F.A.C.E. to FACE
F.A.C.E. BULLETIN
10/2/07
October 2, 2007
Dear Friends,
Thousands of New Scholarships Available for Low-Income K-12 Students
(More scholarships available! See bottom of Newsletter!)
School voucher analysis delayed, Palm Beach Post, Another slanted story by the Palm Beach Post. The statue does not require the first report by a date certain. The first data will be a baseline for the longitudinal study. The University of Florida was the only university to express an interest in this study. The request for proposal (RFP) was sent to every university and several research entities. Why does the writer think he can dictate policy? Why be swayed, his request is not required by law. The law already states what is required. Subsequent to that article is a response Requirements and Implementation of Longitudinal Study: Statement From the Florida Association of Scholarship Funding Organizations.
On Aug 19, the Tallahassee Democrat published a guest column by Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association (FEA), Financial crisis looms over public schools, detailing the effects potential cuts in the state budget may have on Florida public education. Subsequent to that article is a response that the President of the James Madison Institute submitted. It's already appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat and Miami Herald!
Thank you for Stepping Up For Students,
Michael A. Benjamin
Executive Director, F.A.C.E.
Florida Alliance for Choices in Education
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
School voucher analysis delayedBy S.V. DÁTE and LAURA GREEN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 30, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - For the first time, Florida was supposed to receive an analysis this month of the academic performance of students who receive state vouchers to go to private schools. But it won't.
The state Department of Education has not even issued a contract for the study.
The delay means the state doesn't know how well or how poorly more than 16,000 students taking corporate tax credit vouchers are doing, six years after the program was created under former Gov. Jeb Bush.
It also means that lawmakers will have no performance data for the $88 million-a-year program when they convene Sept. 18 in Tallahassee to slash the state budget by $1.1 billion. Legislative leaders have said that education makes up such a large part of the budget that it will be hard not to cut school money.
"I'm disappointed they didn't act sooner," Gov. Charlie Crist said of the Education Department. "Obviously, that would have been able to give us some guidance with the budget session coming up. ... Sometimes government moves too slowly. This is one of those times."
Interim Education Commissioner Jeanine Blomberg said the law requiring the analysis doesn't mandate a report this August but merely an annual report that describes year-to-year improvements of the students.
"There wouldn't be anything to report in terms of year-to-year learning gains until 2008," Blomberg said Wednesday. "We're not behind on anything."
The legislature passed a law in 2006 that required students receiving corporate tax credit vouchers to take standardized tests during the 2006-07 school year. It also required the Department of Education to hire a private or public "independent research organization" to analyze the students' scores and issue an annual report of the "year-to-year improvements of participating students."
Students using Florida's first vouchers, called Opportunity Scholarships, to attend private schools were required to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. But their scores, unlike those of public school students, did not have to be analyzed and were not used to grade their schools.
Bid requests ignored
Opportunity Scholarships, for students from failing public schools, since have been ruled unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
In response to the 2006 law, the Education Department crafted a bid request that required the contract winner to study whether voucher students were improving academically and how their performance compared with that of their counterparts in public schools.
That bid request also said the report would be due to the department this month.
The department put out the request twice, in November and December, but received no applications.
Blomberg said the department's original timeline was more "aggressive" than the law requires, but that does not mean it failed.
"I wouldn't call that dragging our feet. I don't see that as a delay," she said.
She and other department officials couldn't explain why a contract worth as much as $760,000 would be so unattractive. They did say collecting and evaluating test scores takes specialized skills, meaning the pool of qualified people is small.
Jean Miller, deputy director of the department's Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice, said the department is now seeking to finalize a contract for the analysis with University of Florida economics professor David Figlio, who specializes in education research.
Figlio said a preliminary report of the data does not have to be turned over to the department until next May or June - after not only the upcoming special session, but also the regular spring session of 2008.
Blomberg said Wednesday that the May-June time frame was not correct.
"We will certainly have a first report ... prior to the legislative session," she said.
State Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, the main legislative proponent of imposing academic and financial oversight on the voucher programs, said, "It makes you wonder what they're trying to hide."
Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors, said Democrats in both chambers supported the 2006 bill because it promised at least some academic accountability.
"We've got a dozen state universities who could have been involved with this from Day One," he said.
King started pushing for voucher program "accountability" as Senate president in 2003, following a series of articles in The Palm Beach Post exposing a lack of oversight over hundreds of millions of dollars in direct and indirect state support.
Bush resisted efforts to hold voucher-taking schools to any academic standards, and King's bill did not pass both chambers until 2006, after he successfully argued that the Supreme Court might have viewed Opportunity Scholarships more favorably if some state scrutiny had been in place.
