April 15, 2010

Crist Vetos SB6. Does This Signal An Independent Run?

Gov. Charlie Crist today vetoed Senate Bill 6. There were a lot of flaws in this bill, and the more the Governor heard from his constituents about them, it appeared that this would be the action he would take. Governor Crist trails Marco Rubio by double digits in the Republican primary for the Florida Senate seat, but has a slim lead over Rubio and Kendrick Meek in a three way race (LINK).

In the Governor's official letter he released explaining his decision, he stated, "Let me be clear; I veto SB 6 because this bill is contrary to my firmly held principle to act in the best interest of the People of Florida. I am confident in my decision today because I know it is the right thing to do for the People."

Regarding teachers..."SB 6 places teachers in jeopardy of losing their jobs and teaching certificates without a clear understanding of how gains will be measured, and without taking into account circumstances beyond the control of teachers."

Regarding local control..."Further, The bill does encroach on local decision-making. At worst, it could result in an infringement upon the constitutional authority of school boards."

Read the entire letter HERE.

April 14, 2010

SB6 Now In The Hands of Gov. Crist...Is A Veto Possible?

Over 60,000 contacts have been made to the Governor’s Office expressing concern about SB 6. These include letters from Florida School Board Association, Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS), and other education leaders. See THIS LETTER from FADSS. 

Lately, new groups and organizations have been joined the opposition to SB6.  The conservative faction “tea party” movements from around Florida are registering their opposition to SB 6. They see this as another “big government take-over of the schools" and "reliance on significant federal funding which will continue to increase the federal debt”. We now see a broad cross-section of the political landscape coming together. Is this enough to give the Governor the kind of political base needed to make a veto decision?. 
 
Here are some interesting points which may help sway the Governor:

1. The governor has taken counsel from his father and his two sisters. His dad was a school board member in Pinellas and his sisters are or were teachers. 

2. Commissioner of Education Smith and the Chancellor were on their way to a press conference yesterday to support SB 6 and were diverted by a call to meet with the Governor’s office on the bill. They did not show up at the press conference. 

3. The Governor’s schedule for Thursday evening and Friday has changed – previously scheduled to be in Key West – he is now scheduled to be in Tallahassee.

Anyone care to predict a veto?
 

April 5, 2010

SB6/HB7189 Is A Tallahassee Power Grab

Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Paula Dockery, one of a few Republicans to vote against the so-called "teacher tenure bill", published this editorial that bashes the bill.

Had Senate Bill 6 simply rewarded exceptional teachers with extra pay I would have supported it.

Had it simply phased out tenure for new and existing teachers, I would have voted in its favor.

Had it actually offered a way to remove bad teachers, I would have signed on as co-sponsor.

But as I have found so often in public life, the devil is in the details. And on close examination, SB6 violates my core conservative principles – less government, more personal responsibility and lower taxes. I believe any good education reform effort should include teachers in the challenge, not shut them out when big decisions are made. In particular, I opposed SB 6 because:

   • SB 6 is a Tallahassee power grab. Sponsors want to take local control of teacher evaluations, salaries and budgets away from Florida’s 67 elected school boards and give it to a Tallahassee bureaucracy. This violates Florida constitutional protections of local control for local schools and redirects local decision making to Tallahassee. We don’t need any more Tallahassee one-size-fits-all solutions for our communities or our schools.

   • We can’t afford SB6. SB6’s passage and implementation was contingent on Florida receiving another $900 million in federal stimulus funds – borrowed money that the United States Department of Education denied to Florida just last Monday. Serious fiscal questions remain as to how we will pay for this new state government program that requires the Florida Department of Education to hold-back 5% of a local school district’s funding every year. To avoid classroom cuts, school districts will have no option but to raise local taxes. Classroom funding should not be used to grow a new and bigger Tallahassee bureaucracy on the backs of taxpayers.

   • SB 6 will destroy jobs. The bill makes it nearly impossible for someone not currently teaching to renew his or her teaching certificate. Teachers will not be able to return to work after raising their children. They will have their certifications threatened if they are activated for military duty, or otherwise unavailable to teach, for longer than one school year. And if a teacher can't show yet-to-be-defined "learning gains" for four out of five consecutive years, the teacher will lose his or her license and ability to make a living. What is not clear is what such learning gains will include or whether they will be measured on a student-by-student competitive basis, a teacher-by-teacher basis, an averaged group basis or individual year-by-year gains basis. The bill leaves fleshing out its critical components and practicalities to rulemaking by a Tallahassee government agency without providing meaningful guidelines or procedural protections, rendering the bill an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.

