78th Coffee with the Commissioner this Wednesday--Talking Public Schools and the County with Kevin Adams

Join us this Wednesday, December 14th at 6:30 AM, for our 78th Coffee with the Commissioner event. We will hear updates on County Operations from County Administrator Wes Moreno, we will have Public Safety Updates from Director Eric Gilmore, and our special guest for the balance of the morning will be School Board Immediate past Chairman and District One representative Kevin Adams. We will discuss a lot of issues that the school board is working currently, including school choice, zoning, the issues at Warrington Middle School, enrollment challenges, community issues that drive low performance, teacher retention, the importance of parents and families to great school performance, generational poverty and it's impacts on education, and how the county and the school board can work together to improve the community and the schools. It will be a really good discussion that I am looking forward to having

We will start at 6:30 live on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CommissionerBergosh/ ----and as is always the case--residents are encouraged to participate and send questions to via the comment feature during the livestream or by sending questions in advance to district1@myescambia.com or by calling the D1 office at 850-595-4910.

HB 7029: Inside the Most Talked About Education Legislation in Florida for 2016

legislation that is built on multiple pieces of other related bills at the end of session is called  a "Train"

Everyone connected to education has something to say about HB 7029, the massive, omnibus education legislation that passed the House and Senate on the last day of this year's legislative session.  There are a lot of member priorities tucked into the law, as many bills that may not have passed on their own were added to the bill late in the game. That's how the sausage comes out of the hopper, that is how many bills end up becoming laws.

Of course I am very pleased with the membership association language that was included--this was absolutely necessary and long overdue.  Conservative school board members should not be forced to join high-priced,  taxpayer-funded membership associations that spend this money unwisely on needless litigation against the Governor and the Legislature.  We should have always enjoyed, as individually elected constitutional offices, choice in advocacy.   And now we do!

But many other aspects of the bill are equally appealing to reform-minded officials like me, such as the expansion of school choice opportunities that empowers students and families, school board member campus visits and inspections of schools language, classroom teacher transfer language that empowers parents, immediate athletic eligibility for students of military families that transfer into a Florida public schools, construction spending caps that force economy and efficiency for capital spending projects, and much, much more.

Of course, there are liberals and other guardians of the status-quo that think Governor Scott should veto HB 7029.  They don't like the way it was passed.  Thankfully,  most observers do not believe this bill will be vetoed.

Ironic how liberals that benefit tremendously from massive, pork-laden omnibus spending packages rammed through Congress in DC decry the method in which HB 7029 was passed through the Florida Legislature.  Yes, these liberals and other status quo guardians have NO PROBLEM with Harry Reid and his minions utilizing dirty tricks and opaque Senate rules to ram-rod  OBAMACARE through the Congress in secrecy with no open testimony or public scrutiny and without A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE.  Yes, DC politics, when liberals drive the train and benefit from the process, is completely acceptable.  Yet a large bill that PASSED in Florida with large margins by Republicans and many Democratic supporters---HB 7029-- is somehow "unacceptable."

As Spock from Star Trek might comment on this rank hypocrisy  "Fascinating."

But I digress...

Our district's legislative affairs representative, Mixon and Associates, put together a very nice recap of all the items contained in HB 7029, which I will post below.  Long read, but lots of good information.

HB 7029: School Choice
Please note that the summary below is not in the order in which these elements are contained in the bill, rather they are grouped together by topic in order to aid in the dissemination of information to the staff responsible for implementation. Additionally, unless otherwise noted in this summary, the elements of the bill will take effect on July 1, 2016.
Membership Associations – bill lines 348-368
 Mandates that dues paid to a membership association which are paid with public funds must be assessed for each elected or appointed public officer and may be paid to a membership association.
 Requires that if a public officer elects not to join the membership association, the dues assessed to that public officer may not be paid to the membership association.
School Board Member Duties – bill lines 369-378
 Authorizes school board members to visit schools.
Educational Choice – bill lines 418-612, 1770-1806
 Authorizes parents to seek any public educational choice options for their children throughout the state.
 States that in addition to other choice programs, options for students also includes CAPE digital tools, CAPE industry certifications and collegiate high school programs.

