Editor’s note: Today, we introduce a new feature (even if we’re not sure the name will last) - an occasional compilation of bite-sized nuggets about school choice and education reform that are worth noting but may not be worth a post by themselves.
More anti-Muslim bigotry in school choice debates
It’s nearly impossible to go a month without hearing another example of anti-Muslim bigotry in a school choice debate.
The latest example: Louisiana state Rep. Valarie Hodges, who now says she wishes she had not voted for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher bill because she fears it will promote Islam. “There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently,” she said. “I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”
The lawmaker’s comments echo Muslim bashing in school choice debates in Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee and other places in the past few months alone. Sadly, religious bigotry has long been a part of the school choice narrative. To repeat what we wrote in April:
The courts have ruled that vouchers and tax credit scholarships are constitutional. We live in a religiously diverse society and this pluralism is a source of pride and strength. We can’t pick and choose which religions are acceptable and unacceptable for school choice. And we should not tarnish whole groups of people because of the horrible actions of a few individuals. In the end, expanded school choice will serve the public good. It will increase the likelihood that more kids, whatever their religion, become the productive citizens we all want them to be.
Jeb Bush endorses pro-choice school board candidate
Jeb Bush doesn’t endorse local candidates often. But last week, he decided to back a Tampa Bay-area school board member who openly supports expanded school choice, including vouchers and tax credit scholarships.
Glen Gilzean, 30, is running against four other candidates to keep the Pinellas County School Board seat that Gov. Rick Scott appointed him to in January. The district in play includes much of the city of St. Petersburg and has more black voters than any other.
I don’t know how much Bush’s endorsement will help Gilzean. He's a black Republican in a district that leans Democratic (even if school board races in Florida are officially nonpartisan). But I do know this: Black students in Pinellas struggle more than black students in every major urban school district in Florida, and frustrated black residents are increasingly open to school choice alternatives. (more…)
As you know, we keep tabs on what’s written and said about school choice and ed reform, particularly in Florida. This week has been a doozy when it comes to head-scratching statements. Today we highlight a few and offer a quick response …
In just a few years, Orlando-based Fund Education Now has become the leading parent group in Florida. Aggressive. Media savvy. Super effective. I respect its members for their passion. I sometimes agree with them. But there are times when the rhetoric is at odds with reality.
After this week’s FCAT fiasco, the group wrote in an action alert to members: “These abysmal FCAT Writes scores are proof that Tallahassee’s ‘education reforms’ are an unmitigated disaster.” I agree the state raised the bar too fast and too fast on some of our standardized tests. But have the state’s policies as a whole flat-out bombed?
In the past four years, Florida has ranked No. 11, No. 8, No. 5 and No. 11 among all 50 states in Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report. And contrary to some critics’ claims, that’s not just because of policies on paper that sound good; it’s also because the state has moved the needle on student achievement, particularly for low-income kids. On the K-12 achievement portion of EdWeek’s rating – which considers performance and progress on NAEP, AP and graduation rates – Florida finished at No. 7, No. 7, No. 6 and No. 12 over the past four years. In 2011, it finished in the Top 10 in eight of nine progress categories. It finished in the Top 3 in six of them.
The reason Florida tumbled out of the overall top 10 this year is because of budget cuts, and because its NAEP scores have stalled in reading and math. That’s troubling when the state is still nowhere near where it needs to be. I think that’s what led the state Board of Education to be too bold in raising the bar.
But Florida’s policy makers, like them or not, have been more right than wrong in the past decade when it comes to standards and accountability and school choice. To deny there’s been progress is good for stoking fury and mobilizing troops. But it’s unfair to the teachers who made it happen. And it could undermine changes that really did make things better for kids.
In an op-ed Sunday, syndicated columnist Bill Maxwell describes what he sees as another round of teacher bashing in Florida and blames “conservative lawmakers who dominate Tallahassee” and are gunning to privatize public schools. The prompt for his outrage: A cost-cutting decision by the Pinellas County School District to curb the use of individual printers by teachers. (more…)
Florida’s top education official offered a strong pitch for continued expansion of school choice options Wednesday after visiting a Tampa charter school where a quarter of students are dually enrolled in community college classes.
“My message is that Florida is about choice in education,” Kathleen Shanahan, chair of the Florida Board of Education, told redefinED. The state board is “all for reform and we’re all for (school choice) options and we have to continue to be strong advocates for that.”
Shanahan’s comments come in the wake of heightened media scrutiny of charter schools in Florida, which now number more than 500 and enroll 180,000 students.
To be clear, there are some problematic charters that are underperforming and/or financially mismanaged. But the evidence suggests charter students as a whole are performing as well if not better than like students in traditional public schools. And there’s no doubt parents can’t get enough of them: In the last six years, enrollment in Florida charters has doubled.
“They’re exceeding their timeline of excellence and performance and impacting the overall system of education,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan visited the 300-student Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School along with MaryEllen Elia, superintendent of Hillsborough County schools and Mike Kooi, executive director of the Florida Department of Education’s parental choice office. Other state Board of Education members also visited charters this week as part of National Charter School Week.
Tucked away in a gritty stretch of north Tampa, Brooks-DeBartolo was co-founded five years ago by Derrick Brooks, the former All-Pro linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (more…)
Florida: State Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson responds to newspaper questions about charter schools and vouchers. (Tampa Bay Times Gradebook blog) He suggest school choice critics have a double standard. (redefinED)
Wisconsin: Vouchers have become an issue in the Democratic primary for governor between candidates Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk. (wispolitics.com)
South Carolina: Jeb Bush talks education reform and school choice at a summit for educators, lawmakers and business leaders. (Associated Press) Parents rally for choice as Legislature considers several proposals. (The State)
Connecticut: Public school choice lottery leaves thousands of Hartford-area students without the school of their choice. (Hartford Courant)
Virginia: State Board of Education approves the state's first full-time virtual school. (Richmond Times-Dispatch) (more…)
For whatever reason, Duval County is a hotspot in Florida for criticism about school choice options for low-income students, including, most recently, a biting newspaper column about charter schools. The distinction is odd and disappointing because, for whatever reason, low-income students do particularly poorly there.
Low-income students in the Duval school district, which corresponds with the city of Jacksonville, trail more affluent classmates by double-digit percentage points when it comes to passing the state’s standardized math and reading tests. That’s not unusual. But they also trail other low-income students. When the results for low-income students in Florida’s 12 biggest school districts are compared, Duval ranks last in both subjects. (The 2010 figures showed 47 percent of Duval’s low-income kids reading at grade level or above, while 52 percent were doing math at grade level or above.)
This is not meant to disparage the hard work and dedication of public school leaders in Duval. But it does call into question the certitude with which they reject learning options that could help. Andy Ford, the president of the state teachers union, is a former union president in Duval – and definitely not a fan of vouchers or tax credit scholarships for low-income kids. Neither is influential Duval school board member W.C. Gentry or Save Duval Schools, one of the state’s most organized and media-savvy parent groups. From public hearings to the state Capitol to letters to the editor, they’ve relentlessly stayed on message: School choice is bad, a fraud, a conservative plot to enrich greedy corporations.
Expanded school choice “really takes us back to the haves and have-nots,” Gentry said in a Dec. 2010 radio interview. “The wealthy, the rich, the people in the know – they will figure it out. The poor, the disenfranchised, those who do not have that kind of support system – they will fall into the cracks and we will further enhance the disparity we now have in this city and this state between the haves and have-nots.” (more…)
