F.A.C.E. to FACE
F.A.C.E. BULLETIN
11/09/07
November 9, 2007
Dear Friends,
Thousands of New Scholarships Available for Low-Income K-12 Students
We need to do everything we can to convince our lawmakers to support school choice initiatives during the upcoming year. The main point will be to encourage them to endorse a $150 million increase in the cap (30 million per year for the next 5 years) and an increase in the individual scholarship amount of the scholarship from $3,750 to $4, 500 for CTC students. These legislative visits to their district offices will probably end in January when they return to Tallahassee. Now is the best time to get this done. We need parents, administrators, clergy, and businesspeople to step up on behalf of the students.
Your school community's efforts may serve as the impetus in convincing the legislature of the necessity of school choice programs. Please do everything possible to ensure that your legislator hears our voices!
If you have not already done so, please respond to the communiqué from me regarding contacting your legislator for district office visits. It has everything you need for the visit, but you will need to set up. We would like two legislative visits between now and January 2008, before the 2008 legislative session in March. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in finding out more about how you can help.
Please let me know if you secure an appointment. Thank you for putting your FACE on the future of Florida's education!
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION has put out an important Technical Assistance Paper for Students with Disabilities Enrolled by Their Parents in Private Schools. Please review.
More than 1 in 10 high schools in America are 'dropout factories' , Associated Press.
Yesterday, Utah voters rejected a state-wide universal voucher program which appeared on their ballot. This vote overturned a program that
was passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor of Utah. Following the article, is Step Up for Students' statement on the
outcome and the news article that ran today in the Salt Lake City Tribune.Vouchers go down in crushing defeat , Vouchers' money man says Utahns 'don't care enough about their kids', The Salt Lake Tribune.
Thank you for Stepping Up For Students,Michael A. Benjamin
Executive Director, F.A.C.E.
Florida Alliance for Choices in Education
The Florida Department of Education has issued the following technical assistance paper regarding the Students with Disabilities Enrolled by Their Parents in Private Schools.
The technical assistance paper may be viewed at: http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-4656/TAN2007-158.pdf
This is a technical assistance paper on parentally placed children. CTC children qualify for services. Hillsborough County is having a meeting on this on November 16th. If you are a private school director you may want to attend --McKay and CTC alike .
Summary: Although there is no individual entitlement to free appropriate public education (FAPE) for students with disabilities who have been enrolled by their parents in private schools, school districts where the private school is located have an obligation to ensure that such private school students have an opportunity to participate in programs assisted by or carried out under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004). The purpose of this technical assistance paper (TAP) is to provide all involved parties with guidance in the development and implementation of procedures for parentally placed private school students with disabilities.
October 29, 2007 Monday 8:40 PM GMT
More than 1 in 10 high schools in America are 'dropout factories'
BYLINE: By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer
SECTION: WASHINGTON DATELINE
LENGTH: 1350 words
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout Factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That dubious distinction applies to more than one in 10 high schools across America.
"If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?" asks Bob Balfanz, the researcher at Johns Hopkins University who defines such a school as a "dropout factory."There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide that fit that description, according to an analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press. That's 12 percent of all such schools, no more than a decade ago but no less, either.
While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out, Balfanz says. The data tracked senior classes for three years in a row to make sure local events like plant closures weren't to blame for the low retention rates.
The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around, because their students face challenges well beyond the academic ones the need to work as well as go to school, for example, or a need for social services.
Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most states, is the only state without a dropout factory. Oregon has just a single such school: Reynolds High School, on the outskirts of Multnomah County.
Florida and South Carolina have the highest percentages. About half of high schools in those states classify as dropout factories."Part of the problem we've had here is we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education," said Jim Foster, a spokesman for South Carolina's Department of Education. He noted that South Carolina residents once could get good jobs in textile mills without a high school degree, but that those jobs are now much harder to come by.
Ten of Pinellas' 16 high schools made the list, which came as a surprise to Barbara Thornton, the district's associate superintendent for high school programs. Thornton said the state pegs Pinellas' graduation rate at much higher than the Johns Hopkins study.
"It sounds like skewed data," Thornton said. "I would certainly confer with some experts in research before I made a judgment."
Thornton also questioned the study's labeling of students who start as freshmen and don't make it to their senior year as dropouts. Many students earn a high school diploma or its equivalent by a different means, Thornton said.