HB 7029 Is Enrolled

The engrossed, enrolled version of the most talked-about education related legislation for 2016 is now available.  This bill, HB 7029,  can be viewed/downloaded here.

As I have discussed frequently on this blog, this bill is a game-changer for conservative school board members statewide, and eventually it will be for members nationwide as well.

And the vote and the events from Tuesday Night's Escambia County School Board meeting will reverberate far and wide in the struggle for individual, duly elected conservative school board members to choose whom it is (if anyone) that will receive their share of taxpayer funded dues memberships for advocacy/training/professional development.

Next up, after the Governor signs the bill, the implementation of the law will be huge.  I can't wait for July 1st!

(Pages 14- 15 of this 160 page bill are the critical parts of this pending law as it pertains to taxpayer funded membership dues)

Hillary Clinton's Evolving Position on Public Charter Schools....

Her husband supported charter schools, as did her former boss and current president Barack Obama.  Hillary used to support them as well, until left winger Bernie Sanders started surging in the polls, forcing Clinton to move to the left in order to appease the special interests on the hard left....


From Politico:

"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded less like a decades-long supporter of charter schools over the weekend and more like a teachers union president when she argued that most of these schools “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them.”

Her comments in South Carolina came straight from charter school critics’ playbook and distanced her from the legacies of her husband, former President Bill Clinton — credited with creating a federal stream of money to launch charters around the country —"

Read     Hillary Clinton Rebukes Charter Schools

Surrender: FSBA Votes to #Drop the Suit!

In a stunning reversal from just less than one year ago, the Florida School Boards Association's board of directors has voted 21-9 to drop out of the lawsuit challenging Florida's tax credit scholarship program that benefits nearly 70,000 poor, mostly minority students.

A few weeks back a circuit court judge in Tallahassee threw the case out, and the odds were long that an appeal would be successful.

Yesterday's action leaves just the FEA labor union and the NAACP as the two entities still involved in this suit.

They can either continue to fight, which I'm certain their lawyers will want to do, or they can drop the suit as well.

If they stick with the lawsuit, they will have to win the appeal and then fork over more legal fees to keep the fight going even in the face of long odds.

In New Hampshire and Arizona, the same sort of tax-credit scholarship programs have successfully fended off challenges in court.

Florida's outcome will be no different, and the winners this time will be students and families and the losers will be FEA and NAACP.

FSBA, to their credit, obviously saw this "writing on the wall" and wisely extricated themselves from this badly flawed, destructive lawsuit.

Boom: FEA, FSBA, and NAACP Lawsuit Against Choice Dismissed!

 

Rejected!

Education Establishment 0    Students, Parents, Taxpayers  1

In what can only be described as a devastatingly bad loss for establishment, bureaucratic educational guardians of the status quo, a Leon County Circuit Judge did what many expected, he dismissed the case against the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program.  


Florida Students, Parents, Taxpayers, and genuine proponents of School Choice are the winners today!

From the Miami Herald:

"Opponents of a controversial law that directs would-be tax dollars to private schools suffered a setback Monday as a Leon County judge threw out a legal challenge to its constitutionality. Circuit Judge George Reynolds III ruled that the Florida Education Association, Florida School Boards Association and other plaintiffs had no legal standing to bring the case against the nation’s largest private school choice program. His rationale: The way the program is funded, often referred to as a “voucher” system, doesn’t use government vouchers at all. Rather, Reynolds stated, the multimillion-dollar program gets its income from corporations who receive tax credits for giving money to an outside organization that provides scholarships to lower income students. Those students — about 70,000 of them and growing, with the greatest share in Miami-Dade —— then attend private schools, most of them religious. In other words, it’s not state money."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article21319284.html#storylink=cpy

Could School Choice Help Prevent the Next Baltimore Riot?

