F.A.C.E. to FACE   F.A.C.E. BULLETIN 05/22/07   May 22, 2007 Dear Friends, Thousands of New Scholarships Available for Low-Income K-12 Students (More scholarships available! See bottom of Newsletter!) Over 4,000 attend parental choice rally in Florida Students on April trip to capital gain an insight on black history, St. Petersburg Times. Fifth-graders from our very own Yvonne C. Reed Christian School spent five days in Baltimore and Washington. GOV. SONNY PERDUE SIGNS GEORGIA SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOLARSHIP INTO LAW, Alliance for School Choice (www.allianceforschoolchoice.org ). Space crunch squeezes out charter schools, Fewer buildings, high rent curtail private growth, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Choices That Are Changing Lives in D.C., Washingtonpost.com. I know it is a tough time of year with school ending and all, but we still need you (or your key parents) to personally contact your legislators for appointments in their district offices. Calls should be made right away before the summer break starts. 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 large increase in the $88 million cap and the individual scholarship amount for CTC students. Please look for and respond to my communiqué that was sent out at the start of last week. Thank you for Stepping Up For Students, Michael A. Benjamin Executive Director, F.A.C.E. Florida Alliance for Choices in Education Students on April trip to capital gain an insight on black history Fifth-graders from Yvonne C. Reed Christian School spent five days in Baltimore and Washington. By RITA FARLOW Published May 15, 2007   ST. PETERSBURG - Sofia Forte's fifth-grade class has read all about the history of slavery in the United States. They've learned about President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation to abolish slavery. And time and again, they've seen footage of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the Mall in Washington, D.C. But those lessons gained relevance for Forte's students after a five-day trip to Baltimore and the nation's capital in April.The students from Yvonne C. Reed Christian School were particularly affected by a day trip to the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum in Baltimore. The museum has exhibits on the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad and the Jim Crow era. "It helped me understand things about the way black people were treated, " said Morgan Floyd, 11. Though some of the exhibits included graphic depictions of the treatment of slaves, parents and teachers who chaperoned the trip thought the students would benefit from the dose of reality, school leader Yvonne Clayton said."They're learning the truth, " Clayton said. "Once you see it, it comes to life." Hydeia Thomas, 10, said she was astonished to learn more about African history. "We used to be kings and queens and pharaohs (before the slave trade), " she said. Hydeia said she found it disturbing that slaves weren't allowed an education. "They didn't want us to learn how to read. They wanted you to stay ignorant." In Baltimore, the students also visited the NAACP headquarters, the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park, and the Orchard Street Church, which was a stop along the Underground Railroad. Several of the children said it made them "sad" to see how blacks were treated during slavery and the segregation era. "Some of that stuff I didn't really know about, " said India Williams, 10. The museum also has several exhibits on African-American leaders in science, business, education and other areas. It was valuable for the kids to see people who look like them doing great things, Clayton said. "They don't see very many positive things that represent the black race, " Clayton said. In Washington, the kids stood at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his powerful speech in 1963. They also visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the National Museum of the American Indian and the U.S. Botanic Garden. The trip for the 22 students was funded through donations. Clayton said that traveling to new places broadens the mind and she hopes each class of fifth-graders can take an educational trip in the spring. Clayton said she'd like her students to go to Birmingham, Ala., a center of the civil rights movement. The students kept journals and took pictures with donated cameras to document their trip for a class project. They'll share their scrapbooks with family members at their graduation ceremony Monday night. Forte said the trip sparked insightful discussion with the kids about the history - and future - of African-Americans. "I think they learned a lot more about their own culture. What I've talked about, they got a chance to actually see, and it was even more extended." GOV. SONNY PERDUE SIGNS GEORGIA SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOLARSHIP INTO LAW 5/18/2007 Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship into law today, opening the door to a better education for thousands of Georgia students with disabilities. The law, previously passed by the state Senate and General Assembly, creates a scholarship program that will allow children with special needs to attend the public or private school that best meets their educational needs. "We want to congratulate the Governor and the legislature for putting the needs of children first. Now every child with special needs in Georgia will be able to attend the school their parents believe will help them reach their potential," said Charles Hokanson, president of the Alliance for School Choice. Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) passed the Georgia House of Representatives on April 20 by a vote of 91-84. The legislation previously passed the Senate 31-23. Through the program, parents of children with special needs who are dissatisfied with their child's progress in their assigned public school will be able to transfer their student to the out-of-district public or private school of their choice. The scholarship will amount to the cost to educate the child in the public school district, or the selected new school's tuition and fees, whichever is less. Participating private schools must demonstrate financial viability and meet state nondiscrimination and safety requirements. The Georgia Special Needs Scholarship joins similar programs already in existence in Florida, Arizona, Utah and Ohio. Special Needs Scholarship programs have been introduced as bills in 13 states during the 2007 legislative session. "I applaud Governor Perdue and the Georgia General Assembly for recognizing that parents deserve the right to choose the best education for their children, particularly when those children have special needs," said Lori Drummer, director of state projects at the Alliance for School Choice. "It shouldn't matter where you live or how much money your parents make, every child deserves to go to a great school." The Governor's signing comes on the heels of a poll conducted by Strategic Vision, LLC, of Atlanta, which found that 59 percent of Georgians favor such a scholarship program for students with special needs, while only 20 percent were unfavorable. Georgia voters also favor the concept of school choice in general, with 58 percent supporting school vouchers for all students. The poll of 1,200 likely Georgia voters was funded by The Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation and was released jointly by the Catholic Archdioceses of Atlanta, the Georgia Family Council, the Southeastern Legal Foundation, and the Alliance for School Choice. www.allianceforschoolchoice.org   Space crunch squeezes out charter schools Fewer buildings, high rent curtail private growth. By Akilah Johnson South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 19, 2007 Space in South Florida's commercial real estate market has gotten scarce and expensive, creating a competitive environment that has slowed Broward County's charter school movement. Losers in the battle for the few existing affordable classroom sites can't open. Competition is so steep that charter school consultants are reluctant to discuss potential locations out of fear other schools or someone else will swoop in and offer a landlord or a seller more money. "I don't think this issue is ever going to stop the movement, but it's slowing it down," said charter school consultant Ron Renna. Charter schools are privately run, publicly funded campuses considered an alternative for parents dissatisfied with traditional public schools. The schools function with independent governing boards. Although charter schools are considered public institutions, the Broward School District does not provide them with buildings. Broward went from three charter schools in 1997 to 48 today. In November, the district approved 14 new charter schools. Applications are approved without addresses, and the district said just over half of this year's approved applicants found a schoolhouse. "It's not as if there are a lot of school [buildings] sitting out there waiting for someone to come by," said Renna, who couldn't find sites for two new Broward charter schools that wanted to open next school year. Finding sites became a problem in about 2002 as the number of charter schools continued to grow while the commercial real estate market started to shrink, educators and realtors say. Broward's office vacancy rate dropped from about 19 percent in 2002 to just under 10 percent as of March 30, according to reports from Cushman & Wakefield, an international brokerage firm. It took more than a year for Touchdowns4Life, a charter middle school that opened in 2004, to locate a suitable spot, the Boys & Girls Club in Davie. But it ran into problems when the Davie Town Council postponed a vote on the site. As a result, the school moved to a library and now is housed at a Tamarac strip mall on McNab Road home. "This happening throughout the state," said Lynn Norman-Teck, spokeswoman for the Florida Consortium of Charter Schools. "It was always tough because of financing, but now real estate adds to it." About one of every three approved charter schools statewide hasn't opened since 2004, according to the state Department of Education. Charter schools ideally try to open in areas where traditional institutions are overcrowded, such as western Broward. Most new schools lease space because owning property is often out of reach. Since ready-made schools are scarce, walls must be torn down or built, more toilets and sinks added to bathrooms, and jungle gyms and swing sets built to create playgrounds. Then there's figuring out where to put the crunch of cars and buses that flood student pick-up and drop-off areas. Donna Korn is a commercial real estate agent who searched this year for homes for five new schools. Three called off the search and decided to put off opening for a year. Charter schools not only have to compete against each other for space but also against other businesses with bigger wallets. "They're going after the same space, but a typical retailer is going to be able to pay more than a charter school," Korn said. It costs between $221,000 and $234,000 annually to rent a 13,000-square-foot space, about the size of a large 7-Eleven store, she said. Like traditional schools, the state gives charter schools money based on student populations. Unlike traditional schools, charter schools don't receive property tax dollars. The district does not pick up the tab for rent, utilities, insurance or teacher salaries and benefits, like it does for traditional schools. Plus, charter schools must give the district 5 percent of their budgets for administrative fees. Space issues don't affect just startup charter schools. Central Charter School in Lauderdale Lakes, founded in 1997, has outgrown its building in a shopping plaza along State Road 7. Dozens of students are on a waiting list and the cafeteria recently was turned into classrooms. The school needs a new home but is struggling to find one. building in the plaza before next school year starts, but it would cost almost $300,000. "That's to add six classrooms," Lawson said. "To me, that's just too much money for half a building." Akilah Johnson can be reached at akjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4527. Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel washingtonpost.com Choices That Are Changing Lives in D.C. By Fred Hiatt Monday, May 21, 2007; A13 If it were up to the children and their parents, there'd be no question that the District's five-year experiment with school vouchers would be renewed for an additional five years or more. That's the most emphatic finding of an independent evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program published last week. "The vast majority of families participating in this study are satisfied with the OSP in general, and their choice of new schools in particular," the report found. Here's how one mother expressed it to researchers from Georgetown University and the University of Arkansas: "Before . . . his grades were below average, and for the first time he made the honor roll . . . He came home, he was so proud that he made the honor roll . . . They had the awards ceremony, so I wouldn't tell him I was coming . . . When he came out he saw [my husband and me] sitting in the first row . . . He gave us this big grin; but to see him walk up there and receive that piece of paper, I mean you could see the joy all over him." The parental reaction shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, most Americans enjoy "school choice" without ever thinking about it in those terms: If they don't like their neighborhood school, they can move to a different neighborhood or school district or send their children to private or parochial schools. Only the poor, who can't afford tuition or to move, say, from the District to Falls Church, are without school choice. That was the argument that prevailed, barely, when Congress approved the District's five-year program in the fall of 2003, with strong backing from then-Mayor Anthony Williams; its first school year was 2004-05. The government provided equal amounts of new money for vouchers, charter schools and traditional public schools, so there could be no contention that the vouchers were sapping resources from public education. Congress told the District and the federal Education Department to evaluate the results, comparing the academic achievements of children who received vouchers with a control group of children who wanted vouchers but lost out in the raffle. Preliminary results, comparing students after just one year, are expected later this spring. Last week's report, by Stephen Q. Cornman, Thomas Stewart and Patrick J. Wolf, is another component of ongoing evaluation. Either this year or next, Congress will have to decide whether to continue the program. In September 2003 the House endorsed it by a single vote, 209 to 208, with only four Democrats voting yes. Many opponents argued that the program wouldn't help poor people. "This legislation represents an ominous step toward federally sponsored privatization of public education that heavily favors the wealthiest families to the detriment of the majority of public school students," argued Ralph Neas of People for the American Way, which campaigned against the program. Now Democrats control both houses of Congress; when the time comes, will they really argue that the 1,800 children who have been given this chance should be sent back to schools they do not want to attend? Since the program began, four students have applied for each available $7,500 scholarship. The average income of scholarship families is $21,100, for a family of four. Another parent told researchers: "She's in a school where it's real family-oriented. You know that the principal is very much involved, as well as the teachers. And they really do care so I'm happy . . . I don't have to worry anymore about someone calling saying she got jumped or things of that nature, so really I'm just happy." Strikingly, the report's authors found that the parents aren't just happy; they're involved in their children's education, and increasingly so the longer they are in the program, despite challenges related to time and transportation. They also are demanding consumers. Parents visited an average of three schools before selecting one; the small minority who were disappointed with their first choice visited even more as they weighed the possibility of moving their children. They were primarily looking, the report found, for "smaller class size, a more rigorous curriculum and school safety." Mayor Adrian Fenty rightly is focused on reforming the public schools, with their 55,000 pupils. The small voucher program can't, and wasn't intended to, lessen the importance of improving those. Yet the program may have a lesson for the larger reform, too, given that defenders of the District's troubled schools often place much blame on the absence of family input. It seems that parents -- when they are given choices, when they are provided with information to make those choices meaningful, and when they are treated respectfully as consumers of education -- take their jobs seriously, and participate more and more. It doesn't matter if they're poor or rich. 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.org Alachua, 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

 

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