True merit pay — the kind of compensation for job performance found in most industries — provides effective employees with continued employment and regular raises while ineffective workers lose their jobs. If you do a good job you get to keep getting a pay check and if you don’t you have to look for work somewhere else. That’s true payment for merit because un-meritorious workers stop getting paid altogether.
Amendment 8 would delete language from the Florida Constitution banning public money spent “directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
Governor Scott meets with teachers at Southwest Miami High.
Increasing the number of jobs in Florida has been Gov. Rick Scott’s priority since he was on the campaign trail.
He told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday his focus now is on education.
“If you look at where the state’s going long-term, if we have the best education system, we’re going to have the jobs,” Scott said.
“We will figure it out. Americans, Floridians, we are going to build an economy that works. But it’s clearly tied to continuing to get a better education.”
When asked whether education is now a higher priority to him than job creation, Scott responded, “I don’t think you can pick one or the other.”
It’s becoming more and more difficult to know where Rick Scott stands on public education and teaching. Today, he says he would like to reduce paperwork requirements of educators. That’s nice, but if Rick Scott is truly listening to teachers, he would know that Florida’s education professionals deserve better pay and benefits and wholehearted support from state officials.
What public school educators don’t need is a governor who masquerades as an education advocate but proposes and signs state budgets that drastically shortchanges education like Rick Scott did last year. Florida needs an education governor, not a politician who poses as an advocate for teachers when it’s politically convenient.
Last week, the governor promised not to cut education funding next year. He cut $1.3 billion the year before, but then put $1 billion back in this year. Continue Reading →
The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System filed the lawsuit, which alleges the company misled investors in what K12 did and did not report about how it makes money.
A judge must decide whether the suit can go forward. If it does, K12 could be forced to reveal new information about its operations.
The Governor and First Lady on listening tour at Ocoee Middle School.
Gov. Rick Scott says he wants to reduce the burden on teachers by cutting down on paperwork and unnecessary regulations.
During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Scott said he wants teachers spending as much time as possible teaching.
He’s convening a group of five superintendents to recommend ways to cut the red tape.
“We’re asking everybody to come to us with their ideas on what can we do to allow teachers to spend more time in the classroom, less time just working on reports and on testing,” Scott said.
The five superintendents will represent large and small districts.
“We’re going to ask them to give us a thirty-day report of state requirements that can be eliminated,” Scott said. “What are we doing that just is not helping get our kids ready for college or a career?”
The Florida Virtual School wants you to know they are not under investigation.
The news Florida is investigating K12, Inc, the nation’s largest online educator, has created confusion about Florida’s similarly named online schools.
In addition, non-profit groups in many counties have applied to open independent online charter schools run by K12 but overseen by a non-profit board. Those schools would also carry the Florida Virtual Academy brand, such as the proposed Florida Virtual Academy at Marion County.
By contrast, the Florida Virtual School is the state-run online option.
K12 is the nation's largest online education company and served Florida students in 43 school districts.
Student-teacher ratios at K12, the nation’s largest online educator, are nearly twice as high as Florida’s state-run virtual school, according to internal company documents obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and StateImpact Florida.
A high school teacher working for K12 may have as many as 275 students, compared to Florida Virtual School, which has a maximum class size of 150.
“The concept of one teacher managing 275 or 300 students — it just doesn’t make sense,” said Luis Huerta, a Columbia University education professor who studies online education. “It’s hard to believe one person could do that. You have teacher-pupil ratios that are ten times what it would be in a traditional school.”
According to company documents, K12 provides better student-teacher ratios to schools that pay more per student, though even the best ratios are higher than the state-run competitor’s.
The publicly traded K12 operates in 43 Florida school districts, including in Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Orange and Duval counties, with students ranging in education level from kindergarten to high school.
Seminole County schools surveyed parents to see if they recognized the teacher reported by K12.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated from the version originally published.
Seminole County teacher Amy Capelle had to make a decision.
Her supervisor at the nation’s largest online school, K12, asked her to sign a roster saying she’d taught 112 kids.
She’d only taught seven.
“If you see your name next to a student that might not be yours, it’s because you are qualified to teach that subject, and we needed to put your name there,” wrote K12 supervisor Samantha Gilormini in an e-mail.
Capelle refused, and now state officials are investigating whether K12 used improperly certified teachers and asked employees to cover it up.
Seminole County officials say this problem may reach far beyond their borders.
But many Florida school districts have no way to know whether K12 students are actually being taught by properly certified teachers, according to a review by StateImpact Florida and Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
At StateImpact Florida, our mission is to “put education reform to the test.”
And now, we are teaming up with NPR’s midday-talk program, Tell Me More, in an extensive – and inclusive – discussion to spotlight education in America.
Tell Me More has launched a Twitter Education Forum (#npredchat). We’re asking you to engage in an ongoing conversation about education reform.
And on Oct. 10, the conversation hits the airwaves with a live broadcast from StateImpact Florida partner WLRN in Miami.
NPR’s Cara Philbin sat down with Tell Me More, StateImpact and WLRN to explore this collaboration: Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