Even King's bill concentrated on financial oversight. While King originally wanted tougher academic standards, lobbying from private schools, the House and Bush's office led to a compromise that included no testing requirements for McKay vouchers for disabled students and only a programwide analysis for the corporate tax vouchers.
The language in the bill means that no one in the state or public can ever know how well individual schools are doing, even though they are receiving money that otherwise would have been collected by the state as corporate income tax.
But the Department of Education did include three "optional" questions in its bid request that were not mentioned in the legislation: how voucher students are doing in terms of attendance, graduation and other measures; whether the program is satisfying students and parents; and to what extent the program is increasing school "choice" options and affecting public schools.
Concerns about questions
"They're obviously designed to spin the program in a positive way," said Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, the House Democratic leader. "The state ought not be promoting these programs even before they have an account on how they work."
Figlio, though, said he supports the optional questions. "I think it's crucial to understand how the existence of this program is affecting the public schools," he said. "I think they're the right questions to ask."
During the 2006-07 school year, 16,629 students attended 926 private schools using the corporate tax credit voucher, costing the treasury as much as $62 million. The actual total was not available at Department of Education's Web site. During that year, the state directly paid $119 million for 18,273 disabled students to attend 811 private schools under the McKay vouchers.
A spokeswoman said no comparable figures are available for the current school year, but as much as $88 million is available for the corporate tax credit program.
"There's considerable irony that anyone with a minimal amount of research can come up with facts and figures about any public school, but even though the legislation gives protection to the identities of the private schools, we still can't do anything with the private schools," King said.
RESPONSE
Requirements and Implementation of Longitudinal Study:
Statement From the Florida Association of Scholarship Funding Organizations
In the 2006 Legislative session, a scholarship accountability bill was passed and signed by Governor Bush, that we actively lobbied members to support. A key area of accountability was requiring a longitudinal study of the year-to-year academic improvements of the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship (CTC) students. Contrary to the impression left by the article in the Palm Beach Post, the law does not dictate when the annual reports from the research entity are due, nor does it state when the first report is due.
Though the language may seem simple enough, there was much work that had to be done before the actual release of the RFP for this project. Additionally, DOE had to identify the tests that private schools could administer to ensure they were comparable with the FCAT. This information was not in place until the rules were approved by SBOE in December 2006.
Because no research entity responded to the first two requests for proposals by the DOE, the DOE was consequentially required to proactively find a research entity willing to undertake this complex study. Locating a firm and then completing the negotiations can take a great of time to complete. The DOE has selected the University of Florida, an outstanding institution.
Under the law, private schools serving CTC students are required to annually administer one of the DOE approved nationally recognized tests beginning 2006-07 school year. The schools must then submit the annual data to the University of Florida. The first year of the study, which will look at the data from 2006-07 school year, will be what is described in the law as the "baseline performance" for the CTC students. Subsequent years' data will be used to determine "year-to-year improvements of participating students". Year-to-year improvements will not be known until the research entity has collected two years of data, or after the 2007-08 school year.
Therefore, again contrary to the Post article, it is not possible to issue the first report on learning gains of the CTC students until after the test results of the 2007-2008 school year are received and evaluated by the University of Florida. This has always been the anticipated timetable of the study, and this timetable was known at the time of the passage of the bill.
As with any project of this magnitude, the first year of implementation is the most challenging. We anticipate the first set of data collection to take somewhat longer than subsequent years due to the initial development and implementation of a process and procedure to collect the data of over 17,000 students attending more than 800 private schools.
The Scholarship Funding Organizations, along with the DOE, have frequently communicated with the schools the requirements to fulfill this important accountability measure. We are ready to assist DOE and University of Florida researchers, once they have been authorized to proceed, with communications to the schools regarding the project procedures. As many know in data collection, you must have standard protocols and formats to receive the data in a usable form. Many of the schools do not have the expertise to format this data and will need to be trained on this element and perhaps other aspect as well.
Everyone is strongly committed to getting this study executed as soon as possible. It is important that it be done with the highest standards possible so the output is credible. As such, expectations on delivery of the initial report should be reasonable and focused on having the best protocols in place verses a speedy report.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Tallahassee Democrat
Article published Aug 19, 2007
Financial crisis looms over public schools
By Andy Ford
MY VIEW
As public-school students and teachers go back into the classroom, Florida faces a fiscal crisis. In recent years, political leaders have pushed through an a-la-carte menu of tax cuts totaling more than $20 billion.Most Floridians never saw any of those tax cuts. Any benefit you received was quickly offset by the burden of paying for public services such as public safety and education - a burden that has been shifted more and more to local government by the Legislature. It's no surprise then that most of our state's citizens continue to feel that the tax burden is overwhelming.
