So far, all but three of Florida’s school districts have submitted digital learning plans to the state Department of Education, allowing them to claim their share of $40 million in technology funding.
Hundreds of schools, however, haven’t been as quick on the uptake.
Last year, legislation by state Sen. John Legg, R-Trinity, created a new pool of funding for school technology known as the Digital Classrooms Allocation. To qualify, school districts had to draw up detailed plans for how they would use technology to improve teaching and learning. Charter schools could share in the money, too, as long as they submitted similar plans to their local districts.
So far, 70 of the state’s 73 school districts and university lab schools have submitted technology plans to the state, Ron Nieto, the department’s deputy commissioner for innovation, told the state Board of Education during its Wednesday meeting.
He said 397, or less than two-thirds, of the state’s charter schools had done the same.
As board member John Padget noted, “It looks like the charter schools as a group have left some money on the table.”
In some cases, charter schools might not have felt they had the resources to put detailed plans on paper for what could be a relatively small amount of funding.
The $40 million Digital Classrooms Allocation is being spread among more than 2.7 million students. Small school districts are guaranteed a minimum of $250,000, and the remaining funds are divvied up based on enrollment. Charter schools can get a proportionate share of the funding their local districts receive.
Nieto told the board he’s still working to encourage the remaining charter schools to draw up digital classroom plans and take advantage of the funding that’s available.
In the coming years, they’ll likely have stronger incentives to do so. Gov. Rick Scott has already pledged to double the funding for digital classrooms. Legg has said all along that he expects lawmakers to grow the pool of money once schools have plans in place to use it wisely.
On that count, Nieto said the digital classrooms legislation has clearly been a success. It’s helped move the conversation about digital learning beyond counting devices per student, and toward using new tools to improve teaching.
“Folks have told me, hands down, this is one of the best things that has happened in their districts in regards to implementing technology in the classroom,” he said.
