Hope operators: Two charter school companies have been named the state's first "Hope operators" in a unanimous vote by the Florida Board of Education. Somerset Academy, managed by Miami-based Academica, and IDEA Public Schools of Texas will now have access to low-cost loans for facilities, state grants, a streamlined application process and exemptions from some state laws if they apply to open "Schools of Hope" within five miles of persistently low-performing public schools. Somerset based its application on the work it's done since taking over the Jefferson County School District, and IDEA puts on emphasis on college preparation. IDEA has already identified Tampa and Jacksonville as possible locations for schools. redefinED. Tampa Bay Times. Politico Florida.
School security: An increase of nearly $100 million in the state budget for school security probably isn't enough to put an armed resource officer in every school, according to a report from the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. The superintendents are asking the Florida Board of Education to support their request that they be allowed to use the $67 million that's in the so-called guardian program to train and arm school personnel, much of which will likely go unspent because many districts oppose the idea. News Service of Florida. The Palm Beach County School District expects to receive $6.1 million from the state as part of the new law requiring resource officers in every school. District officials say that will be enough to hire 75 officers and cover every school. Palm Beach Post. Brevard County school officials expect to get $2.4 million from the state, but say the cost of putting an officer in every school will be $7.8 million. Florida Today. U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, asks Attorney General Jeff Sessions to direct $75 million in the federal spending bill toward putting police officers into schools. Gradebook. School board in Martin and Leon counties vote to allow only trained law enforcement officers to carry guns in schools. TCPalm. Tallahassee Democrat. WFSU. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Department is looking for 14 candidates to become school resource officers at 12 elementary schools in the unincorporated areas of the county, at a cost of $1.1 million. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Bradenton Herald. School security will receive extra funding if Marion County voters renew a 1-mill property tax that was approved in 2014 to provide $15 million a year for more teachers and for art, music, physical education and vocational programs. Ocala Star-Banner.
Extension denied: Oscar Patterson Elementary School won't get an extra year to turn around its string of failing grades, the Florida Board of Education decides. Bay County School Superintendent Bill Husfelt appealed to the board for an extra year to get the school's grade up to a C, so a decision on whether to close the school or turn it over to an outside operator could be delayed. Principal Darnita Rivers called the state's decision “disappointing but not discouraging.” Panama City News Herald. WMBB. (more…)
Florida is rolling out the welcome mat for two charter school organizations ready to launch "Schools of Hope."
The state Board of Education approved the applications from IDEA Public Schools and Somerset Academy with unanimous votes.
They will gain access to low-cost loans for facilities, state grants and a streamlined application process if they apply to open schools in the vicinities of persistently struggling public schools.
The first organization, IDEA Public Schools, hails from South Texas. It's eyeing expansion to other states.
Dan Fishman, IDEA's vice president of growth and national advancement, said the organization wants to take its time opening new schools. Right now, it's looking at several urban areas, and focusing on Tampa Bay and Jacksonville. It hopes to start opening its doors in the summer of 2021.
The 2017 Hope law championed by House Speaker Richard Corcoran helped make Florida attractive, Fishman said.
But the state's school choice-friendly political climate, history of educational improvement, rapid urban population growth and high-need communities were also factors. IDEA schools currently enroll about 36,000 students. They are overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged, and all take at least 11 Advanced Placement courses before graduation. (more…)
Student activism: Hundreds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, parents and teachers are traveling to Washington, D.C., for the March For Our Lives rally Saturday. Another 800 or so marches calling for stricter gun laws are planned in cities around the world, and more than a million people are expected to participate. Miami Herald. Associated Press. Other Florida students will take part in local ceremonies. Sun-Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel. Gradebook. Palm Beach Post. Daytona Beach News-Journal. Bradenton Herald. Naples Daily News. Florida Today. Fort Myers News-Press. TCPalm. Five Stoneman Douglas students who have become national figures in the #NeverAgain movement to change gun laws make the cover of the April 2 Time magazine. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald.
Schools of Hope operators: Two charter school companies apply to become Florida's first "Schools of Hope" operators. Somerset Academy, which recently took over the Jefferson County School District, and the Texas company IDEA Public Schools were approved by the Department of Education, and the Florida Board of Education votes on their applications Tuesday. Hope operators get a streamlined process to open schools in areas with persistently low-performing schools, and access to low-cost loans for facilities and grants to pay for things such as longer school days. redefinED.
