School closings: Eight Florida school districts remain closed until further notice, according to state officials: Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Liberty and Washington. Most are without power, have damaged schools, or have schools that are still needed as emergency shelters or as FEMA distribution sites for food, water, or other supplies. Every school in Bay County, where the storm made landfall, is damaged. "It's not going to be a normal school year. There's nothing normal about where we are right now," says Bay County Superintendent Bill Husfelt. "I would say every single school in Bay County has some type of damage, some more extensive than others," says Steve Moss, vice chairman of the school board. "Some it'll probably take weeks or months to get online. Some it will take years." Florida Department of Education. Florida Governor's Office. WMBB. CNN. WCTV. WFSU. WTXL. Students displaced by the hurricane are being enrolled in nearby districts such as Leon, Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties. Tallahassee Democrat. WEAR.
Amendment 8 opinion: Amendment 8 was removed from the Nov. 6 ballot because its language was defective and did not inform voters of its true intent, according to the Florida Supreme Court opinion that was issued Monday. "That the ballot summary is unclear is best demonstrated by the proponents of the proposed revision, who each give different meaning to the language of the revision, its title, and its summary," the majority wrote in upholding a Leon County judge's decision. The amendment had three education subjects: changes in who could authorize charter and public schools, term limits for school board members and a requirement for civics instruction. The League of Women Voters argued that charter schools portion was not clearly defined, and the court agreed. Gradebook. (more…)
Education and politics: Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis unveils his education goals for the state that include more school choice, more support for career and technical training, incentives for teacher retention, an increase in the cap for tax credit scholarships, an end to Common Core, an emphasis on civics education and a requirement that 80 percent of education funding go into the classroom. Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum touts his plan to raise corporate income taxes to increase education spending by $1 billion, including starting salaries of $50,000 for teachers and $100 million for construction, and vows to end “the voucherizing of the education system.” News Service of Florida. Tampa Bay Times. Orlando Sentinel. Florida Politics. GateHouse. Florida Phoenix. Education Week. Associated Press. WFSU. Tallahassee Democrat. Politico Florida. WUSF.
Achievement gap: The Pinellas County School District improves in five of six categories in its plan to close the achievement gap between black and white students by 2027, according to a report from the minority achievement office. Still, no progress was made between the groups in state English and math exams results, with the gap steady at 33 percent. "It's good; it's not great," minority achievement officer Lewis Brinson tells the school board. "But good is acceptable and encouraging that we will become great … if we continue to keep the focus." Gradebook. Alachua County School Board members approve an equity plan to close the achievement gap between white and black students, over the objections of some community members who say it needs more accountability and inclusion. The plan has been developed over the past year by Valerie Freeman, director of equity for the school system, who says commitment to the plan is necessary even as changes can be made later. Gainesville Sun. (more…)
Charter schools report: A report issued Monday by the research group Integrity Florida warns state officials about the proliferation of charter schools. The report concludes that charter schools have largely failed to deliver promised innovation, and says the closure of an average of 20 charter schools a year since 1998 "comes with a cost to taxpayers.” Ben Wilcox, research director of Integrity Florida, writes: “Lax regulation of charter schools has created opportunities for corporate profiteering, financial mismanagement, fraud and criminal corruption.” News Service of Florida. Florida Times-Union. WWSB. Capitol Soup. Florida Phoenix. WFSU.
School abuse reports: Students at a private Port St. Lucie military school have been punched, choked, kicked, used as free child labor and placed in shackles as punishment for various transgressions, according to reports the state Department of Children and Families has been compiling since 1994. But the Southeastern Military Academy is still open, though it has just 12 students this year. The school isn't licensed by the state or any private organization, other than the National Association for Christian Education, but it doesn't need to be because licenses aren't required of private schools in Florida. According to the Florida Department of Education, the school has received $250,000 since 2014 in McKay scholarships, given by the state to students with special needs. School operators Alan and Molly Weierman had no comment. WPTV. (more…)
Amendment 8 off ballot: A judge's decision that proposed constitutional Amendment 8 should be removed from the Nov. 6 ballot is upheld in a 4-3 vote by the Florida Supreme Court. A Leon County judge had ruled that the amendment is misleading and fails to inform voters of its “chief purpose and effect.” The amendment, put forward by the Constitution Revision Commission, would have created an entity other than local school boards that can approve charter and public schools, set term limits for school board members and required civics education in schools. The League of Women Voters challenged the constitutionality of the amendment, with president Patricia Brigham saying “the backers of this proposal on the CRC went to great lengths to hide the ball because they realized that Floridians would never knowingly forfeit their right to local control over their local public schools.” Associated Press. News Service of Florida. Tampa Bay Times. Miami Herald. Orlando Sentinel. Florida Phoenix. Florida Politics. Washington Post. Watchdog.org.
Scott rejected again: Legislative leaders officially deny Gov. Rick Scott's request to release $58 million from the armed school guardian fund to districts to help them pay for more security at schools. In a letter to the governor Friday, incoming Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said, "For the guardian program to truly be vetted and ultimately embraced, I believe the program should maintain its own funding rather than having its funds commingled with other funds available for school safety. I respectfully disagree with your statement that the $58 million in available funding will go to waste if the proposed budget amendment is not adopted." Galvano did say he would be open to reviewing the program in the near future. Only $9 million of the $67 million set aside for guardians was claimed by districts, which preferred having school resource officers to arming school employees. Associated Press. (more…)
Safety panel: Florida schools are underreporting crimes by students, painting a false picture of school safety, and skimped on security tests before the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, according to members of the state commission appointed to investigate the shootings. The panel suggests penalizing schools for underreporting crimes in their annual reports. The security assessments, which were optional until this year, were rarely performed. Stoneman Douglas never did one, and in 2017 only 16 of the state's 3,900 public schools did. Sun-Sentinel. Associated Press. WFOR. Former Brevard County School Superintendent Desmond Blackburn isn't able to convince his peers on the state panel that a sworn police officer belongs on every school campus, including at elementary schools. Florida Today.