Now the state is experiencing an economic downturn and we are immediately faced with reductions in services at both the state and local levels, with significant potential consequences for public education. Last year, there were about 3.75 million students enrolled throughout Florida's public education system, and it is the responsibility of all Floridians to prepare our young people for the future. At the Florida Education Association (FEA) we take on that responsibility because education is our calling.
FEA believes in the importance of smaller class sizes, with a focus on learning versus a focus on testing.
FEA believes that we must close achievement gaps by moving beyond a conversation toward a vision of what our schools should look like in the future.
FEA believes that we must reduce Florida's high-school dropout rate. Our elected leaders and special interest groups must stop arguing about whether the percentage graduating is 60 percent or 70 percent. . . . In either case we are losing a third of our children and the impacts, both personal and economic, are huge.
FEA believes that we must continue the work to improve the base salaries of all education professionals in a meaningful way that allows Florida to compete on both a regional and national level to recruit and retain the very best people.
Beyond the core issues that we support, FEA must still defend our children and our members against bad public policy. There is no shortage of bad public-policy proposals out there today. Many of them involve the manner in which our schools are funded, and the implementation of these proposals would damage our schools and the futures of our children.
FEA is asking a simple question to our elected leaders: How can you cut the education budget and hold education "harmless" at the same time?
The anticipated budget cuts are going to have an impact throughout the state, in local districts and classrooms. Programs will be cut, school services curtailed, raises on salaries won't meet inflation growth and there will be layoffs in some places. Rather than lawmakers making across-the-board decisions from the Capitol, why not give districts the flexibility to decide how to tweak their own budgets if cuts are needed?
Meanwhile, the Legislature has put a constitutional question on the ballot for Jan. 29 that provides homeowners with the option of taking a higher homestead exemption, which would lead to further revenue problems in the future.
All this comes as public education in Florida is at a crossroads. The state has always under-funded education. When compared to other states, Florida languishes near the bottom in nearly every category related to education funding. In addition, government and the public are asking schools to do more and more.
A new school year is beginning and it's going to be a challenge. And I'm not just talking about the challenges of curriculum, discipline and paperwork. Our state is in the midst of a financial crisis that will undoubtedly have an impact on our public schools. FEA will stand along with all Floridians in fighting for the things that we believe in and against the bad public-policy proposals that threaten the future of our children.
RESPONSE
Tallahassee Democrat
Article published Aug 26, 2007Parental choice: It's a catalyst for higher teacher pay
On Aug 19, the Tallahassee Democrat published a guest column by Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association (FEA) detailing the effects potential cuts in the state budget may have on Florida public education.
Revenues in Florida are dear and may grow more so in the near future. Mr. Ford correctly pointed out that Florida is in an educational crisis, with only two-thirds of students in Florida public schools graduating - and less than half our minority children graduate. However, the amount we spend in our schools may not be entirely to blame - we need to look more closely at how that money is allocated.
I agree with Ford that good teachers are critical - and it is common sense that more money will assist in the recruitment and retention of the best teachers. But our school districts need to look internally at their budget allocations. For example, Leon County spends just shy of $10,000 per pupil every year just in operating costs. That figure excludes construction costs and debt service. Leon County employs 2,325 teachers to instruct 32,342 students - a 14-to-1 teacher-student ratio. These numbers are all from published material from the district.
If Leon spends $10,000 per child, and the average classroom has 14 kids per class, that means we're spending $140,000 on behalf of those kids somewhere in the district. The average salary for a teacher in Leon is $43,412 - it follows then, that nearly $97,000 is spent per classroom that doesn't enter the teachers' pockets.
We have to find ways to attract and keep great teachers - so how do we find a way to make more of that $140,000 per class reach the teacher? It goes back to the basic rules of economics and the benefits of competition.
One answer is to empower parents with choice in education. Parents know who the best teachers are; in fact, parents fight each year to get their children into those classrooms. If parents controlled the $10,000 assigned to their child, you can bet they would make sure that principals paid what it took to recruit and retain the best teachers. If the principals didn't agree, they could lose their customers. There might even be bidding wars for the best teachers - what a wonderful thing!
I look forward to the day that the FEA understands the power of parental choice and its potential to bring more money to the pockets of good teachers, not school bureaucracies.
Bob McClure is president and CEO of the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee. Contact him at bob@jamesmadison.org.
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)
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