F.A.C.E. to FACE   F.A.C.E. BULLETIN 4/18/08     April 14, 2008 Dear Friends, LIFT THE CAP OF YOUR CHILD'S SCHOLARSHIP! The Florida Legislature will be voting on a bill next week that will increase the amount of your child's scholarship from $3,750 to $4,500. Your help is essential in convincing the legislature to make a change. Let your voice be heard. Continue to call and /or write your state representative or state senator and ask them to support HB 653 / SB 1440. If this bill passes, your child's scholarship could be worth $4,500. Act now and tell them why the scholarship is important to you and your child / students at your school and what the increase in scholarship amount would mean to you. Ask them to support HB 653 / SB 1440 so your child / students at your school can continue attending the school that best meets their unique needs. Official websites www.myfloridahouse.gov and www.flsenate.gov to get the phone numbers for the Tallahassee office and staff members. The Education Appropriation Meeting is tomorrow. The Committee is one of the three committees that our bill (SB 1440) must pass in the Senate before going to the Senate floor. This is the last committee and the union will be doing all they can to get those two. Also, House Bill 653 is going to the floor for a vote in the House Thursday of this week. We need as many calls as possible going out to your legislators because many are undecided or need firming up. Remember, legislative session is over Friday, May 2nd. They will be voting on the Bill to determine whether or not to increase the amount of your child's scholarship from $3,750 to $4,500. Thank you for Stepping Up For Students, Michael A. Benjamin Executive Director, F.A.C.E. Florida Alliance for Choices in Education This is astounding. Over 700 people, not in the actual schools, that are making over $100,000 a year... Miami-Dade Republicans take shots at Sen. Wilson and others Miami-Dade legislators today railed at the high salaries of administrators at the Miami-Dade school district, including Sen. Frederica Wilson, who is the director of dropout prevention for the district and earns more than $120,000. Rep. Juan Zapata, a Miami Republican, wanted to force school districts to cut 2.5 percent of their administrative salaries and use it to offset budget cuts. During the debate over the amendment, fellow Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera held up a list of more than 700 employees who earn more than $100,000 and said that it was "insulting" to teachers that so many district employees earned that much money. Without mentioning Wilson by name, Lopez-Cantera questioned how Miami-Dade could pay the dropout prevention director $120,000 when Miami-Dade has a problem with dropouts. But some Democrats openly questioned the impact of the amendment, especially how it would affect smaller counties. Rep. Ron Saunders, a Key West Democrat, tried to get Rep. Joe Pickens, the House schools budget chief, to say whether he thought the amendment was a good idea but Rep. Ray Sansom, the Policy and Budget Council chairman, wouldn't let Pickens answer the question. After the debate, Zapata withdrew the amendment but said he would rework it and maybe apply it primarily to urban districts. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: "FLORIDA TEACHERS VS. POOR PARENTS" "Florida teachers vs. poor parents" ORLANDO SENTINEL By Andrew J. Coulson April 11, 2008 "The Florida Education Association is threatening a lawsuit to shut down the state's scholarship program for low-income kids. Under this program, businesses can donate to nonprofit scholarship organizations, and then claim a tax credit up to a certain limit. The scholarship money brings the option of private schooling within reach of families that couldn't otherwise afford it "Why this talk of a lawsuit now, after the scholarships have been operating for seven years? The union worries that the program might offer educational choice to too many poor children. "The Legislature is considering raising the cap on the amount that businesses can donate toward scholarships, and the public-school-employee union is seeing red. Ron Meyer, lead counsel for the FEA, told the media recently that if the program were to triple in size over the next five years, "they may go to court" to kill it. "Meyer doesn't cite the best interests of children or families in this decision. The union's concern is simply that the program might grow too large. But the only way the program can grow is if poor parents want it to. The Legislature can raise the cap on donations, but the law requires all funds be assigned to recipient students in the same year they're given. And scholarship organizations cannot carry over more than a quarter of total donations from one year to the next. So unless demand triples in the next five years, the program couldn't triple. "Of course, demand for the program really is growing. In the past three years, the number of children benefitting from the scholarships has nearly doubled, to 19,416, according to the Florida Department of Education. "Why does the union want to stop poor families from getting access to independent schools? "Look at it from the union's perspective. There were 837,000 public-school union members in 1961. There are more than 4 million today -- two-thirds of public-school workers. By contrast, during roughly the same period, union membership has fallen from 39 percent to just 7.4 percent of the private-sector workforce. If large numbers of families can easily choose independent schools for their kids, public-school union membership could be decimated -- and with it the guaranteed revenues and political clout union leaders now enjoy. "Our public-school system is designed such that the interests of teachers -- and union leaders -- are pitted against the interests of families. Parents want the best, most appropriate education for their children, so the scholarship-tax credit has been growing in popularity. But unions want to protect their members' jobs, raise their salaries and reduce their workloads (i.e., class sizes). If protecting union jobs means killing a scholarship program serving poor kids, well . . . "It doesn't have to be this way. There's more than one way to organize a school system. Think of tutoring schools like Sylvan Learning Systems, and Kumon, that are freely chosen by parents and have to compete to attract students. They have only three