"We have credit recovery programs in all our high schools, and we have programs to help students prepare for the GED test," she said. "We don't look at those students as dropouts; we look at them as students who may be taking a different path."
Federal lawmakers haven't focused much attention on the problem. The No Child Left Behind education law, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger students. But that appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the five-year-old No Child law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve, and the Bush administration supports the idea.The current law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low scores on math and reading tests, such as having to replace teachers or principals, but it lacks the same kind of teeth when it comes to graduation rates.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to about half.
The legislative proposals would:Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic and other subgroups and are judged on those. That's to ensure schools aren't just graduating white students in high numbers, but also are working to ensure minority students get diplomas.
Get states to build data systems to keep track of students throughout their school years and more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates.
Ensure states count graduation rates in a uniform way.States have used a variety of formulas, including counting the percentage of entering seniors who get a diploma. That measurement ignores the fact that kids who drop out typically do so before their senior year.
Create strong progress goals for graduation rates and impose sanctions on schools that miss them. Most states currently lack meaningful goals, according to The Education Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for poor and minority children.The current law requires testing in reading and math once in high school, and those tests take on added importance because of serious consequences for a school that fails. Critics say that creates a perverse incentive for schools to encourage kids to drop out before they bring down a school's scores.
"The vast majority of educators do not want to push out kids, but the pressures to raise test scores above all else are intense," said Bethany Little, vice president for policy at the Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy group focused on high schools. "To know if a high school is doing its job, we need to consider test scores and graduation rates equally."
Little said some students pushed out of high schools are encouraged to enroll in programs that prepare them to take the GED exam. People who pass that test get certificates indicating they have high-school level academic skills. But the research shows getting a GED doesn't lead to the kind of job or college success associated with a regular diploma.
Loretta Singletary, 17, enrolled in a GED program after dropping out of a Washington, D.C., high school that she describes as huge, chaotic and violent. "Girls got jumped, boys got jumped, teachers (were) fighting and hitting students," she said.
She said teachers had low expectations for students, which led to dull classes. "They were teaching me stuff I already knew ... basic nouns, simple adjectives."
Singletary said she loved science but wasn't offered it and her complaints to administrators went unanswered. "I was interested in experiments," she said. "I didn't have science in 9th or 10th grade."A GED classmate of Singletary's is 23-year-old Dontike Miller, who attended and left two D.C. high schools on the dropout factory list. Miller was brought up by a single mother who used drugs, and he said teachers and counselors seemed oblivious to what was going on in his life.
He would have liked for someone to sit him down and say: "You really need to go to class. We're going to work with you. We're going to help you," Miller said. Instead, "I had nobody."
Teachers and administrators at Baltimore Talent Development High School, where 90 percent of kids are on track toward graduating on time, are working hard to make sure students don't have an experience like Miller's.
The school, which sits in the middle of a high-crime, impoverished neighborhood two miles west of downtown Baltimore, was founded by Balfanz and others four years ago as a laboratory for getting kids out on time with a diploma and ready for college.
Teachers, students and administrators at the school know each other well."I know teachers that have knocked on people's doors. They want us to succeed," 12th-grader Jasmine Coleman said during a lunchtime chat in the cafeteria.
Fellow senior Victoria Haynes says she likes the way the school organizes teachers in teams of four, each assigned to a group of 75 students. The teachers work across subject areas; English and math teachers, for example, collaborate on lessons and discuss individual students' needs."They all concentrate on what's best for us together," Haynes said. "It's very family-oriented. We feel really close to them."
Teachers, too, say it works.
"I know the students a lot better, because I know the teachers who teach them," said 10th-grade English teacher Jenni Williams. "Everyone's on the same page, so it's not like you're alone in your mission."
That mission can be daunting. The majority of students who enter Baltimore Talent Development in 9th grade are reading at a 5th or 6th grade level.
To get caught up, students have 80-minute lessons in reading and math, instead of the typical 45 minutes. They also get additional time with specialists if needed.
The fact that youths are entering high schools with such poor literacy skills raises questions about how much catch-up work high schools can be expected to do, say some high-school principals."We're at the end of the process," says Mel Riddile, principal of T.C. Williams High School, a large public school in Alexandria, Va., which is not on the dropout factory list. "People don't walk into 9th grade and suddenly have a reading problem."
