Education lawsuit: The groups suing the state over the quality of public education are asking an appeals court to send the case directly to the Florida Supreme Court for an immediate review. Citizens for Strong Schools claims the lengthy appeals process is harming students. The state, and groups that support the state’s position,[Read More…]
Tag: Michelle Rhee
StudentsFirst winding down FL operation
Michelle Rhee’s education reform group is scaling back its Florida operations, saying it wants to focus on policy battles elsewhere. StudentsFirst will maintain a nominal presence in the state, but it’s pulling out most of its policy and outreach resources. Some of its leadership positions in the state, including state[Read More…]
Florida roundup: teacher eval lawsuit, Michelle Rhee, budget requests & more
Teacher evaluations. The NEA and FEA file a federal suit against the new teacher evaluations system in Florida. Coverage from the Orlando Sentinel, Associated Press, Times/Herald, Tallahassee Democrat, Gainesville Sun, Pensacola News Journal, Gradebook, Education Week, PolitiJax, State Impact Florida, New York Times, Answer Sheet. FEA statement here. Lawmakers need to fix glaring flaws,[Read More…]
Increasing school choice demand will increase pressure for change
I am grateful to Rebecca Sibilia and Sean Gill for their thoughtful response to my blog post encouraging Michelle Rhee to replace her failing schools model of school choice with an approach based on equal opportunity. Rebecca and Sean defended StudentsFirst’s support of the failing schools model on pragmatic grounds.[Read More…]
StudentsFirst: voucher programs should prioritize students with greatest need
Editor’s note: This guest post from StudentsFirst is authored by Vice President of Fiscal Strategy Rebecca Sibilia and fiscal policy analyst Sean Gill. We appreciate Doug Tuthill’s recent redefinED post challenging StudentsFirst to consider supporting voucher or tax-credit scholarship programs that aren’t just limited to what he describes as the “failing schools”[Read More…]
Private school choice options shouldn’t be limited to students in “failing schools”
In recent weeks, Tony Bennett, Florida’s new education commissioner, and Michelle Rhee, the CEO of StudentsFirst, offered conflicting rationales for supporting school choice. Bennett told participants at a National School Choice Week event in Tampa, Fla., that school choice is a necessary condition for equal opportunity and social justice. Low-income[Read More…]
Report: Florida gets B- for education reform, C- for parental empowerment
Florida earns a C- for policies and program aimed at empowering parents, but that’s good enough for a No. 4 ranking nationally, according to a report card released today by StudentsFirst. Overall, the state earned a No. 2 rank – and a B- grade – from the report, which looked[Read More…]
[View the story “Here’s what they’re saying about Florida’s new education commissioner” on Storify]