School security: The Miami-Dade County School Board is considering a pilot program giving schools the option of requiring students to wear clear backpacks. Miami Herald. Hendry County schools will require students to wear clear backpacks for the 2018-2019 school year, but Charlotte and Lee counties will not. WZVN. Charter schools are struggling to find money for school security. There's no road map for agreements between local public districts and charters on finding guards for schools, who those armed guards will be, or who will pay for them. redefinED. The Sarasota County School approves spending more than $1 million beyond what it will receive from the state to place armed law enforcement officers in each of the district's 21 elementary schools. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The Monroe County School Board is considering asking voters to approve a tax increase to pay for police officers in schools. Key West Citizen. At a town meeting, Hillsborough County parents quiz school officials on what's been done and what's being planned to keep students safe. School officials say their plans hinge on funding. Complying with state laws will create a $16 million deficit in security costs for the district, they say. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)
An award-winning South Texas charter school network and the group behind an unprecedented rural North Florida turnaround could soon become Florida's first official "Schools of Hope" operators.
IDEA Public Schools and Somerset Academy charter schools both applied to become Hope Operators. Department of Education staff found they met the requirements. The state Board of Education is expected to vote on their applications when it meets Tuesday in LaBelle.
Hope Operators gain access to a streamlined application process if they want to open new schools in the vicinity of an existing public school with persistent D and F grades. They can get low-cost loans to help pay for facilities, and grants to help pay for things like extended school days.
The Schools of Hope program was a priority of outgoing Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who wanted to recruit more nationally regarded charter school operators to low-income areas.
IDEA is a fast-growing operation, started in South Texas and now spreading across the Lone Star State and into Louisiana. It won the national Broad Prize for charter school excellence in 2016, and used the money to help undocumented immigrant children attend college. It qualified as a Hope Operator because it's received financial backing from a federal program to encourage the growth of high-quality charter schools, as well as through the Charter School Growth Fund.
Somerset qualified as a Hope Operator because of its turnaround work in Jefferson County. The South Florida nonprofit runs schools in mostly urban areas of Florida. It works closely with the management company Academica, which also runs Doral, Pinecrest and Mater Academy charter schools.
Both organizations have a positive effect on students' reading and math scores, according to a recent national study of charter school networks.
School safety bill: The Senate Rules Committee passes a $400 million school safety bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools, raise the legal age to purchase firearms to 21, require a three-day waiting period on gun purchases, bolster mental health treatment and increase the number of school resource officers. But the committee rejects an amendment that would ban all assault rifles. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Palm Beach Post. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida. GateHouse. The Broward County Commission wants to explore just how far it can go in regulating guns and ammunition at the county level. State law now says that local officials who try to impose stricter gun regulations than the state's can be fined and removed from office. Miami Herald.
Funding school safety: Florida politicians are pointing to improved mental health treatment and more police officers in schools as ways to address school security. But the state has traditionally underfunded both. In 2016, there was just one school psychologist for every 1,983 students in the state, according to 2016 data from the Florida Association of School Psychologists. The recommended ratio is between 500 and 700 students per psychologist. And while there are about 4,000 schools in Florida, there are just 1,518 armed school resource officers. Tampa Bay Times.
House inquiry: The Florida House House Public Integrity & Ethics Committee will launch an investigation into the actions of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the Broward County School Board, Broward County government, the Coral Springs Police Department and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office before and during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting Feb. 14. It will be separate from the query the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will conduct at the request of Gov. Rick Scott. News Service of Florida. Scott is resisting calls to immediately suspend Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, saying he will wait until the FDLE investigation is complete before making a decision. Fort Myers News-Press.
School shooting: A 19-year-old man who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland returned Wednesday to shoot and kill 17 people and wound 16 more in the worst school massacre in Florida's history, according to Broward County deputies. The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, was arrested at a house near the school by deputies shortly after escaping by hiding among students running from the school. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Palm Beach Post. Florida Today. Orlando Sentinel. Associated Press. Politico Florida. The 74. The shooting suspect had been flagged as a potential threat, and family members say he seemed troubled and depressed in recent years. Sun-Sentinel. Miami Herald. Associated Press. CNN. Students tell their stories of horror, and videos capture the scene. Sun-Sentinel. Stoneman football coach Aaron Feis is called a hero for stepping between the gunman and students. Miami Herald. The rifle used in the shooting, the AR-15, is "designed to kill multiple enemy combatants at once,” says a weapons expert. Miami Herald. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High will be closed today and tomorrow. Sun-Sentinel. There have already been at least six school shootings that have killed or injured U.S. students in 2018, and at least 17 other incidents involving a gun fired at or near U.S. schools. USA Today. Business Insider. Time. MSN. The 74. Fox News. CNBC. Political leaders express their anguish over the shootings but wonder if anything will change. Sun-Sentinel. How vulnerable are kids at school? USA Today.
School choice funding: A bill that would create a new funding source for private school choice scholarships is approved by the House Ways and Means Committee. The proposal would let businesses donate to a state to a scholarship funding organization and receive a full credit for sales taxes they collect. It's projected that the measure could collect as much as $150 million a year. That money would help fund state-approved scholarship organizations such as Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog and helps administer the Gardiner Scholarships for children with special needs and tax credit scholarships for low-income students. Both have waiting lists. The bill also creates tax holidays for certain back-to-school items and hurricane supplies. The total tax relief amount is almost $350 million. redefinED. Associated Press. Orlando Sentinel. Tampa Bay Times. News Service of Florida. Politico Florida.