ways to increase their profits: Enroll more students, offer the same quality of service at a lower cost, or raise the quality of their services so parents will be willing to pay more. What's good for them is good for families. "The tutoring sector is growing fast in the United States, but it has a long way to go to catch up to most Asian nations, where the vast majority of families pay for tutoring services that teach whatever and however they want, and set their own prices. "That system rewards success, encourages innovation, and treats teachers like professionals. Most important, it unites the interests of educators with those of parents. Want more job security or higher pay? Just figure out how to serve families better. " Florida could reap similar benefits by eliminating the cap on tax credits for scholarship donations, and by letting families take tax credits directly for their own children's tuition. Or the state can just sit back as public schools continue their downward spiral, and watch as the teachers union leaves poor families with even fewer educational choices." Andrew J. Coulson is an education policy analyst at the Cato Institute. Miami Herald Posted on Mon, Apr. 14, 2008 Opponents were wrong about impact of vouchers By JEB BUSH A quality education can change a life. It can lift a child out of poverty and provide young people with the skills to achieve their dreams. Knowing this, how can anyone deny a poor child the right to a quality education? In 1999, Florida created Opportunity Scholarships to empower parents with financial resources to give their children a quality education. Under the program, students in chronically failing public schools were eligible for a voucher to attend a public or private school of their choice. The program was based on the principles that parents know better than bureaucracies how to best educate their children and that providing a quality education to children in low income families was the best way to prevent a life-long dependence on government. Our history proves that the opponents were simply wrong about the impact of vouchers. Vouchers did not trigger a mass exodus of students from public schools. During the last year of the program, almost 190,000 students in public school were eligible for an Opportunity Scholarship, but only 734 students in the entire state participated; 95 percent were minority students from low income families. Moreover, participating schools could not pick and choose students. Closing the gap Vouchers did not drain money from the public schools. Since vouchers were established in 1999, Florida has increased funding per student by 49 percent. In fact, the program actually saved money. The state paid an average of $4,000 for an Opportunity Scholarship rather than the $7,206 provided for a student attending public school. To ensure accountability for the public funds, the state required a myriad of measures for participating schools. Since introducing accountability and school choice, Florida has experienced unprecedented rising student achievement in public schools. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, our fourth graders are now above the national average in reading and math. Eighth graders are ninth in the nation in writing. Overall, the state is closing the achievement gap. Florida's high school graduation rate has in creased by more than 12 percent since 1999, and more students are entering college. Unfortunately, Opportunity Scholarships were struck down as unconstitutional by a state appellate court in 2002. The appellate court ruled that vouchers represented ''indirect support'' of a religious institution -- even though the state was paying for a service, not funding a particular dogma. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the decision and also ruled that vouchers for private schools violated a constitutional requirement that public education be ''uniform.'' Under this tortured reasoning, a better education from a private school was unconstitutional because it was different than the education provided by a public school. Fortunately, voters will get an opportunity to decide the merits of the first issue, which was placed on November's ballot by the Taxation and Budget Review Commission. Opponents will again claim vouchers violate the separation of church and state, even though parents -- not government -- decide where to send their children to school. If the appellate court's decision was applied ''uniformly'' across the spectrum of government spending, it would end funding of dozens of programs that improve the quality of life for millions of Floridians. Few choices The state would end funding for similar voucher programs, including private options under Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program and McKay Scholarships, which allow students with disabilities to opt for private programs that meet their special needs. High-achieving graduates would not be able use Bright Futures Scholarships to attend a private college. Faith-based prisons would close. The state would no longer fund programs that provide compassionate care for the elderly, support for families struggling to stay together and help for people who are dealing with addiction. The list goes on. Disappointingly, the issue of uniformity is unlikely to make it to the ballot. The same commission decided not to put the issue to the voters, where Floridians could voice their opinion about the best way to provide a quality education. Meanwhile, too many children are not getting the quality education they deserve because they have few choices. As adults, many of them will lack the skills to succeed in the competitive global marketplace, leaving them dependent on government rather than their own abilities. That is the legacy of opponents of school choice. Jeb Bush is a former governor of Florida.   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.   School Year 08 - 09 Income Eligibility Guidelines Persons in Household New & Add-Ons (185%) Renewals (200%) 2 $25,900 $28,000 3 $32,560 $35,200 4 $39,220 $42,400 5 $45,880 $49,600 6 $52,540 $56,800 7 $59,200 $64,000 8 $65,860 $71,200 9 $72,520 $78,400 10 $79,180 $85,600 11 $85,840 $92,800 12 $92,500 $100,000 13 $99,160 $107,200       For each additional person, add $6,660 $7,200       Effective from June 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009

 

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