a thorough investigation, and I think it’s also important that we review our hazing policies…When things like this happen, you’ve got to make sure in your organization, our universities in this case, that people feel comfortable coming forward, you know, if they see something like this because I don’t want this to ever happen again.”
leavechartersalone
We’ve heard about Governor Rick Scott’s proposed “parent trigger law,” which would give parents the power to shut down low performing schools and transform them into charter schools. Now we’re hearing from some of the people who would be impacted by the change.
Maria Mendoza’s daughter attends an underperforming elementary school in Ft. Myers. She told the Fort Myers News-Press the school and the teachers could be better. Her daughter took it a step further, saying she likes the school, “but they could teach the subjects better.”
Most districts offer some sort of school choice program, and many are mulling how to make those programs work for more kids. The parent trigger bill hasn’t been filed with the Florida Legislature yet, but the kind of reform it would bring has long been part of Gov. Scott’s agenda.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »
