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 […]

Florida’s new education commissioner made his debut before the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee this morning. Tony Bennett clearly knows how to schmooze the folks responsible for funding his office. 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 […]

Tony Bennett drove from Indiana over the weekend to start his first day as schools chief in Florida today. Last month the State Board of Education hired Bennett, a Republican who served as Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction for one term. He lost his re-election bid there after Democrat Glenda Ritz organized a grassroots campaign […]

The Tampa Bay Times snagged an interview with incoming education commissioner Tony Bennett. You might have missed it while celebrating the holidays or watching football games. Here’s the most interesting section to us, where reporter Jeff Solochek asks Bennett about the volume of school policy changes: There’s been talk that Florida and other states might […]

Citing his experience at many levels of education and his work on new, national Common Core standards, the State Board of Education unanimously chose Tony Bennett as Florida’s next education commissioner. Board members said there will be no learning curve for Bennett when he takes over in Florida. “I think Tony’s experience in being a […]

Next week the State Board of Education will interview finalists to become the next Florida education commissioner. Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, who lost his reelection bid, is one of three finalists and thought the front-runner for the post because of his ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush. Bennett says his sense of […]

We interviewed Tony Bennett back in the spring to ask him about his relationship with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. With news Bennett has applied to be Florida’s next Education Commissioner, this quote from Bennett seemed relevant: “But I think Indiana was really the first state to really adopt the Florida model…I would say to […]

An Indiana report has found that school grading formula changes former Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett made in 2012 while the elected superintendent of Hoosier State schools were “plausible” and “consistently applied” to all schools. Indiana lawmakers requested the review after the Associated Press published emails showing Bennett and his staff discussing how to change […]

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett stands by his decision to boost the grade of an Indiana charter schools in 2012, when Bennett was the Hoosier State’s elected superintendent. The Associated Press published emails Monday which showed Bennett and his staff discussed ways to boost the grade of Christel House charter school after learning the school’s […]