Charter school attendance. The Palm Beach County school district plans to bring in a computer program to better track charter school attendance after one school overstated its numbers. Extra Credit blog.

“Magnet mania.” Duval puts on its first School Choice Expo. First Coast News.

ESA debate resurfacing? Gradebook.

Please raise our taxes. Some Brevard parents, upset about proposed school closures, are lobbying the school board to hold a special election to raise taxes. Florida Today. (Image from kceducationenterprise.org)

More school security. School districts will ask lawmakers for more money this year to beef up security in the wake of Newtown, the News Service of Florida reports. Its video interview with FSBA executive director Wayne Blanton here. Reactions range to a Lake County school board member’s proposal to arm teachers with guns, reports the Orlando Sentinel. More school safety coverage from the Fort Myers News Press, Naples Daily News, Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Pattern of behavior. Tampa Bay Times: “A Pinellas teacher accused of downloading child pornography on his home computer has a peculiar history of complaints against him, including allegations that he exchanged inappropriate emails with a young girl, according to records from the Pinellas County School District.”

Falling apart. A citizens group chronicles deteriorating building conditions in two Broward high schools that serve predominantly minority students. Miami Herald.

Cell phone waste. An audit finds $117,000 worth over two years in the Palm Beach district. Palm Beach Post.

Rick Scott. Visits an elementary school in Volusia. Daytona Beach News Journal.

Tony Bennett. Starts work Monday. SchoolZone.

StudentsFirst report card. Jacksonville Business Journal.

More on school security in Newtown aftermath. Miami Herald. South Florida Sun Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel. Florida Times Union. Florida Today. Pensacola News Journal. In Pinellas, rumors of coming violence prompt Superintendent Mike Grego to email principals, and in Hillsborough, bullets on buses, reports Tampa Bay Times here and here.

School district image. A review by an outside agency suggests the Palm Beach County school district needs to a better job communicating and marketing itself, according to the Palm Beach Post. (As far as I know, no response yet from either the district or the Post to this EAG report last week on questionable district spending.)

More school district image. The Clay County School Board approves the hiring of a second public relations officer – a family friend and supporter of new Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr., reports the Florida Times Union.

Superintendent search. In Polk. Lakeland Ledger.

STEM. It’ll take guts and resources for state education leaders to finally make science education a priority, writes FSU physics professor Paul Cottle in this op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel.

Charter teacher pay. Trustees for Lake Wales Charter Schools want better pay and benefits to retain teachers, reports the News Chief.

Can’t fire her. The Sarasota school district loses its third bid to fire a teacher found not guilty of abusing developmentally disabled students, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Teacher evals. Alachua County teachers raise their concerns at a forum with three lawmakers, reports the Gainesville Sun.

Vouchers and accountability. Gov. Rick Scott’s call for “voucher” students to take the same standardized tests as public school students is long overdue, editorializes the Tampa Bay Times: “Voucher proponents can't have it both ways,” it concludes. “They can't claim they are a good bargain for taxpayers but then be unwilling to prove it.”

“Yes we are!” House Speaker Will Weatherford gives Tony Bennett a thumbs up on Twitter after a critical Tampa Bay Times column says the selection shows the state is doubling down on Jeb Bush ed reforms. Gradebook. A look at Bennett’s re-election upset in Indiana. Tampa Bay Times.

Home-schooled or truant? A Flagler County dad faces a criminal charge after not following requirements for home-schooling, reports the Daytona Beach News Herald.

Sex abuse lawsuits. Involving a former middle school teacher. Miami Herald.

Florida reforms make an impression. They’re a model for other states and influenced the Obama administration, writes The Guardian.

Still working. A teacher who lost his job in the Pasco school district after sending inappropriate text messages to a female student lands in the Hillsborough district, where he has been put on leave for undisclosed reasons, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

More outrage over Orange County charter school. Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano links the $500,000 payment to a failing charter schools’ principal to other issues with charters and suggests state leaders are hypocrites and fools for not offering more oversight. Charter school supporters are also upset by what happened, redefinED reports.

Revisit new teacher evals. Editorializes the Tampa Bay Times.

Rick Scott’s ed plan has merit. Editorializes the Daytona Beach New Journal.

School choice politics. Surfaces over a school board election flyer in Duval County (Florida Times Union), in a key state senate race in South Florida (South Florida Sun-Sentinel), in this piece about campaign spending by education interest groups (Orlando Sentinel).

School board splits on public school choice in Lee County. From Fox 4.

Florida’s teachers unions among the weakest. According to a new report from the Fordham Institute.

A year after I began work as an education reporter, I witnessed a classroom scene so shocking, it haunts me to this day. I asked a high school teacher in a typical, normal public school if I could sit in on his class, and he said sure. He flipped on the most boring documentary ever made - a decades-old snoozer on map making, if I remember right - and turned off the lights. Heads became one with desk tops. Eyes closed. And then the really bad thing happened.

The teacher - who was also a teachers union representative - sat back in his chair, put his feet up and unfurled a newspaper with a flick of his wrists.

In the aftermath, I had to tell myself: Don't leap to strong conclusions. Don't let this one crazy thing unnecessarily taint the full picture about teachers and teachers unions. And I don't think I have. As an education reporter for many years, I saw plenty of awesome teachers in public schools and a handful of really bad ones. I saw teachers unions take positions on issues that jibed with the facts, and others that were just flat ridiculous. The world of education as I've come to know it is often complicated and gray, and sometimes it's hard to tell good guys from bad. With so much hanging in the balance, we should all be careful before we decide whether an obviously rotten apple is a representative example or an anomaly, or whether a small string of them is unfortunate coincidence or troubling trend.

I was reminded of that teacher and his newspaper this past week because of two story lines that have been running simultaneously in the Tampa Bay Times. (more…)