   • SB 6 takes a blame-the-teacher approach instead of recognizing that individuals have personal responsibility for their decisions and behaviors. The sponsors put all responsibility for student performance on teachers, failing to hold parents or students personally responsible for their own roles in the education process. What if kids don’t come to school willing or able to learn? What if they don’t come to school at all? Teachers face all penalties without regard to factors outside of their control or influence.

   • SB 6 denigrates the teaching profession and our public schools. It’s demoralizing to ask teachers to defend their teaching certificates and jobs each year and it’s patently unfair to base half their pay on how well students perform on a single test. Our best teachers won’t want to work where we need them the most: in lower-performing schools or in classrooms with special-need students.

   • SB 6 is more cloak & dagger, Tallahassee politics as usual. The bill’s sponsors are refusing to allow any amendments that might make the bill better. Instead, they are holding secret meetings and urging that the bill be passed without any amendment or teacher input. This is not how reasonable people make sound public policy. This is politics as usual in Tallahassee. And that has to stop.

In an open forum with public debate and input, we can do better than this bill. Rewarding good teachers with good pay is good policy. But disguising an unfunded, $900 million dollar Tallahassee power grab of our local public schools as public education reform, is not.

LINK 

March 30, 2010

SB 6 – Teacher Quality – Talking Points

Still unsure about what is included in Senate Bill 6 (SB6) and its counterpart on the House side, HB 7189? Remember, at this point SB6 has passed in the Senate, but the House bill is still in committee; but it could be voted on as early as this Thursday.

Below are the primary provisions of SB 6 that include:

• Requiring each district to establish by 2014-2015 a teacher compensation system that rewards teachers primarily based on their student performance and where years-of service are specifically banned from being recognized (House version also bans recognizing higher level degrees and credentials);

• Requiring each district to develop end-of-course exams in every subject area and grade level not covered by a State testing program;

• Requiring these tests to be secure, reliable and valid which must be attested to by the superintendent each year at the cost of being suspended and removed from office for malfeasance if the DOE or Auditor General determines these requirement were not met;

• EOCs in every subject area must be administered by 2013-2014 so that “learning gains” can be part of the initial performance pay requirements the following year; • Requiring teacher evaluation systems to be updated such that teacher performance becomes at least 50% of the scoring;

• Taking 5% of district total operations funding from all sources (federal, state and local) from the FEFP distribution to a DOE fund called the “Performance Fund” beginning in 2011-2012 fiscal year;

• Allowing districts to receive money from the “Performance Fund” for meeting requirements to develop end-of-course exams, design teacher performance systems or to pay teacher performance pay;

• Beginning in 2014-2015, districts deemed by the Commissioner of Education to not be in compliance with salary schedule requirements regarding performance pay and bans on including years-of-service will lose access to the “performance fund” which will instead revert to the State;

• Certification renewal requirements for teachers are changed such that teachers showing low student performance gains cannot be renewed;

• Bonuses for participating in the Excellent Teacher Program will only be retained for teachers in the program prior to July 1, 2010; and

• Teachers hired after July 1, 2010 will:

      initially start with a probationary contract for one-year where they can be fired at any time during the contract or at its end without any cause at all (essentially an at-will every day agreement);

      be allowed to receive up to four additional one-year contracts as “beginning teachers” where at the end of each year they can be fired without cause at the discretion of the district;

      receive annual contracts after the fifth year where renewal can only be granted for teachers who have shown adequate student learning gains in at least two of the previous three years; and,

      these teachers will NEVER receive a contract that is longer than one year.

The bill presents several major concerns to school districts. The biggest of these are the costs including the 5% off the top “performance fund,” the potential liability for being deemed out of compliance, the development of EOCs, and the training needed to properly implement. Additionally, there appears to be constitutional problems with requiring negotiations to end at a fixed point as the Florida Constitution has certain well understood rights to bargain.

Click HERE for the full text of SB6, and

Click HERE for the full text of HB 7189 

March 29, 2010

Delaware, Tennessee win first 'Race to Top' education grants

The U.S. Department of Education has picked Delaware and Tennessee to receive part of an unprecedented $4.35 billion to help them improve student performance and transform struggling schools, a source said today.

The states, selected from 16 finalists, are going to receive hundreds of millions in grants in the first round of the federal “Race to the Top” competition. The grants are designed to encourage the use of innovative educational programs.

Florida eneded up at the fourth ranked state, just behind Georgia, and looks to re-apply for the second phase of funding. Read more: LINK

Education Secretary Arne Duncan had this to say in a press release today announcing the winners: "We received many strong proposals from states all across America, but two applications stood out above all others: Delaware and Tennassee. Both states have statewide buy-in for comprehensive plans to reform their schools. They have written new laws to support their policies and they have demonstrated the courage, capacity and committment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students." 