As I was flipping channels on Sunday morning, watching the various Sunday Morning News Programs, there was a lot of discussion, naturally, on the Baltimore Riots.

Everyone on This Week with George Stephanopoulos was talking about it. 

Face the nation had a panel talking about it.

It seemed that everyone had issues they believed contributed to the problems in the Baltimore area.  Poverty, concentrated poverty, income inequality, and a lack of jobs was a recurring explanation.  The police need more training.  The police need more psychological training was one line of thought.

One guest even blamed a lack of neighborhood grocery stores and a deficient transportation system.

 

Whaaaat?

Nobody talked about individual choices, personal responsibility, the disintegration of the Nuclear Family, Skyrocketing out-of-wedlock birthrates in most large urban communities, or the long rap-sheet of drug charges Freddie Gray had.  Nope, no conversation about any of that—those are taboo subjects on the Sunday morning shows.   It was just a lot of gushy, idealistic drivel about how when people make bad choices, it is everyone else’s fault; the government is actually at fault--and must install and pay for more “programs” at once!

And then several panelists mentioned poor education as an issue.

Bill Kristol piped up after the Bernie Sanders Interview and threw out a gem, that nobody touched

Uh Oh...The Educrats are Going to HATE this Bill!

What a profound shift in thinking, to think that we should put students, parents and families first?  Unbelievable, right?

HB 1145 just passed out of the House yesterday, a bill despised by the guardians of the status quo and nearly universally by Democrats in Tallahassee.  After all, how dare these taxpayers demand access to great schools, the audacity of it all, right?

But this bill did pass yesterday, and among other things this bill will allow Florida families stuck in failing school districts the flexibility to choose and attend ANY Florida public school that has capacity.  One county over, two counties over, or across the state.  If they provide the transportation, their children can attend.  What a great idea, this will drive careerists in suits nuts--- they will immediately start spinning around like tops, spinning all their opinions about how this is a horrible idea and is going to make things soooooo difficult.  Yeah, they hate this--even the educrats that have "R"'s by their name but govern like what they truly are, moderate "D's"  Yeah, the same ones that like to condescendingly, deridingly tell parents that "our system knows better than you what is best for

Step up for Students and Florida's Tax-Credit Scholarship Program: Today's PNJ Covers the Positives!

I wrote a piece for Watchdog.org a few months back on a local private school that receives tuition tax credit scholarship students from our local community via Step up for Students.  I was very impressed by what this school does for some local students--and I remain a staunch school choice supporter, knowing full-well that sometimes this can be a rocky-road to travel.  

From  NAACP aligns with the Florida establishment in attempts to kill school choice :

"Locally, we have fine private schools that have accepted the challenge to teach struggling students under the Florida tax credit scholarship program.  These schools are educating Florida students at about half the cost of what the state of Florida spends per pupil-and in the eyes of many parents these schools are doing a much better job than the public schools! Colin Hendrickson runs three such schools in our local area.  He and his wife, Johanna, have grown their program from one location and 12 students to three locations serving nearly 300 students in two counties from Pre-K through 12th grade. “Our growth has been exponential” Hendrickson stated when I spoke to him recently.  “Parents are coming to us from word of mouth referrals.” Colin described to me some of the attributes of his program that his parents and students appreciate.  “They feel safe here and they are safe here.  Parents are confident about the rigor of the curriculum, the quality of the learning environment, and the safety of the atmosphere here at Lighthouse Private Christian Academy [the academy run by the Hendricksons].  With our small classes and lots of one-on-one attention, our staff knows these kids by name, and parents really like that.” When asked about the financial ramifications to his program if the tax credit scholarship is eliminated by the special interests in court, Hendrickson is less optimistic.  “We have at least 120 students on the scholarship program, so if that goes away this will be a devastating blow to our school, costing us between $700,000 and $900,000– it could potentially shut us down. Lots of students would be uprooted and sent back to programs that are not meeting their needs, and that would be very sad to see,” Hendrickson said."

