FEA Loses in Court, Rejected says the Judge!

1 Down and 1 to Go……

The Florida Teacher’s Union, the FEA, received a devastating loss today in the Florida Courts.  They had sought to invalidate SB 850, and twice now the judge in the case has rejected their arguments.  From the Tampa Bay Times Buzz Blog:

“A judge on Tuesday dismissed one of two lawsuits aimed at Florida's controversial school voucher program. The suit challenged the 2014 expansion of a program that provides private-school scholarships for low-income children. It also threatened a new program creating scholarships for children with special needs. A second lawsuit, which is still pending, alleges the voucher program conflicts with the state Constitution. Both are being driven by the statewide teachers union…On Tuesday, Francis said the new complaint lacked "a legally sufficient basis to sustain a finding of special injury."

Read the whole story here  

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.

The National Significance of Vergara v. California

Vergara v. California is a case that everyone throughout America that cares about education should be watching closely.  The case was brought on behalf of nine students who were in schools that did not have effective, high quality teachers. 

The crux of Vergara is this:    California seniority and tenure job protections for teachers serve to deprive students, primarily poor minority students, the rights guaranteed under the California constitution assuring all students equality in education in high quality schools, with high quality teachers. 

The suit, which was historically decided in favor of the plaintiffs earlier this year, has now been appealed by California Governor Jerry (Moonbeam/moon bat) Brown and the California affiliates of the NEA and the AFT.

The powerful and influential teachers’ unions are working overtime to defeat this suit on appeal.  If upheld, the Vergara ruling reforms California’s ridiculously short (16 Months) time-frame for evaluating new teachers for the purpose of granting tenure, streamlines the dismissal process for ineffective teachers, and prohibits union language that makes seniority the most important factor when teacher layoffs occur.

Other states, particularly the dark-blue northeastern states with very similar state constitutional language on education, should pay very close attention to this case.  Florida has already reformed tenure, but Florida could reform dismissal protocols and LIFO practices as well.  Every state should watch this battle.

 Once Vergara is upheld and the appeal is defeated in California, I would not be surprised to see similar challenges in courts in other union stronghold states.  Stay tuned to this one. 

An excellent summary/timeline of the case is here.   

The most profound quotes from the Judge’s June, 2014 ruling can be found here.

What is IFCAA?

"I recently met a very powerful statewide education leader at a conference in Washington DC, and while discussing my latest frustration with the FSBA, their lawsuit attempting to kill the tax-credit scholarship that benefits 1,000 primarily poor and minority students in Escambia County, this leader simply, wryly, said “Why do you keep funding them, then?”  He makes a great point.  Why do we?  IFCAA, my legislative proposal, fixes this problem.  IFCAA is a mechanism that allows each individual board member to allocate (or not expend at all) his/her individual portion of a taxpayer funded board, committee, council, and/or commission’s advocacy budget."

IFCAA stands for the Individual Freedom of Choice in Advocacy Act--A method for disrupting "Iron Triangles."  

IFCAA (Individual Freedom of Choice in Advocacy Act) is a proposal I have developed and given to Escambia’s legislative delegation, members of the Florida House and Senate, and to other conservative school board members around the state.

As school board members we are duly elected, individual constitutional officers-just like County Sheriffs, elected Superintendents of Schools, Supervisors of Elections, Tax Collectors, Property appraisers, etc.  

Unlike the individual officeholders mentioned above, however, our individual choice in advocacy for our constituents is handcuffed by a system that stifles individual officeholders’ choice.

What do I mean?

If the statewide “Sheriff’s” advocacy organization suddenly started advocating for ideals contrary to what an individual Florida County Sheriff believed—that individual Sheriff could (and would) rightly withhold the dues from said organization, or  choose to fund a different law enforcement advocacy organization that more accurately represented the ideology of this sheriff and his constituents. 

Same for Superintendent’s, Supervisors of Elections, Property Appraiser’s, Tax Collectors, and the list goes on...

Every office in the state that has an officer or board also has a professional advocacy “association.” These “organizations” receive massive taxpayer subsidies from state and local officeholders.

As school board members, we send taxpayer funding for advocacy to the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA).  

While the FSBA has done many beneficial things in the past, recently they’ve made some choices and decisions that have alienated conservative members; something must change.

The distinction between individually elected office-holders and members of elected boards is that the advocacy organizations that purport to represent us as bodies or units sometimes neither represent many of us individually nor do they represent the collective values of our individual constituencies. 