Click HERE for the entire press release.

March 1, 2010

Legislature Starts Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Budget, Jobs, Schools, Ethics on Tap for Florida Legislators 

It is going to be another lean budget this year for Florida. Expenses are outpacing any revenue increase, and the state is predicting a budget shortfall of as much as 3 billion dollars. Tough choices will be made. Here are two links from articles that explain the major issues facing the Florida Legislature in 2010:

The Ledger.com - LINK
 
Jacksonville.com - LINK
 

Florida’s Class Size - What's The Right Size? 
 
As the legislature convenes this week, Florida’s debate over class-size will heat up, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
 
Florida voters in 2002 changed the state's constitution to require smaller class sizes in their public schools. But after nearly eight years, and $15.5 billion spent, 32 percent are still too crowded. 
 
The class-size measure was approved by 52 percent of the voters in 2002 as an amendment to the state constitution.
 
It requires that by the start of the 2010-11 school year, there be no more than 18 students in pre-K-to-third-grade classes, no more than 22 in fourth-to-eighth-grade classes and no more than 25 in high school courses. The law doesn't apply electives or "specials," such as art and physical education, so those classes can be larger.

Click the link above for the full article.
 
Florida Education Foundations Want Class Size Amendment Changed

According to the results of a new survey sponsored by the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations, the vast majority of board members of Florida's education foundations think the class-size amendment costs too much and needs to be tweaked for flexibility. Click link above to read the survey.
 

December 10, 2009

Lawmakers Hunting for Money for Public Schools 
 
Florida education officials are trying to cobble together an application for millions of dollars in federal grant money as state lawmakers and educators across the state are worried about where they will get money for next year’s public school budget. 

The state’s public schools have had a series of ups and downs in the past year. Graduation rates are higher than ever before and test scores have improved slightly. But, funding has been on a downward spiral. In 2007-2008, the per pupil spending was $7,126, the following year it was $6,844, and this year it is $6,873.

And the loss of funding has meant layoffs and program cuts at schools across the state. It has also made it difficult for some schools to comply with class size requirements. Currently, 72 schools across the state are in violation of a constitutional requirement mandating certain class sizes per grade level.

Read more from the Jacksonville Observer here: LINK

December 7, 2009

"Perfect Storm" Hitting Florida Funding For Education

In the past few years, population growth -- the main engine driving the state's economy -- has stalled. And this year, for the first time since World War II, more people are expected to move out of Florida than move in.
 
At the same time, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is shredding school-district budgets, forcing some to close campuses, cut school days and curtail services.
 
An infusion of nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus money, credited with saving more than 18,000 education jobs in Florida, has helped stave off a deeper crisis. But the state's public schools, on average, started this school year with $418 less per kid than they had at the start of the 2007-08 school year.
 
State economists predict Florida's budget pain will continue for at least the next three years, with tanking growth drying up billions of dollars in needed revenue. That will hurt all services, including public education.
 
Schools also will be hurt by the sluggish housing market, which means fewer dollars in property taxes collected for schools, and by the loss of federal money slated to run out next year.

Click here for the rest of the Orlando Sentinel story: LINK

May 12, 2009 

 
Florida Gets Federal Education Stimulus Money 

Florida's application for federal stimulus money (and the needed waiver) has been approved by the U.S. DOE, according to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando.
But the money won't be sent Florida's way until the federal Office of Management and Budget authorizes the transfer -- a process that could be finished within days, Grayson said.

State lawmakers were counting on some $2 billion in stimulus money (delivered over two years) to shore up depleted school budgets. Grayson was in Orlando this morning, meeting with superintendents from Lake, Marion, Orange, and Osceola counties. The money (when it arrives) will be a big factor in school budgets in coming years. Orange's public schools, for example, are slated to get more than $58 million. LINK


May 10, 2009  

Fla.'s Budget Blues May Not Be Finished     
 

TALLAHASSEE | Florida's elected leaders faced one historic choice this year as they faced a three-year plummet in spending: Hope that the past boom times will come again or prepare for a new world.

Presented with that option with hundreds of bills and proposals, lawmakers left Tallahassee last week with an eye toward the past, opting for slapdash first aid to tide the state over until the tourists and construction workers rise again. Instead of long-term fixes for loopholes in the state's sales and corporate taxes, lawmakers agreed to raise money by nearly quadrupling the state's cigarette tax and expanding gambling.

They borrowed from savings accounts, even those that promised immediate economic benefits. And they quietly took $5 billion in federal stimulus money that allowed them to barely maintain education spending that has dropped in the past three years.
Wayne Blanton, executive director for the Florida School Boards Association, said the time has long come for Florida to expand the number of things that are taxed to prevent the over-reliance on tourism and growth.