Today's  (Sunday's) edition of the Pensacola News Journal has a front page piece on one of the local

School Choice Support Email and My Response

From:			XXXXXXXXXXXXX    Tuesday - March 24, 2015
Subject:	Note of Gratitude
Attachments:

Good morning, Mr. Bergosh. 

While meeting with Ms. XXXXXXXX of XXXXXXXXXXX last week, I learned of your support for the Step Up for Students program in our county. As both an administrator at a private Christian school and a XXXXXX of four little ones, I would like to express my gratitude to you for your support for this important and unique program. 

I know first-hand the difference that these funds is making in the lives of families in our county by providing them with educational choices that they would not otherwise be able to afford. 

We appreciate you. 

Cordially, 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Director of Development

My response:

From:	JeffreyBergosh Tuesday - March 24, 2015
To:	XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject:	Re: Note of Gratitude

Thank you very much XXXXXXXXXX.


I am a big proponent of choice in education---and I strongly believe that providing parents and students a wide array of choice and customization in education is the recipe for reviving a robust, efficient, and effective public school system in America.

The wrong way to go about building up and improving public education is precisely what we appear to be doing--which is attempting to kill anything short of a complete, 100% monopoly favoring, exclusively, public schools for the provision of educational services.

This is the wrong track to be on and that is why I remain so vocal on this.  This mentality puts big labor, special interests, and adult economic matters ahead of students, parents, and taxpayers.

I appreciate what you do for students, and unlike my counterparts, I appreciate, respect, and fully support the right of parents to take advantage of tax-credit scholarships when they feel this is in the best interest of their children, and that's why I support Florida's tax credit scholarship program;  in many instances we've simply failed to provide what all our students need and unlike my counterparts I also know this is not always just a "give us more time and resources for the public schools and we will fix them" issue.  Sometimes students and parents just need an alternative setting for their students, and we ought not to, as public school leaders, get in the way of parental choice.

Parental choice is ultimately what will save our public schools.  I simply wish more people could see and understand this simple axiom of truth.

Have a great week!


Respectfully,

Jeff Bergosh

Unusual Alliance: NAACP Joins Florida Establishment in Effort to Kill School Choice for African-American Students....

WatchdogArena.com has published a piece I wrote recently about the unusual alliance between Florida educational elitists and the NAACP—who together are working to kill a popular tax-credit scholarship that primarily benefits at-risk, African-American students…  from the article

“Why in the world is the NAACP working with these Florida establishment elites to kill a program that benefits tens of thousands of African-American students?”

"As we approach school choice week for 2015, the struggle for choice in education is heating up to a roiling boil in the state of Florida, with 70,000 students and their parents as the unwitting, unwilling pawns in this conflict.

In 2014, the Florida legislature broadly expanded the eligibility criteria for an established statewide education choice initiative that serves primarily poor, minority students.  This Florida tax-credit scholarship program is wildly popular among students and parents throughout the sunshine state, as many of these students and their parents have not fared well in their local public schools-and have instead found success using these scholarships to attend private schools.

Florida corporations like the program because the donations such entities make to the program result in a directly proportionate reduction it their state corporate taxes.

As one might expect, however, powerful special interests from the state capitol were not happy with this expansion.  Immediately upon the announcement of the expansion of this program-these entities linked arms and filed suit to have this worthwhile program scrapped.  The usual suspects were involved; The Statewide teachers unions, The Superintendent’s association, the School Boards’ Association-they all circled the wagons,  joining forces to attempt to fight these scholarships in court.

Their logic for initiating this litigation looks like a clinic on maintaining message discipline.  They decry the diversion of potential state revenue, loudly and often, re-stating their firm belief that if they just had ALL the taxpayer resources then they could “fix” ALL the schools. 

Astonishingly-this coalition against student and parent educational choice has now managed to gain the support of the Florida branch of the NAACP in their quest to kill school choice for poor Floridians.  (The ironic thing is that the primary recipients of these scholarships are poor minorities, chiefly African-American students!)"