Amendment 8: The Florida Supreme Court will announce its decision today on whether proposed constitutional Amendment 8 will stay on the Nov. 6 ballot. The amendment, put forward by the Constitution Revision Commission, would create an entity other than local school boards that can approve charter and public schools, set term limits for school board members and require civics education in schools. The League of Women Voters is objecting to the charter school provision, and is asking the amendment be removed from the ballot because it’s “misleading.” Tampa Bay Times.
Amendment 8: A Leon County circuit judge says he is likely to decide today if proposed constitutional Amendment 8 will stay on the November ballot or be removed because it's misleading. At a hearing Friday, a lawyer for the state said the ballot title and summary are “a fair statement” of the amendment and that "the voters have a right to see this. It’s clear. There’s nothing misleading about it.” A lawyer for the League of Women Voters, which is challenging the amendment, says the ballot title and summary are “misleading” and “deceptive” because they don't explain that voters would be stripping local school boards of the authority to oversee charter schools. Florida Politics. WJCT. News Service of Florida. Gradebook. Florida Phoenix. Politico Florida.
School security: A shooting between adults sparks pandemonium during a practice football game at Palm Beach Central High in Wellington on Friday night and raises questions about how even the greatly increased safety measures at schools are able to protect students. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says two suspects targeted the victims because of unspecified past dealings. A 29-year-old is in critical but stable condition and a 39-year-old, the father of one of the players in the game, is in stable condition. The district has announced some changes for this week's games. Palm Beach Post. Associated Press. WPLG. Miami Herald. Sun-Sentinel. The Pinellas County School District will show students videos this week that instruct them how to respond during a school shooting. All follow the run-hide-fight strategy. There are versions of the videos for students in kindergarten through 2nd grade, in grades 3-5 and for middle-schoolers. Active-assailant drills are expected to begin soon in schools. Gradebook. (more…)
Amendment 8 lawsuit: Amendment 8 is misleading and should be removed from the ballot, the League of Women Voters and the Southern Poverty Law Center argue in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Leon County. The lawsuit focuses on the part of the proposed amendment that would allow allow entities other than school boards to “operate, control, and supervise” public schools. “Voters will not recognize that the real purpose of the amendment is to allow unaccountable political appointees to control where and when charter schools can be established in their county,” says LWV president Patricia Brigham. The amendment would also limit school board members to eight years in office and require the teaching of civics in public schools. redefinED. Miami Herald. Orlando Sentinel. GateHouse. News Service of Florida. Florida Politics. Politico Florida.
Charter school appeals: The Florida Charter Schools Appeal Commission is recommending that the state Board of Education override the Palm Beach County School Board's decision to deny two charter school applications. And Education Commissioner Pam Stewart is recommending the board go along with the appeal commission's advice when it meets next week. Charters that don't fill a specific niche have been getting turned down by the Palm Beach board for the past five years. But as Stewart points out in her memo to the state board, "The school board's determination must be based on good cause." Gradebook.
Union membership: Teachers unions in Orange, Lake, Osceola and Seminole counties say membership is on the upswing since the state passed a law requiring unions to have at least 50 percent membership of eligible workers or risk being decertified. Union officials in all four counties say the recent swell has pushed each past the 50 percent threshhold. Teachers unions in 13 districts have membership below 50 percent but most have been adding members, according to Joanne McCall, president of the statewide Florida Education Association. Orlando Sentinel. (more…)
A Florida League of Women Voters attack on a Jacksonville charter school last week would have been more persuasive if it had not so brazenly played a Muslim card and not so blatantly ignored the school's documented academic success.
The guest column, published Friday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Fort Myers News-Press, provided a granular critique of the real estate practices at River City Science Academy in Jacksonville. League president Pamela Goodwin drew extensively on previously reported connections to Turkey.
Some will remember accusations targeting Turkish exile Fethullah Gulen for backing a failed government overthrow in his home country a year ago. Many quickly became concerned that a network of approximately 170 American charter schools operated by his followers, a dozen right here in Florida, could be involved.
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Due to HB 7069 and other laws, Florida is unable to protect itself against a Ponzi scheme operating in our school system. Gulen schools are required to rent or buy property from other Gulenist interests and hire associated construction firms. To see how this works, consider the case of River City Science Academy in Jacksonville.
Some mainstream news media, including The New York Times, have covered the Gulen involvement in U.S. education, and it's gotten traction among charter school critics. But the Turkish government is working to perpetuate this storyline. In 2015, it hired a British law firm to dig up dirt on dissidents in the Turkish American diaspora, some of whom operated charter schools in the U.S.
An odd nexus has formed between the administration of President Tayyip Erdoğan, its agents in the United States and American charter school critics. They've produced a hard-hitting documentary film, published articles in left-wing publications, started anonymous investigative blogs and ginned up the occasional local controversy.
It's hard to say which attacks truly trace to the Turkish government, and which ones stem from more ordinary opposition research by the usual suspects in education politics. There is certainly no reason to think the League would allow itself to be caught up in such international intrigue. After all, Ms. Goodman's basic contention is pretty straightforward. She says the charter school's buildings are owned by private investors who might make money, and that real estate developers who worked on the school facility have ties to the people who run the school.
