After months of reports that some Florida public schools are limiting or denying students access to Florida Virtual School, the state’s chancellor of public schools is putting districts on notice. “School districts may not limit student access to courses offered through the FLVS,” Pam Stewart wrote in a recent memo[Read More…]
Tag: Florida
Florida roundup: charter schools, school grades, a Civil War general & more
Charter schools. Parents at the now-defunct Ben Gamla charter school tell Pinellas Superintendent Mike Grego that they’re unhappy with its closing. Gradebook. Gainesville’s oldest charter school goes to a year-round schedule. Gainesville Sun. A new charter in Hillsborough will serve high school students with disabilities. Tampa Tribune. Tax credit scholarships.[Read More…]
Florida roundup: charter schools, school spending, tax credit scholarships & more
Charter schools. In the face of low reading scores, the city of West Palm Beach takes steps to open its own charter school. South Florida Sun Sentinel. More from the Palm Beach Post. Is there room for charter schools in Jefferson County, one of Florida’s smallest (and most struggling) school[Read More…]
Florida schools roundup: teacher evals, digital education, dual enrollment & more
Virtual schools. The Tampa Tribune writes up legislative changes to digital education. Charter schools. Several new charters in Jacksonville are moving into old buildings. Florida Times Union. Charter school enrollment in Pinellas is projected to climb 28 percent this fall. Tampa Bay Times (reprise of an earlier Gradebook blog post).[Read More…]
Towards a united front on school choice
Vouchers, here. Charters, there. Virtual, over there. Politically, school choice sectors have been islands. But there are signs the movement is building bridges to advance common goals. Florida’s lead here surfaced at this week’s American Federation for Children summit, during a panel discussion on just that topic. In the Sunshine[Read More…]
KIPP charter school supporter is new head of Florida Board of Education
Gary Chartrand, a Jacksonville, Fla., businessman who helped bring a KIPP charter school to Florida and sits on its board of directors, was selected this morning as the new chair of the Florida Board of Education. Chartrand (pictured here) replaces Tampa businesswoman Kathleen Shanahan, who said she was stepping down as chair[Read More…]
The breadth of Florida’s choices for parents
The latest Alliance For School Choice yearbook once again does a remarkable job of cataloging the progress of private learning options across the nation, and Florida again sits at the top. But the vouchers and tax credit scholarships are only part of what distinguishes the transformation of public education in[Read More…]
Proposed repeal of Florida’s Blaine Amendment off state ballot — for now
A Florida judge has ruled that language in a proposed repeal of Florida’s Blaine Amendment is ambiguous and misleading, and has ordered the Secretary of State to remove the proposal from the 2012 ballot for now, The Associated Press and St. Petersburg Times are reporting. But the victory could be[Read More…]