Read the full article:   NAACP aligns with the Florida establishment in attempts to kill school choice

New AFP Poll: Florida Parents Overwhelmingly Support School Choice Options!

This does not surprise me at all, I knew this from going door to door in the past three campaigns for my position as a school board member.

Parents want their students to go to a good school, the best school available.  That has been the message I have heard loud and clear.

In a new poll released today, the numbers are clear.

From sunshine state news:

"73 percent favor allowing parents the option to move children to other public schools while 22 percent oppose the notion. The poll finds a majority of those surveyed -- 58 percent -- support school vouchers while 36 percent oppose them. Almost two thirds -- 65 percent -- of those surveyed support charter schools"

On AM1620 Discussing IFCAA

I was invited on to the AM1620 morning show with Andrew McKay yesterday to discuss IFCAA.  

I was contacted by the station to discuss this proposal after they read the Viewpoint I submitted that appeared in this Sunday's PNJ.

The reception to my proposal was warm, and the discussion went very well.  The podcast of my discussion is here.

A Christmas Wish for 2014--Restoration of Parental Choice in Educating Their Children

Restoring parental power in education

Our education system in America from top to bottom not only needs to change, it needs a complete and dramatic overhaul. While it’s easy for those who control educational decisions at the state and local level to stick with what is most familiar, and to simply request more and more taxpayer funding to do things the very same way they have always done them, this has not worked. We are falling behind the rest of the world. 

So this Christmas, my wish list, as a taxpayer, father, policy maker, and school choice proponent, is this:

1. We must start listening to parents and stop telling them we're the only ones who know what is best for their children. Parents want to send their kids to the very best schools, not to the schools some bureaucrat tells them they can attend!

2. We must stop wasting precious taxpayer money fighting school choice in court. Florida is fighting entrenched special interests over parental choice, and this is ridiculous! Associations that purportedly represent the interests of teachers, school board members, school administrators, and parents initiated this litigation. Hanging in the balance are 70,000 students who love the tax credit scholarship schools they attend. They do not want their scholarships taken from them by the guardians of the status quo.

3. We must focus on making all of our schools better, rather than fixating on quashing competition from any and all other education providers. Competition forces us all to improve, and competition will make the public schools better.

We simply must evolve or our system will implode.

Countries around the world are spending less per pupil and achieving better outcomes than we are. In order to compete, we must innovate and empower parents to choose the right school for their children. The future of the public school system in America depends upon our willingness to listen to our constituents. We need to offer a wide assortment of choices and options to all students, including virtual, traditional, vocational, technical, private schools, or any combination thereof. Taxpayer-funded education for students is a right, and I believe it is a right we owe students and parents — not to a dysfunctional governmental jobs and enrichment system that too often fails. 

Education in 20 to 30 years will look very different than it does today. Homeschooling will continue

Lawsuit Seeks to Limit Choice and Opportunity

Special Interests, Unions, and Lobbyists Want Total Control over Florida's Students, Taxpayers, and Families.... 

Several leading (self-anointed) state education advocacy associations, led by the statewide teacher’s union, have filed a lawsuit Thursday assaulting school choice for some Florida families.  This lawsuit seeks to end the nation’s largest tax-credit scholarship program, a program that serves nearly 70,000 students statewide and 944 in Escambia County alone.   This wildly popular program serves primarily poor minority students and all taxpayers benefit- as the cost per pupil in this program runs about 50% of the cost per pupil in the traditional public school systems.

Accountability is built-in.  Student progress is measured, and the gains made by students in this program roughly equate to the progress the students in traditional public schools achieve year over year.  Opponents counter that the system isn’t fair because students in this scholarship program “don’t take all the exact same tests and FCATs-like public school students must.” 

So, to follow that logic of these tax-credit scholarship critics, because traditional public schools waste so much time over-testing and drilling students on how to take tests-we should foist this same nonsensical practice on tax-credit scholarship schools?  That is ridiculous.  We need to test less across the board-we all know this!