School funding formula: The House Education PreK-12 Appropriations Committee approves a bill that calls for a study of the way state funding is distributed to school districts. Smaller and more rural districts around the state have complained for years that price-level index portion of the funding formula unfairly favors urban districts. The House has allocated $100,000 for the study. The Senate also passes its version of the school funding bill, which includes more money for school mental health services. News Service of Florida. Gradebook. Politico Florida.
A Florida Senate proposal would re-examine several issues from a contentious education law passed last year.
SB 1434, which received bipartisan backing from the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, would allow more district-run public schools to qualify for grants under the new Schools of Hope Program.
It saw more revisions today that could help set the stage for negotiations with the House, which has advanced a new, wide-ranging education bill. A delete-everything amendment by Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples and sponsor of the bill, eliminated a few contentious provisions, including one criticized by some charter school representatives because it restricted their real estate arrangements. Among other things, it would require charters to ensure their buildings returned to public ownership if the school ever closed. (more…)
Few issues attract more special-interest attention during Florida's annual legislative sessions than gambling legislation and the state budget.
The long-term prospects of House Speaker Richard Corcoran's signature initiative to attract proven charter school operators to the state could hinge on both.
His chamber is advancing a budget bill that would keep funding for Schools of Hope available for up to five years after the Legislature appropriates it. That would help ensure money for the program, which received $140 million in its first year, can fulfill its intended purpose.
Right now, the state has committed tens of millions of those dollars to 25 district-run public schools that are working to turn around their low performance.
But the charter school portion of Schools of Hope has just been codified in Department of Education rules that took effect this month. It could take charter school operators months, perhaps years, to survey the Florida landscape and open new schools.
The House's budget proposal would steer another $140 million to the program next year. Meanwhile, the Senate has advanced a competing budget proposal that would provide $88 million for the program and allow a larger number of district-run turnaround schools to qualify.
But no matter how lawmakers resolve their short-term spending plans, charter school operators would likely want some confidence that the startup loans and operating grants will be around for years to come.
That's where gambling legislation might come into play.
The Seminole compact
Schools of Hope extension: A Florida Senate committee is considering a plan that would give school districts another option for trying to turn around persistently low-performing schools. Right now, the state gives districts three options for those schools: close them, convert them to charter schools or hire an outside operator to run them. A fourth option would allow districts to place principals with highly effective performance reviews in charge of the struggling schools as well as their own. Those principals would be given the authority to make changes and pool resources between the schools. The schools, which would be called "franchise model schools," would be eligible for money from the $140 million Schools of Hope program. redefinED.
Hope Scholarship: The Florida Senate Education Committee approves a revised version of the bill offering scholarships for students who are bullied or victims of violence. Principals would have 30 days to investigate claims from parents. If the claims are substantiated, the victimized students would be eligible for scholarships to attend private schools, or they could transfer to a public school of their choice. The committee also approves a measure that would increase oversight of the state’s K-12 private school choice programs. Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer Florida’s tax credit and Gardiner Scholarship programs. It would also help administer the Hope Scholarship program if lawmakers create it. redefinED. News Service of Florida. Associated Press. Sunshine State News. Politico Florida.
Choice in Florida: Almost 1.7 million Florida preK-12 students attended a school outside their attendance zone in the 2016-2017 school year, according to an analysis of Florida Department of Education statistics. That's an increase of 207,000 students using school choice in the past five years. Step Up For Students did the analysis. redefinED.
High-performing public-school principals could create mini-networks of "franchise" schools within districts under a new plan the Florida Senate is set to take up later today.
The proposal would offer a new approach for districts trying to turn around persistently low-performing schools. A contentious school turnaround law passed last year gives them three options. They can close persistently low-performing schools, convert them to charters or hire external providers to run them.
A "franchise model school" would be a fourth option. Districts could give the reins of a low-performing school to a principal with highly effective performance reviews. Those principals would run the franchise schools in addition to the schools where they already worked. They would have the discretion to pool resources between their schools as they saw fit.
The franchise schools would be eligible for state Schools of Hope grants. The funding, roughly $140 million this year, is intended to help lure top charter school operators to struggling areas and support low-performing district schools that want to transform their academics and offer more support services to students.
The franchise proposal is part of an amendment to SB 1434, which could soon become a wide-ranging measure. It would address several issues from the debate that led to HB 7069 last year. For example, it would revive a Senate proposal intended to stop profit-making by charter school real estate investors.
The Senate Education Committee is slated to discuss the proposal at 3:30 p.m.
