Retention rules: Manatee County school officials say they will not consider a student’s portfolio to justify a promotion to fourth grade if the student has not taken the Florida Standards Assessments test or a state-approved alternative. They say the state Department of Education supports their position. Bradenton Herald. Even while school districts are threatening[Read More…]
Tag: Fund Education Now
FL schools roundup: Charter schools, Charlie Crist, FL’s progress & more
Tax credit scholarships. Creative Loafing gives Charlie Crist’s “evolution” on tax credit scholarships some ink after the Miami Herald story about his refusal to denounce the FSBA/FEA suit to kill them. School choice. Private schools still serve the public good, writes William Mattox of the James Madison Institute, in an op-ed[Read More…]
Citing Catholic ties, plaintiffs want judge off FL school choice, funding lawsuit
The plaintiffs in a wide-ranging lawsuit that challenges multiple aspects of Florida’s education system argue that the current judge should be disqualified from hearing the case because of her involvement with Catholic organizations. The lawsuit, which we’ve written about before, attacks school choice programs and other policies while making a sweeping argument that the state[Read More…]
Parents shouldn’t be fighting each other over school choice
Editor’s note: This post first appeared as an op-ed in the Tampa Tribune. Step Up For Students, which administers the state’s tax credit scholarship program, co-hosts this blog. Eileen Segal is a gracious Florida PTA president who welcomed to her annual conference last summer a contingent of low-income parents who[Read More…]
The facts behind claims of school choice Armageddon
Editor’s note: This post first appeared as an op-ed in today’s Tallahassee Democrat. Florida is looking to let 5,700 more underprivileged children attend a private school on scholarship next year, and yet some of the opponents are making it sound like a form of educational Armageddon. In her Wednesday My[Read More…]
Florida students again showing progress on “nation’s report card”
After a brief stall, Florida students and teachers are again making nationally notable gains on a closely watched test. Released Thursday, the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, better known as “the nation’s report card,” show Florida students making solid growth between 2011 and 2013 on three[Read More…]
Ed funding issues are most pressing for school choice options
With Florida now spending less per student than it did six years ago and less than at least three-fourths of the states, there is plausible case to be made for giving public education a raise. But Kathleen McGrory’s recent story on the status of a 2009 education adequacy lawsuit is a[Read More…]
Michelle Malkin has Florida wrong
The new piece by Michelle Malkin on Jeb Bush, Tony Bennett and education reform in the Sunshine State is a touch heavy on hasty generalizations. The most jarring may be the way Malkin lumped Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, in with the grading scandal[Read More…]