"Florida has lived on growth. Every four or five years, there was a million more people here," said Blanton. "They're not coming anymore. That means we've got to rethink how we fund government. We have funded it off of pure growth and we haven't had to worry . There needs to be some statesmen come up to bat."

Blanton said that schools have already cut or eliminated non-classroom programs like athletics and intramural programs and things like art and music classes may be next.
"What quality of life do you want?" said Blanton. "If you want less, that's okay but if you want where it is now, we've got to figure out a way to fund it." LINK

April 27, 2009

State applies for education stimulus money

After taking heat last week for a delay in applying for federal education stimulus funds, Gov. Charlie Crist submitted the state's application Friday night.

The 17-page application  is signed by Crist and Education Commissioner Eric Smith. The federal government has said it can take two weeks to be processed. Because lawmakers are relying on $2 billion in stimulus funds to shore up the education budget, the news can't come soon enough.

Crist signed the section when it indicates Florida needs a waiver because the state hasn't maintained education spending at 2005-06 levels, as required by the federal stimulus program. LINK

Link to the 17-page application

House passes bill giving voters a say in class sizes

TALLAHASSEE - Seven years ago, Florida voters approved a ballot measure to shrink class sizes in public schools. Friday, the state House decided voters should reconsider.

By a 78 to 41 vote, the House passed a measure that would give voters the choice to reduce the strictest and most expensive parts of the 2002 class-size amendment, which are to take effect next year.

If the Senate also passes the resolution, voters could decide in November 2010 if they want class sizes in core academic courses to remain as they are now. Sixty percent would have to vote "yes" for the resolution to take effect.

The measure would keep class sizes calculated as a school-wide average but maximum class sizes would jump to 21, 27 and 30, depending on grade level. Now the law says that by 2010-11 there can be no more than 18 students in pre-K to third-grade classes, no more than 22 in fourth- to eighth-grade classes and no more than 25 in high school courses. LINK

Education commish: We're 'strategically' waiting to apply for stimulus funds

Education Commissioner Eric Smith, responding to questions about why Florida has not submitted its application for federal education stabilization funds, said this morning that they have "strategically waited" to get all the right information. 

"We’ve had the application and we’ve been working on it with the U.S. Department of Education and the Governor’s office for weeks," Smith said. "And it is ready to go. It’s complete. The waiver is what we don’t have. We originally were told the waiver would come with the application. … It just hasn’t materialized yet. Now we’re told it will be May 1."

Because Florida has not maintained education spending at 2005-06 levels, as required by the federal stimulus program, the state must apply for a waiver to qualify for $2 billion in funds already figured into House and Senate education budgets for 2009-10.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education said they're waiting for Florida's application and don't understand what the holdup is. Smith said his office is in daily contact with the federal education office.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, sent a letter to Smith, Gov. Charlie Crist and other key leaders telling them to get the application in. Asked what if he had a response to the letter from Meek, a candidate for U.S. Senate, Smith said: "No opinion. No comment." LINK

April 9, 2009 

Florida House, Senate ready for budget negotiations; Lawmakers to return Monday 

House and Senate budget committees on Tuesday approved $65 billion state spending plans that were near in numbers but philosophically far apart as the Florida Legislature took a long holiday weekend break.

 

Lawmakers will return Monday to finish a few budget-related bills and steer the conflicting House and Senate versions of the package into a joint committee for negotiations in the final three weeks of the 60-day session.

 

Major differences include pay cuts for state employees, a $1 tobacco-tax increase and privatization of a large mental hospital in Northeast Florida. The Senate plan is about $600 million higher than the House budget. The House generally relies on no new taxes and deeper cuts in services while the Senate committee endorsed the tobacco-tax hike and took a smaller bite out of spending. The House has no cigarette tax hike. MORE

 

First wave of stimulus money hits Florida

This is the money for low-income kids and those with disabilities, which states don't have to apply for. The remaining stimulus funds have to be applied for. Florida isn't funding schools at 2006 levels, so it has to apply for a waiver to get the federal money. Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith is confident he'll get approved.

Duncan said his office is committed to working quickly to get Florida's kids the extra money. He didn't say whether he's greenlighting Florida's green, but he did say he'll be looking for "proportionality" -- meaning lawmakers haven't cut more from those coffers than others.

And he had one warning -- no shellgames. If the US DOE finds any funky numbers in any of the required reporting on a wide range of data, he'll withhold the money, which rolls out to states in waves. More...

Duncan: Feds ready to work quickly with Florida

"We look forward to getting their application and turning around an answer very, very quick," Duncan said. "We recognize the real sense of urgency in Florida and our staff is poised to work very, very quickly." More...