Here are Tampa Bay area schools that fit the "dropout factory" label, according to the study:
-Pinellas: Boca Ciega, Clearwater, Dixie Hollins, Dunedin, Gibbs, Lakewood, Osceola, Pinellas Park, Seminole and St. Petersburg high schools.
-Hernando: Central and Frank W. Springstead high schools.
-Hillsborough: Bloomingdale, Chamberlain, East Bay, Hillsborough, Jefferson, King, Leto, Plant City, Robinson, Tampa Bay Technical and Wharton high schools.
-Pasco: Gulf, Hudson, James W. Mitchell, Pasco, Ridgewood, River Ridge and Zephyrhills high schools.
Information from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Donna Winchester was used in this report.
Vouchers go down in crushing defeat
Vouchers' money man says Utahns 'don't care enough about their kids'
By Glen WarcholThe Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake TribuneArticle Last Updated:11/07/2007 07:34:28 AM MST
Voters decisively rejected the will of the Utah Legislature and governor Tuesday, defeating what would have been the nation's most comprehensive education voucher program in a referendum blowout.
"Tonight, with the eyes of the nation upon us, Utah has rejected this flawed voucher law," said state School Board Chairman Kim Burningham. "We believe this sends a clear message. It sends a message that Utahns believe in, and support, public schools."
More than 60 percent of voters were rejecting vouchers, with about 95 percent of the precincts reporting, according to unofficial results. The referendum failed in every county, including the conservative bastion of Utah County.
Voucher supporter Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne - who bankrolled the voucher effort - called the referendum a "statewide IQ test" that Utahns failed.
"They don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box," Byrne said.
Doug Holmes, a key voucher advocate and contributor, said, "We started hugely in the hole and it's always been the case. The unions have done this in four different states, where they take the strategy of confusion to the people."
But Holmes said, "You don't run away from something because the odds are stacked against you."
Utah's voucher program, supported by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Republican legislative leaders, attracted national attention because it would have provided tax-funded subsidies to any student, rich or poor, to enroll in a private school.
The law passed by a single vote in the Legislature, but voucher opponents, led by the Utah Education Association teachers' union, gathered 124,000 signatures to force it into a voter referendum.
The resulting public opinion campaign included thousands of TV and radio spots and burned through $8.5 million for a program the state estimated would cost $5.5 million in its first year.
The tidal wave of cash changed few minds, however. As far back as January - before the Legislature approved the voucher program - a Tribune poll showed voters opposing vouchers 57 percent to 33 percent.
Had it passed, the plan would have offered tax-supported subsidies of $500 to $3,000 - depending on family income - for each newly enrolled private school student. It would have been the country's broadest voucher program because it would have had no income ceiling - all Utah students would be eligible as the program phased in over 13 years. By the end of the phase in, the program was projected to cost taxpayers $430 million.
Most of the opposition's $4.4 million came from the National Education Association and state teachers' unions from Florida to Alaska. Voucher supporters countered with more than $4 million, nearly three-quarters of that from Byrne and his family. Byrne says vouchers are the only way America's "broken" public education system can stay competitive with other industrialized nations.
"What's got to happen and it might take Utah five to 10 years to understand," Byrne said, "they are at the bottom of the heap [educationally] and the heap is at the bottom of the international heap."
He shrugged off the fortune he poured into the referendum, saying he leads a fairly modest life as far as CEOs go. "The fortune that I'm making is all going toward educating lower income and especially African-American and Hispanic kids," Byrne said. "So this is not a terribly big deal to me."
Supporters argued the program would help Utah absorb a tide of 150,000 children expected over the next 10 years by diverting students into private academies.
The clash quickly became superheated, with voucher opponents warning the program would bleed needed money from the public system, which already ranks last in the nation for per pupil spending and teacher pay. In television and radio spots, they hammered home a message that the program had "too many loopholes and unknowns."Supporters fired back, connecting their opposition to liberal icons such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy and out-of-state unions. Meanwhile, other media thrusts implied that good Mormons should support vouchers.
Both sides, at one point, embraced the governor, who Byrne blasted Tuesday for his lukewarm backing.
"When he asked for my support [for governor] he told me he is going to be the voucher governor. Not only was it his No. 1 priority, it was what he was going to be all about," Byrne said. "He did, I think, a very tepid job, and then when the polls came out on the referendum, he was pretty much missing in action."