The plaintiffs in this lawsuit want this program killed so they can monopolize education and leave parents NO choices; they think it’s all their money and “We know what’s best for your kid” is their mentality.  But I think we deserve a greater voice in how our tax dollars are spent educating our own children-don’t you?

The plaintiffs state that they worry about the amount of taxpayer money “diverted” from local districts by this tax-credit scholarship that primarily benefits underprivileged minority youth.  But what really worries these special interest groups is the loss of the money “diverted” to their own coffers -via dues memberships fueled by taxpayer funded employees- if this scholarship program grows!

 The plaintiffs espouse the naive belief that money is the panacea to improve school performance and this scholarship program robs Florida of additional money for schools. But they know full well that throwing more taxpayer money at schools doesn't make such schools better.  Look no further than poor quality DC

Florida Political Leadership Speaks Out Against FEA, FSBA Lawsuit

Statement from Senate President Don Gaetz

“The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program is a national model of school choice.  Through this historic initiative, Florida businesses have voluntarily dedicated a portion of their corporate tax payments to help children in poverty, minority children and children with unique needs have access to schools and services otherwise available only to families with the means to pay for private school tuition.
 
“One of the hallmarks of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program has been the strong bipartisan support it has enjoyed in the Florida Legislature and among Florida families.  Opening the doors of educational opportunity to children benefitting from these scholarships has united Republicans and Democrats for more than a decade.   For the 2013-14 academic school year, 59,822 children in 64 counties have received the advantages of these scholarships. The program enrollment has more than doubled in the past five years. 
 
“The lawsuit filed against this scholarship program by the Florida School Boards Association and others is ironically ill-timed and hypocritical.
 
“It is particularly ill-timed because the 2014 Legislature both improved the scholarship program and enacted strong academic and financial accountability measures.  These measures ensure that students, their families and the public will know how children receiving the scholarships are performing compared to like students in traditional public schools.  The law, which this litigation now seeks to overturn, also requires the Auditor General to perform detailed financial examinations of any scholarship funding organization administering the program in order to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.  This lawsuit, if successful, would destroy this thriving school choice initiative at the very time it has taken on robust accountability requirements.
 
“The lawsuit is hypocritical.  When Florida Tax Credit Scholarships were available only to the very poor, who disproportionately are minority families, and other students with unique needs, the School Boards Association didn’t challenge their constitutionality.  These students often bring more challenges to the classroom and require extra help, more individualized instruction and additional resources.  It is only now, when the eligibility for scholarships has been expanded and when less-impoverished students can participate that the School Board Association has discovered its constitutional indignation. 

“As a member of the Senate, I have been a prime sponsor of the Tax Credit Scholarship Program, as it has developed over the years.  Now, I serve notice that, along with Speaker Weatherford and incoming leadership, I will vigorously defend the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program and the benefits it brings to tens of thousands of Florida families who only want what we all want – a chance for our children to learn and succeed.”


Statement from House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel):
“It is appalling that the Florida School Boards Association, unions and others would use their
power to try to block low-income parents from giving their children the education of their
choice. This is a tactic completely motivated by the worst kind of bureaucratic politics that
places the fears of an organization over the needs of children. We will vigorously defend this
program because we know that it helps our most vulnerable children rise out of difficult
circumstances and achieve true success.”

Statement from Senate President-Designate Andy Gardiner (R-Orlando):
“Since 2001, The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program has provided Florida students with
additional options to achieve academic success. Close to 60,000 students and their families who
may not otherwise have the resources are now taking advantage of the opportunity provided by
this program. Without using state education funding, this program allows parents to have control
over their child’s educational experience.”“The decision to file this lawsuit is a self-serving attempt to obstruct Florida families’ ability to access choice. These groups claim to represent Florida students, but I’m confident their actions do not represent many of their members who are working hard to provide their constituents with educational options. I look forward to working with those members next session to ensure every
Florida parent is empowered to pick the school that best fits their child’s learning needs.”

