Charter schools: The Franklin Academy charter school is opening a second campus next fall in Palm Beach Gardens. Palm Beach Post. The Leon County School district could soon be running a charter school on one of its existing campuses. Tallahassee Democrat. Lee County school officials are seeking $99,793 from Richard Milburn Academy of Florida[Read More…]
Tag: Democrats and school choice
FL bill proposes new way to curb charter schools
A Florida lawmaker wants to bar new charter schools if they can’t prove they’re unique. Senate Bill 452, filed last week by Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, would require charter schools to meet a specific instructional need that local district schools can’t in order to obtain approval. “I think charter[Read More…]
Reporting on school choice lacks nuance, perspective
Politico has built an impressive audience by bringing intellectual heft to pinched political debates, but Stephanie Simon’s treatment of school vouchers followed a more predictable narrative: left vs. right, public vs. private, us vs. them. Not surprisingly, the result was tendentious. Though the original headline’s claim that vouchers offer “no[Read More…]
Great conference! But where are the parents?
Recently I attended the American Federation for Children’s policy summit in Washington, D.C. This event was an exciting, informative, two-day conference filled with panel discussions, keynote speakers such as Lisa Leslie and Mike McCurry, and networking opportunities with education reformers from all over the country. I left D.C. feeling similar[Read More…]
Mike McCurry: School choice centrism is antidote for broken politics
In an American political system ripped apart by partisanship, the school choice movement stands out as a rare example of centrism, former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Tuesday. But the movement can build even better bridges if it eases up on the name calling and finger pointing, he[Read More…]
Democrats should be leading charge for school choice
Say school choice and some Democrats say profits, privatization, Republican plot. Democrat Alisha Thomas Morgan says equal opportunity. “We’ve got to put policies in place to ensure that how much my parents make or the neighborhood I live in does not determine the quality of education,” Morgan, a state representative[Read More…]
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Former Democratic lawmaker joins Step Up For Students board
Al Lawson, an iconic Democratic lawmaker who served in the Florida Legislature for nearly three decades, has joined a nonprofit board that oversees state-supported scholarships for low-income schoolchildren. Lawson was selected last week to serve on the corporate board of Step Up For Students, which is a state-approved “scholarship funding[Read More…]
Florida town turns to charter schools to boost its kids, its future
Five hundred students sat cross-legged on the floor inside Bok Academy Middle School’s cafeteria, where Principal Damien Moses, a gentle giant with a booming voice, greeted them. “Great moments don’t happen by accident,’’ he told them. They happen, he said, because someone had a vision. Then he asked all the[Read More…]