Byrne said the referendum defeat may have killed vouchers in Utah, but "There are other freedom oriented groups in other states - African-Americans in South Carolina are interested in it."
---
* Lisa Schencker and Robert Gehrke contributed to this report.
Step Up for Students
On Tuesday, voters in Utah turned down the opportunity to allow all families, regardless of income, the chance to choose the school they feel is best for their children. It is a travesty that poor and minority families in Utah will not have the same choices that affluent families enjoy throughout the state.
This was not a vote on parental choice in general, but simply a vote on a specific program, which was combated by the national teacher's union (NEA) who spent the equivalent of at least one dollar for every teacher in the United States to defeat the program.
Utah still has a voucher program for students with Special Needs (Carson Smith Scholarship) that enjoys wide support throughout the state. This special needs scholarship program is not impacted by the vote on Tuesday.
Though we are disappointed by the Utah vote, school choice is thriving nationwide today. In the last year alone five states enacted new programs and four existing state programs expanded, all of which had bi-partisan support.
In Florida, families enjoy more parental choice programs than any other state and demand is growing, as demonstrated by the increasing enrollment each year in these programs. Moreover, bi-partisan support for these programs is growing, as evidenced by the recent involvement of former Congresswoman Carrie Meek as a scholarship provider in the Step Up for Students/ Corporate Tax Credit Program.
Additionally, recent polls show Latino voters in Florida overwhelmingly support programs like the Step Up for Students/ Corporate Tax Credit Program as well as the McKay Scholarships for Students with Special Needs.
The vote in Utah will not curtail the continued growth and support for school choice programs across the country and in Florida. State Legislators will continue to place children's education above special interests in an effort to improve the educational outcomes for all children.
-- Denise Lasher
5,000 New Scholarships Available
for Low-Income K-12 Students
The Step Up For Students scholarship program, administered through Florida P.R.I.D.E. and Children First Florida--Florida Corporate Tax Credit (CTC) scholarship funding organizations, will award approximately 5,000 new scholarships for the 2007-2008 school year to Kindergarten through 12th grade students who qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program. Applicants must be currently enrolled in a public school, unless they are entering kindergarten or first grade. Those who qualify may receive up to a $3,750 scholarship for tuition at an eligible private school of their choice or a scholarship for up to $500 for travel expenses to an out-of-district public school. The scholarships provide a fresh start for students who are not succeeding in their current school setting.
This year, $70 million in scholarships will be awarded to qualifying Florida students until funding is exhausted so applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Income limits for scholarship recipients are determined by household size. For example, a family of four can earn no more than $38,203 to qualify. To apply, log on to www.floridapride.org or call (813) 258-2700 for Florida Pride and www.scholarshipfunding.org or call (904) 247-6033 or (407) 702-2607 for a Children First Florida application.
The Step Up For Students (Corporate Income Tax Credit) scholarship program provides K-12 scholarships that currently allow almost 17,000 low-income Florida students to attend an eligible private school or out-of-district public school. One hundred percent of corporate contributions go directly to funding scholarships – not a single penny can be used for administrative costs.
Children First Florida - Serving Orlando, Central Florida, Jacksonville and Panhandle
P.O. Box 54367
Jacksonville, Florida 32216
(904) 247-6033 or (407) 702-2607
cforster@scholarshipfunding.orgAlachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Brevard, Calhoun, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Escambia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Holmes, Indian River, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Martin, Nassau, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Putnam, Santa Rosa, St. Johns, Seminole, St. Lucie, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington
School Year 07 - 08 Income Eligibility Guidelines
Persons in Household
New & Add-Ons
(185%)Renewals (200%)
2
$25,327
$27,380
3
$31,765
$34,340
4
$38,203
$41,300
5
$44,641
$48,260
6
$51,079
$55,220
7
$57,517
$62,140
8
$63,955
$69,140
9
$70,393
$76,100
10
$76,831
$83,060
11
$83,269
$90,020
12
$89,707
$96,980
13
$96,145
$103,940
For each additional person, add
$6,438
$6,960
Effective from June 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008
Florida Alliance for Choices in Education (F.A.C.E)
If you no longer want to receive this mailing or you wish to unsubscribe from
F.A.C.E mailings, please send an e-mail with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to mbenjamin@flace.org.
