Headlines in the days leading up to Jeb Bush’s closely watched visit to Tallahassee promised there would be protests. As it turned out, there were two demonstrations, one supporting private school choice programs and one opposing them.
On Tuesday, a phalanx of nearly 20 protesters gathered in a barricaded area outside a Foundation for Florida’s Future event where the former governor spoke. They included current and former teachers, who railed against standardized testing and privatization. A few wore red t-shirts signaling their affiliation with the Badass Teachers Association, whose members are among the most virulent critics of Bush’s education reforms.
Before the event, a contingent of students, parents and teachers staged a separate demonstration in favor of school choice. Many of them were supporters of McKay Scholarships for special needs students, one of Florida’s three private school choice programs (another of those, the tax credit scholarship program, is administered by Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog and employs the author of this post).
Wendy Blair is a teacher at the Arbor School of Central Florida in Winter Springs, which caters to students with special needs. She said that without McKay scholarships, its services would likely be out of reach for most of the children who attend. She said the program poses no threat to public education, pointing to studies showing it has saved school districts money.
Alexandria Forsh said her son attends Atlantic Inclusive Academy in Cocoa, a private school that accepts school choice scholarships. She said she had nothing against public schools, but parents often have a hard time advocating for special needs children and negotiating Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, with their school districts.
“You have to literally fight constantly to get them what they need,” she said, adding: “They’re frustrated. They want to be able to learn. They want to be able to go at their own pace.”
Meanwhile, inside of the event, state Senate President Andy Gardiner, who is the father of a child with Down syndrome, talked about expanding opportunities for special needs students. Two years ago, he backed legislation intended to give parents a greater say in the development of Individualized Education Programs for special needs students.
Last year, the Orlando Republican supported legislation eliminating special diplomas and creating new Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts for special needs students, which he noted have become “the fastest-growing program since McKay.” (The accounts are also administered by scholarship organizations like Step Up.) This year, Gardiner said, he wants to expand higher education opportunities for special needs students.
“At the heart of all of it is just saying to a family, ‘We’re a partner,'” he said. “We’re all here because we care about education, and we’re all here because we believe in the ability for I, as a parent, to do what’s best for my child.”
