It’s a school choice in Florida that, so far, everyone in Tallahassee seems to support – at least everyone behind the dais Tuesday at the Florida House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee meeting.
All 13 members of the subcommittee voted in favor of House Bill 313 – a unanimous decision and a rarity for choice-related legislation. The bill would create a pilot program that allows up to five large Florida school districts to designate an elementary school as a gender-specific school in its core classes.
Besides expanding learning options, the proposal calls for administrators to track educational outcomes to show how students perform compared to those in co-ed schools, and to share that data with state leaders to help determine whether to include more schools.
State statutes already allow districts to create gender-specific classes and schools, and several have, including Broward and Hillsborough counties.
“What I’m doing is providing an avenue to districts who aren’t doing it,’’ said Rep. Manny Diaz, the Republican from Hialeah who introduced the legislation.
Most questions came from fellow Republicans, who dominate the subcommittee with nine members.
Rep. Larry Ahern, R-St. Petersburg, wanted to know about the fiscal impact of the pilot. Diaz said he hoped to get some start-up funding to train teachers for gender-specific classrooms. But the plan is for those teachers to go back to their districts and train co-workers, making the program self-sufficient.
Joe Saunders, D-Orlando, asked whether it would be the “right’’ training. Some critics, including the ACLU, have long argued that gender-specific education promotes discrimination and stereotyping.
“My concern … is that that can be done wrong,’’ Saunders said. “I would hate to see a classroom, for example, of girls, who are being taught math through cooking and shopping because of the expectation that women like to cook and shop.’’
Diaz agreed and said professional development for teachers would be rooted in scientific research.
Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said she was the product of an all-girls high school and college, and that it “made me what I am. I just think it’s terrific that we can do this for our students and I whole-heartedly support the concept.”
But she took issue with the cooking and shopping comment. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with everybody learning how to cook and shop right,’’ she said. “So I think we should teach math to both boys and girls using cooking and shopping. And we can also teach metrics and other things.’’
Subcommittee Chairman Michael Bileca, R-Miami, jumped in: “So as long as there’s a budget class to go along with the shopping classes.’’