Worse--sometimes these very organizations actively work against what many of us want, yet we’ve no choice individually but to fund them.

This isn’t $30 to NRA or $50 to AARP —For the Escambia’s Board, FSBA’s price tag is more than $20,000.00 yearly!

While discussing my significant disagreement with FSBA’s lawsuit (attempting to kill the tax-credit scholarship that benefits 70,000 primarily poor and minority students statewide), a powerful, statewide education leader simply, wryly, stated “Why do you keep funding them, then?” 

Why do we keep funding them?

FSBA didn’t represent my views when they supported the class size mandates that blew up the budget-destroying our ability to significantly raise teacher pay.

FSBA didn’t represent my views when they sought to block necessary tenure reform in Florida, yet I had no choice but to fund them.

FSBA has ignored every conservative idea I have submitted for six years running for their statewide

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

District's Employee Health Clinic: Financial Performance on a 1-10 Scale a "10 +"

A few years back the School District's self insured health plan took significant hits due to the exponential rise in costs related to the provision of health benefits to employees.

At one point, we were losing $175,000 monthly because costs were rising, and we could not bargain plan changes quickly enough to ameliorate the losses.

To make matters worse at that time, we could not even discuss the issue in the public because it was being "bargained" with our union and everyone was terrified we would get hammered with a ULP if the real, behind the scenes story of how we were hemorrhaging  cash (and the real reason why) was ever leaked to the press....The thought was that it would potentially paint the union in a bad light....

Fast forward a year.

So after we got through that mess, the Affordable Care Act was ram-rodded through and our costs again began to escalate geometrically.

As a method of addressing these cost increases, discussions began among board members about creating a district health clinic to reduce costs.  Other school districts, cities, and counties throughout the country were doing this with great success.

In 2011 we voted to start one locally.  In 2013, the clinic opened.

At today's board workshop, we discussed the clinic's finances now that we have more than a year's worth of financial data.  And we are being asked to renew the second option year at a cost of $1.4 Million dollars.  Because that is so much money, I asked our risk management director to give us his opinion on the clinic's performance.

(full disclosure--I love the clinic concept... I use it, as does my family.  with 3 kids that all play sports, I save $120 on co=pays on physicals alone-never mind the fact that the clinic has very flexible and convenient hours...)

According to Kevin Windham, ECSD risk management director, within 6 months of opening, the clinic had recouped the investment in opening it when "hard" and "soft" costs were considered.

At 1 year, the clinic was in the black just looking at "hard" costs.  The soft cost savings were gravy.

The clinic is proving to be a HUGE hit for the lower paid employees, and it is also enhancing our district's wellness initiatives.

I asked Kevin Windham   "How would you rate the economic performance of our clinic on a 1 to 10 scale?"

His reply was resounding......"A 10+!"

Using CCTV to Foster Better Discipline, Redux

Last month at the School Board's discussion workshop, I discussed the idea of having cameras in the classroom to bolster security, enhance and improve student behavior, and to improve the overall learning environment.

The reaction I got was very lukewarm... no money was the rationale from the administration, and my colleagues were not enthused about the idea.

Fast forward a month, and we see all the fallout from Ferguson, MO, and NYC with the Eric Garner case, and the push for cameras for police--and I decided to bring the idea again.  I reiterated at the meeting the following important point.  We have utilized CCTV systems throughout the district to enhance security, we utilize CCTV on busses with great impact (to protect both students and employees and to maintain behavior), and now we are including the use of CCTV systems in school cafeterias to improve behavior--it is even written into the behavior management plan for Woodham MS.

So why the resistance to cameras in classrooms?

Others are doing it.  Fayeteville, NC is installing cameras to foster better discipline.  From The Citizen:

"The advantage of the teacher-controlled system is two-fold, staff said. It will allow a teacher to video a classroom lesson to increase professional learning and it will serve as a system to alert school staff and others to behavioral or other issues that require a quick response...The system “provides a ‘natural view’ of the student in the classroom if their behavior is a concern. This type of natural view has the added possibility of assisting educators with response to interventions. If there is a behavior disruption which is serious, the teacher can press the alert/panic button and help is much faster to arrive because of the immediate notification to the front office and or administrators."

Like it or not the future is coming, and cameras are the future and cameras protect students and teachers.  I'm going to keep bringing this idea, because I strongly believe it will help teachers and schools improve the learning environment----and it is coming sooner or later so we may as well get ahead of it.