{"id":21845,"date":"2014-04-16T16:23:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T20:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=21845"},"modified":"2014-04-16T17:37:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T21:37:42","slug":"gov-scott-avoids-question-about-house-senate-private-school-scholarship-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/04\/16\/gov-scott-avoids-question-about-house-senate-private-school-scholarship-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Scott Avoids Question About House, Senate Private School Scholarship Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Gov. Rick Scott at Tampa's Graham Elementary School.<\/p><\/div>\n

House and Senate leaders are divided over whether students who receive a tax credit scholarship to attend a private school should have to take the state’s standardized test.<\/p>\n

The dispute — the Senate wants the requirement, the House does not<\/a> — has threatened to derail a bill which would expand eligibility for the private school scholarships.<\/p>\n

At one point, Gov. Rick Scott agreed with Senate leadership about the testing<\/a>. So we asked Scott if he still felt the same way at a visit to a Tampa school.<\/p>\n

His answer was noncommittal.<\/p>\n

“I think all of our education system likes measurement,” Scott said. “They want to get better. I have not met a teacher that doesn\u2019t say \u2018Look, I believe in measurement.\u2019 We gotta have the right measurement for every school that we have. And I support what\u2019s happening in our schools. We\u2019re clearly doing the right thing when it comes to the results.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2012, Scott argued that students receiving tax credit scholarships and McKay Scholarships for students with disabilities<\/a> should have to take the new Common Core-tied state test. Students are taking the final round of math, reading and writing FCAT exams this year.<\/p>\n

Students in the tax credit scholarship program are required to take a nationally norm-referenced exam each year<\/a> — most take the Stanford Achievement Test — and the results have been studied annually<\/a>.<\/p>\n

School choice groups quickly pushed back against Scott’s proposal<\/a>. He’s up for reelection this year and it sounds like he not looking to pick a side in the disagreement between Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford.<\/p>\n

Scott’s comments came during a visit to Graham Elementary School in West Tampa. Scott was there to present $8.5 million of school recognition money to 10 Hillsborough County schools. Schools receive $100 per student for earning an A grade on the state report card or dramatically improving their school grade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Faculty at the school decide how to spend the money, including one-time bonuses, purchasing equipment to aid students or hiring temporary staff to work with students.<\/p>\n

The school recognition funds were first proposed by former Gov. Jeb Bush and are an annual part of the state budget.<\/p>\n

Scott might have been there to tick off a few campaign talking points as well.<\/p>\n

“We know that a good job starts with a great education,” Scott said. “And Florida continues to be a leader in education.”<\/p>\n

Scott has made education a focus as reelection approaches. Scott once proposed cutting school budgets. Now he’s adding money and last year successfully pushed for teacher raises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House and Senate leaders are divided over whether students who receive a tax credit scholarship to attend a private school should have to take the state’s standardized test. The dispute — the Senate wants the requirement, the House does not — has threatened to derail a bill which would expand eligibility for the private school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":21846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[930,1157,768,1019,31,1027,675,769],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21845"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21851,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21845\/revisions\/21851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}