podcastED: Education reform in a post-COVID-19 world featuring Doug Tuthill and Manny Diaz

In this episode of podcastED, Step Up For Students President Doug Tuthill and Florida Senate Education Committee Chairman Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, discuss how public education shifts are ramping up due in part to COVID-19.

Among other topics, Tuthill and Diaz discuss policy changes that will be required to allow families to continue to educate their children based on subject competency rather than brick-and-mortar seat time. Both believe the expansion of Education Scholarship Accounts will provide families key flexibility.

Diaz: “Families will discover they can be more effective and more efficient with their time … more seat time doesn’t mean more learning.”

 EPISODE DETAILS:

·       How public and private schools alike have innovated on the fly to remain open during the pandemic

·       Florida’s unique position as a leader in education choice, which will allow for policy flexibility for families now and in the future

·       Florida Virtual School, its work in Alaska, and its competency-based model of learning vs. traditional seat-time learning

·       Funding and policy shifts that must occur, including expansion of Education Scholarship Accounts

 LINKS MENTIONED:

·       FLVS brings distance learning to Alaska