Statement from House Speaker-Designate Steve Crisafulli (R-Merritt Island):
“I am shocked that the Florida School Boards Association, unions and others would challenge a
parent’s ability to choose the right school for their child. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship
Program has given tens of thousands of Florida’s low-income children access to schools that best
meet their needs. This popular program has proven important in preparing many of the poorest
and most disadvantaged of our children for success. I hope they will reconsider their actions and
put the needs of children first.”

War on School Choice Part IV: Lawsuit to be Filed Seeking the Dismantling of Opportunity Scholarships in Florida

FSBA Lawsuit plays large part in stunning defeat of current FSBA president and FSBA president-elect in Last Night’s primary elections…

As I have previously written here, here, and here—it appears as if school choice is under a concerted attack not only here in Florida -but also all over America. 

School choice is the future of public education, though, and I strongly support it as do most concerned parents and a small number of elected board members here in Florida.

Now comes word that the leading state advocacy associations, led by the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA),  are planning an expensive and protractedlawsuit to attempt to kill the opportunity scholarships for state students who are disabled and/or poverty stricken. 

What a foolish thing to do.

These programs are wildly popular and the students, primarily poor minority students of color, benefit greatly from such programs.

And all taxpayers benefit, as the cost per pupil in these programs runs about 50% of the cost per pupil in the traditional public school systems.

But the guardians of the status-quo want this program killed; they want the FTEs and the money that follows the students….

So many parents are reacting, sending emails like this one and this one-that policy-makers better pay heed.  I answered the emails I received and I told the parents I support school choice!

A backlash is forming statewide, with some sitting board members around the state calling upon the FSBA to stop this lawsuit they plan to file tomorrow.

Incumbent FSBA President defeated

And In an amazingly stunning rebuke to the FSBA in last night’s primary election, both the sitting president and president-elect of the FSBA, Karen Disney-Brombach and Diane Smith, were  voted out of office.

  This is an absolutely astonishing occurrence, something that should send the following clear message to all sitting school board members and administrators statewide---- and especially the leadership at FSBA: 

1.) Put children, parents, and taxpayers first, and

2.) Listen to your constituency-- NOT the lobbyists and special interests!

--otherwise you, too, might be ousted in the next election.

Sign SB 850 into Law!

So-- very few will actually wade through all 140 pages of SB 850 before jumping on a bandwagon, listening to others' talking points, then becoming conscripts in the charge demanding Governor Scott veto this bill.  But there are some important matters addressed in this bill and I hope Governor Scott will sign it into law.

First and foremost, the provisions related to Career and Professional Education are extremely important;  we all know college is not for every student, and proper CAPE implementation is imperative for the students who will be foregoing college and entering the workforce directly.

In addition, this law fosters an increase in cooperation between colleges and school districts, which in turn will hasten increased dual enrollment opportunities for students and families.  This will save HUGE money for these folks when the college years begin and is a big benefit to parents/taxpayers/college families/and students who do not have lavish budgets for school.  All these folks benefit from SB 850!

Also, the fact that Florida Corporations can lower their tax burdens while simultaneously benefiting students that have special needs, this is a GOOD thing!  The fact that more parents will have more options for their students as a result of the expansion of this program is a GOOD thing!  When did helping families and students with disabilities become a bad thing?  Why would anyone want to stand in between a parent and student, stuck in a failing school system, and a better educational choice for such students/parents?
Answer: ---those who would do this are those who's loyalty is for the system, not the student.  I am the opposite.  I am for parents, students, taxpayers and choice!  I'm agnostic as to the educational vehicle--be it public, private, charter, virtual, or home-school. I want public schools to succeed and get better, I'm a product of excellent public schools and my kids go to public schools--- but the world is changing and we need to keep up.   I also understand economics;  oligopolies and monopolies, in most cases, do not benefit consumers and lead to inferior products, higher costs, and inefficiency.  I want our district, and all districts, to compete!!  This will, in time, make us better, more efficient, and more student-focused.

Meanwhile--the disingenuous vitriol coming from the various guardians of the status quo is just about enough to make me violently ill.  I'm sick and tired of people screaming that allowing student and parental