Pennsylvania: A budget deal expands the state's existing tax credit scholarship program and creates a new one aimed at helping students in struggling schools. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Washington: Bill Gates chips in $1 million for a ballot initiative to bring charter schools to one of the last states without any. (Associated Press) It appears supporters gathered enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. (Associated Press)

Florida: Former Gov. Jeb Bush endorses a local school board member who openly supports vouchers, tax credit scholarships and other forms of expanded school choice. (Tampa Bay Times) The incoming state House speaker also backs the board member. (Tampa Bay Times)

New Jersey: The state-appointed superintendent in Newark overrules a local advisory board and moves ahead with plans to lease empty buildings to charter schools. (NJ Spotlight)

Louisiana: State Superintendent John White continues to face criticism for his handling of a questionable private school that is seeking to participate in the state's new voucher program. (New Orleans Times Picayune) A state lawmaker now says she regrets voting for the program because she fears it will promote Islam. (Huffington Post)

California: The teachers union at Green Dot charter schools pushes for performance pay and evaluations tied to test scores. (Contra Costa Times)

Tennessee: A charter school operator vows to appeal to the state after a local school board rejects its plan to open charter schools in wealthy West Nashville. (The Tennessean)

Oklahoma: Online learning is growing more popular in Oklahoma, with supporters seeing it as an equalizer between districts that are big and small, rural and urban. (Tulsa World)

(Image from businessweek.com)

Florida has long given folks nationwide good reason to pay attention to school choice happenings at the state level. Now comes a compelling story at the local level.

Glen Gilzean, 31, is seeking a school board seat to help lead the 101,000-student Pinellas County school district.  He's a former staffer with the state education department; an education entrepreneur whose business helps low income kids; an energetic guy with a solid grasp of education issues. He also happens to openly support school choice options like vouchers and tax credit scholarships.

That support prompted headlines after Florida Gov. Rick Scott appointed Gilzean to the District 7 seat in January. And it was mentioned again when Gilzean announced last week that he’s running to hold on to the seat. It should be kept in perspective.

District 7 has more black students than any other school board district in Pinellas. And as I’ve written before (and will continue to do so), black students in Pinellas score lower in reading and math than black students in any major school system in Florida. The trend lines are upsetting and baffling and don’t get the attention they deserve. They have also spurred growing numbers of parents in Pinellas to embrace expanded school choice options.

Gilzean’s support for choice may put him more in synch with the community pulse than candidates who reject such options. But he’s not a Johnny-one-note. Like many choice supporters, he sees choice as another tool to help kids, not as a silver bullet and not as an excuse to let traditional public schools flounder.

The election is Aug. 14. It will be fascinating to see if school choice becomes an issue in coming months – and, if so, how it’s portrayed and how voters respond. We know choice in Florida has strong support at the state level. The unique election in Pinellas may give us clues about how it's viewed on the ground.

As maybe the only pro-voucher school board member in Florida, and one of the few in the country, it could get awfully intense for 29-year-old Glen Gilzean. But when asked by redefinED if he liked the extra-big spotlight, Gilzean laughed.

Being a voucher guy on a local school board, he says in this redefinED podcast, is like being the first person in a flash mob.

"It's like a flash mob. It takes one person. Everybody look at him like, 'Oh this guy is crazy.' What is he doing? Then you know three more people come in and it's like, 'Oh, he's not really that crazy.' Let's just continue the thing going. And then all of a sudden, the whole group, everyone's like doing the dance. And to be frank with you, I see Florida, on the legislative stand point, they're making that bold step. I see our commissioner of education making that bold step. I see our governor making that bold step. Now it takes people on the local level to start, you know, making some of those bold steps to ensure that children are getting what they need."

Glen Gilzean

We also ask Gilzean about the evolution of his thinking concerning vouchers and tax-credit scholarships, and what he thinks about vouchers for all parents, regardless of income. Note: The podcast comes in at 26 minutes, and there are five seconds of silence at the beginning. Truth be told, your humble podcaster needs a crash course in basic 21st century technology. Hopefully, future podcasts will be shorter, sweeter - and edited for the sake of time and clarity.