Dear
Friends,
Typical of the
Florida press, they got
the facts wrong in the article. The House bill requires
the same standardized testing and fiscal requirements as the
Senate bill (Voucher
discipline-Private schools using state dollars should meet
tougher standards).
“Typical of the
Florida press, they got
the facts wrong in the attached article. The House
bill....”
The article
(House may expand vouchers
Senate could swing death blow) reflects the
challenges in the Senate.
Thank you for
Stepping Up For Students,
Michael A.
Benjamin
Executive
Director, F.A.C.E.
Florida
Alliance for Choices in
Education
ALERT
S
A V E O U R S
C H O L A R S H I P S
WHAT
WOULD YOU DO FOR YOUR STUDENTS’ EDUCATION?
IS
IT WORTH TAKING A STEP?
IS
IT WORTH SPEAKING OUT FOR?
WOULD
YOU TRAVEL?
WOULD
RALLY WITH OTHERS?
YOU
MUST.
JOIN
US
TALLAHASSEE
RALLY 6/7/05
On June 7, the Florida Supreme Court could rule that Opportunity Scholarships
violate the constitution. If they do, other scholarship programs like McKay
and
Bright Futures are in danger. To prevent that from happening, we need your
presence at our rally in front of the Supreme Court building.
Don’t let them act
without knowing how many families it will effect!
Gov. Bush, Commissioner Winn and the
Legislature don't yet want to create honest
competition."
Monitor charter schools; the evidence
is growing
By Palm Beach Post
Editorial
HASH(0xf2857c)
Monday, April 25,
2005
The latest report by state auditors on
Florida's charter schools is proof that Gov. Bush and other
ideological advocates for non-traditional schools aren't
helping their cause by holding charters and voucher schools to
a different set of standards — or, in too many cases, to no
standards at all.
Think of charter schools as specialty
public schools that run on tax money but can operate outside
the traditional rules. The report, by the Office of Program
Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, says some
encouraging things about charter schools. But deficient
academic accountability undermines the positive findings.
OPPAGA says bluntly that charter-school parents "can lack
meaningful information to make informed school choice
decisions."
Florida Education Commissioner John
Winn, reacting to the report, seems to have missed that point,
insisting that charter schools "all provide parents with a
viable education choice, and most enjoy a high degree of
parent satisfaction." In fact, all
don't.
Those pushing charter and voucher
schools in Florida long have insisted that
"parent satisfaction" is what matters. They never have
explained why parent satisfaction isn't enough of a standard
for traditional public schools. Most likely, they fear that
charter and voucher schools would not score as well on the
state's standard as traditional schools. The latest report,
however, indicates that some charter schools can
compete with traditional schools. A problem is that parents,
school boards and the state can't be sure which are doing a
satisfactory job because "current systems do not hold all
charter schools accountable for student academic performance."
For example, in 2003-2004, 47 percent of charter schools did
not receive state grades.
Auditors also found that although
charter schools have to spell out academic goals when they
sign contracts with local school districts, they "often fail
to establish clear expectations with which to hold the schools
accountable for the performance of their students" and "annual
reports generally do not contain the data necessary to assess
whether charter schools are meeting
expectations."
Actually, the state Department of
Education and some districts have promised to collect and
report more information on charter schools. Proper
follow-through should help the good charters attract students
and might force the also-rans to improve. That's what
accountability is supposed to do.
But renewed efforts to expand voucher
programs — without subjecting voucher schools to the same
standards and requirements as traditional public schools — is
depressing evidence that Gov. Bush, Commissioner Winn and the
Legislature don't yet want to create honest
competition.
Voucher
discipline
Private schools
using state dollars should meet tougher
standards
With
only one week left before the state Legislature calls it
quits, time's running short for lawmakers to get it right on
school vouchers.
Public schools in
Florida can't discriminate against children on
the basis of religion, but incredibly, private schools using
taxpayer-funded vouchers can.
