Governor Scott Signs HB 7069 Into Law Today!

Governor Rick Scott Signs HB 7069 Into Law.  June 15, 2017. (Photo from Shawn R. Frost)

This afternoon Governor Rick Scott Signed HB 7069 into law.

This historic bill puts students and parents first and is set to shatter the status quo in education around the state.  The special interests, unions, Superintendents, The Florida School Boards Association, the PTA and other groups strongly opposed HB 7069.  These and other groups had put on a full court press lately to urge Governor Scott to veto this bill.

As a proponent of Education Reform and a staunch School Choice supporter---I strongly supported this bill and I am glad it will now be the law of the land.  The conservative Florida Coalition of School Board Members, a group I co-founded and served as President of in Florida in 2014, strongly supported this bill this session and worked tirelessly to make this bill a law.  My hat's off to them and the Florida House and Senate for all of their hard work on this.

Here are some of the great things this Law will do for Florida students, families, and teachers, principals, and communities:

--Continues Best and Brightest Teacher Bonuses

--Implements Best and Brightest Bonuses for Some Principals (Title 1 schools)

--Requires Elementary Schools to Provide Recess for 20 minutes daily

--Allows a pencil and paper test alternative for standardized test administration grades 3-6

--Eliminates Algebra 2 EOC Exam

--Additional $30 Million in special needs student scholarships (Gardner Scholarships)

--Expands access to Virtual Schools for all Florida students and families.

--Provides support and intervention strategies for early readers identified as having a substantial reading deficiency.

--Forces Districts to limit standardized testing to only the last 4 weeks of the school year--allowing more school days and class time to be open for instruction

--Compels Districts to share capital millage funds with public charter schools

--Allows high-performing charter schools to compete against chronically failing traditional schools with $140 Million allocated for Charter Schools of Hope initiative.

Read more about this bill at the FCSBM website, here.

The bill does all of this and much more.  Of course the special interests hated it, of course they wanted it vetoed.  It challenges the status quo and forces accountability and competition in public education---two things that are needed desperately.

The status quo in education, the special interests, the unions, and the grifters got stuffed today.  Parents and Students First!

I think what we will witness next, I'm sorry to say, is a deliberate effort to stymie the implementation of this law.  I hate to say that, but sadly I believe that is what we will witness next.  I certainly hope this is not the case....

What is the Real Reason Why Special Interests HATE HB 7069?

Special interests hate HB 7069 for many reasons, primarily over school choice, charter expansion, and capital
millage revenue sharing---not the way special needs scholarship funding was added to the bill......

Newspaper Editorial Boards Statewide are using their collective bully-platforms to demonize a very good piece of legislation that is pro-student and pro-parent.  They desperately want Governor Scott to veto this bill.  They are putting on a full court press, including editorials like this one..

But very few of the folks that are so enraged by this bill actually bothered to read it before slamming it. Forget the faux -age about how various aspects of the bill became cobbled together into one train bill at the end of the session...Here is a news flash: This is common, and it is funny that nobody seems to complain when such bills contain provisions that are widely accepted. Nope. But when a bill ends up with many provisions that upset the status quo, suddenly this practice is an abomination! 

  The gnashing of teeth this produces when legislation that is profound and parent/student-centric comes through at the end of a session is ridiculous and incredible. But the fact of the matter is that this is often how the sausage is made and if you don't like it don't look into the butcher shop window in Tallahassee. 

 So the fact that the bill increases funding for Garder Scholarships for special needs students by $30 Million really makes these special interests angry? Really? or is it something else? 

 Being somewhat cynical and a bit of a skeptic myself-I believe the real animus comes from other aspects of the bill that really make the special interests angry. School Choice gets expanded, yes this is good. If a school is a failure for years and years on end, this bill contains a mechanism to insert competition from established high performing charters. 

This bill also expands Virtual School access--which is good for students and parents.

 Teacher Bonuses: Best and brightest awards for high-performing teachers and administrators, as well as all teachers statewide that are high-performing--yes the guardians of the status-quo HATE this and 7069 provides for these bonuses for the next three years to keep the most talented school employees in our schools. Unions hate this-- They want all things equal and ANY bonus will never be "fair." 

testing reform is included in the bill, and this is something every parent I ever spoke with in my 10 years on the local school board desperately wanted.

But the great, big granddaddy of it all, the real reason for the hatred of this bill, is that it forces equity in the distribution of capital funding for ALL public schools...right now Public Charter schools in most cases do not receive any of this locally generated funding.  This bill forces local districts to share revenue with locally established PUBLIC charter schools.  Yes, sadly (as is often the case with these issues) it comes down to money.... 

Follow the money trail to find out the real reasons why unions, liberals, and other special interest guardians
of the status-quo
in education hate SB 7069.........

So yes, this bill does so many good things but at the same time it upsets the apple cart, and this is the real reason it is hated. The idea that it is "the way" the Gardiner Scholarship increases were put in the bill -- (the red-herring straw man used by the media to focus the hatred on this bill from those who do not think deeply and do their own independent research) the idea that THIS is what is ginning up the hatred of the bill around the state--- is absolutely ludicrous. Dig deeper,  read the facts,  and don't buy into the propaganda.....