That's an outrage that has to end, and
a Senate bill sponsored by Jim King, R-Jacksonville, would
prohibit such illegal actions.
The bill would also promote
accountability at private schools accepting voucher money,
which too often has ended up in the hands of charlatans,
resulting in criminal investigations and putting children at
risk.
King's bill would mandate that schools
taking vouchers use one of several standardized tests to
measure student achievement.
That's a needed first step toward
enforcing academic accountability, but the FCAT also should be
required.
Schools accepting vouchers would also
have to prove they are fiscally healthy, open their doors to
an unscheduled inspection by an auditor each year, and more
thoroughly screen employees through background
checks.
All those regulations should have been
in place before any voucher programs -- which rest on shaky
legal ground and may soon be declared unconstitutional -- were
started.
But better late than
never.
That's why legislators should make
sure King's accountability measure becomes law, not a
watered-down version being debated in the
House.
Fate of Bush education plans
unclear
Voucher idea and class sizes under
debate
By
Linda Kleindienst
Tallahassee Bureau
Chief
April 30, 2005
TALLAHASSEE ·
A massive expansion of Florida's private school voucher
program and a call for voters to weaken the state's class size
mandate are poised for approval in the state House early next
week.
But with only five working days left before the
Legislature's scheduled adjournment, the future of the
education package sought by Gov. Jeb Bush is unclear at
best.
"The Senate is a different story. We're a little
more independent down here," said Sen. J. D. Alexander, R-Lake
Wales, who chairs the Senate's Education budget
committee.
Senators are hesitant to expand the state
voucher program until the Florida Supreme Court has ruled on
its constitutionality, possibly not until late this
year.
And the Senate's 14 Democrats, along with a
handful of Republicans, remain unwilling to seek a repeal of
the strict class size caps approved by voters in
2002.
The class size revision is meeting particularly
stiff opposition among Miami-Dade Republicans. Under the
governor's plan, the constitutional class size caps would be
computed on a district wide average, not
class-by-class.
"The voters spoke clearly and spoke
loudly. Just because you don't like the results doesn't mean
we have to turn around, hold another election and see if we
can get results more to our liking," said Sen. Alex Diaz de la
Portilla, R-Miami. "Miami-Dade has a huge class-size
problem."
It takes a three-fifths vote of each chamber
to put the issue before voters in the November 2006 election.
In the Senate, that requires approval by 24 out of the 40
senators.
Bush wants voters to water down the
class-size mandate in exchange for higher teacher salaries, a
plan he says will cost taxpayers about $490 million a year
instead of the billions needed to build new classrooms.
Although he is proposing a $35,000 starting salary for
teachers across the state and a $2,000 boost for all other
teachers, beginning teachers already make close to that amount
in South Florida and several urban counties.
The House
voucher expansion plan would allow the state's worst readers,
those who score the lowest on the state reading test twice in
a three-year period, to take a $3,600 voucher and use it to
attend a private school.
According to the Department
of Education, 290,363 students would be eligible although
voucher proponents argue they expect no more than 5,000 to
take advantage of the offer. Currently the state voucher
programs have some 27,000 students participating.
"I
truly believe in my heart of hearts that it is the best thing
for education in Florida," said House Speaker Allan Bense,
R-Panama City. "Let's give that child a chance to
learn."
The plan has been dubbed "A-Plus Plus" because
its an extension of the Bush A-Plus education reforms enacted
in 1999, including the grading of schools and the nation's
first statewide voucher program.
"You have to continue
to set higher expectations," said Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah,
chairman of the House PreK-12 Committee.
But House
Democrats argued that the state is allowing students to attend
private schools with state money while not making those
schools meet state academic standards. And they contend that
despite the governor's education reforms, Florida still ranks
at the bottom of states in the graduation rate.
"What
will this do to even restore Florida to average?" asked Rep.
Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "We're building on a plan that has
brought us to the worst graduation rate in the
nation."
And Senate President Tom Lee conceded that the
plan "has a lot of stuff that makes people
uncomfortable."
Linda Kleindienst can be reached at
lkleindienst@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.
Copyright © 2005, South Florida
Sun-Sentinel
House
may expand vouchers
Senate
could swing death blow
By
JIM SAUNDERS, Daytona Beach News
Journal
Tallahassee Bureau
Chief
Last
update: April
30, 2005
TALLAHASSEE -- When the
Florida Supreme Court meets in June, it will hear arguments in
a potentially landmark case about the constitutionality of the
state's school vouchers program.
So far, the news
hasn't been good for Gov. Jeb Bush and his allies: Two courts
have ruled Bush's signature vouchers program violates the
state constitution because it sends tax dollars to religious
schools.
Yet even as
justices get ready to take up the issue, lawmakers are
considering plans that could expand vouchers to thousands more
children.
The Florida House
neared approval Friday of a Bush-backed plan that would offer
vouchers to low-performing children throughout the state. At
the same time, lawmakers added a proposal to begin offering
vouchers to children of Florida National Guard soldiers who
are on active duty in Iraq or
Afghanistan.
Supporters said
children should be allowed to transfer to private schools if
they are not learning to read in the public system.
"The philosophy is
that when children are suffering, when children are failing to
learn, we must act," said Rep. Trey Traviesa, a Tampa
Republican who is helping sponsor the plan.
But the plan could
die in the Senate, which in the past has been more reluctant
than the House to approve vouchers. President Tom Lee,
R-Brandon, said the Senate probably will not approve the
voucher expansion while the Supreme Court considers the
constitutional issues.
"There are still
pending court cases," Lee said, "and I think vouchers have
been a marginal concept in this Senate since their inception."
Vouchers have been
one of the most controversial education issues in the state
since Bush took office in 1999. That was evident Friday as
House members debated for more than two hours a broad
education bill that includes the vouchers.
Rep. Joyce Cusack,
D-DeLand, and other opponents said the state is sending tax
dollars to private schools that are not held accountable for
making sure children learn.
"We need to be
about the business of making sure all children are
well-educated," Cusack said.
Bush has made
vouchers a key part of his efforts to overhaul
Florida's public schools.
In 1999, he pushed through an education plan that offers
vouchers to students who attend public schools that repeatedly
receive failing grades from the state.
Lawmakers added to
that program by offering vouchers to students who have a wide
range of physical and learning disabilities. Also, they have
approved a similar program that helps send low-income children
to private schools by offering tax credits to businesses that
contribute money to nonprofit agencies.
In all, more than
25,000 children have taken part in the programs this year,
including more than 500 in Volusia
County.
The House's
proposed expansion, which it could approve early next week,
would offer vouchers to children who score at the lowest level
on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment
Test in two out of three years. Traviesa estimated that about
250,000 children would be eligible, though he said a far lower
number -- perhaps 5,000 to 8,000 -- likely would take part.
Its other proposed
expansion, offering vouchers to children of active-duty
National Guard soldiers, would be much more limited.
But the proposals
are clouded by the Supreme Court case, which a coalition of
vouchers opponents filed after Bush's original plan passed in
1999. Circuit and appeals courts have ruled the plan violates
part of the constitution that is aimed at separation of church
and state.
House Speaker
Allan Bense, R-Panama
City, said he would
like to pass additional vouchers during this spring's
legislative session so they could take effect during the
upcoming school year.
But Volusia
Teachers Organization President Andrew Spar criticized the
idea of expanding vouchers when courts have found them
unconstitutional. Teachers unions have adamantly opposed
vouchers, arguing they shift tax dollars away from public
schools.
"We need to
provide the resources so students can be successful in public
schools," Spar said.
--
Education Writer Linda Trimble contributed to this report.
jim.saunders@news-jrnl.com
