Civility and respect are core values we promote at redefinED, so we were pleased to read the well-mannered exchange between Jason Bedrick and Kevin Welner about the pros and cons of tax credit scholarships. Readers who missed their back and forth can get caught up beginning here, and continuing here, here, here, here and here.

Unfortunately, their exchange was motivated by a column by Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss, which was a collection of false assertions and hyperbolic rhetoric. After Bedrick rebutted Strauss’ attacks, she had the good sense to step back and let Professor Welner take over. 

Welner has chosen to build his career around opposing tax credit scholarships, and, while some of his previous writings have also suffered from over generalizations and unsubstantiated assertions, his rhetoric has become more measured in recent months, as my colleague Jon East noted last December. 

I can’t add much to Bedrick's outstanding rebuttals, but I do wish the parents’ voices could be included in these exchanges. I spend hours every week talking with parents, grandparents, and foster parents about the extraordinary challenges they face raising low-income children. For them the tax credit scholarships are not about ideology or politics; they’re about another tool they can use to keep their children alive, out of jail and on the path to becoming a successful adult.

I suspect Welner would be a lot slower to condemn these scholarships if he spent more time talking to the parents and children who are using them.

Editor’s note: Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam was a late arrival and one of the last speakers at Wednesday’s education summit on Common Core in Orlando. But he delivered some of the most memorable lines, stressing better communication with parents about education reform and school choice. Here’s a transcript of his remarks.

This is all our responsibility. Making sure that our kids can compete in a global workforce. Our piece of the puzzle may be school nutrition. And working with Sen. Montford and MaryEllen (Elia) in Hillsborough and others. We’re going to be in Pinellas tomorrow kicking off a breakfast program. We know kids can’t do well on the FCAT (if they’re hungry). I know back when we took the HSCT 25 years ago, the home ec teacher made sure every kid had a glass of orange juice and a ham biscuit.

But as a parent of four public school students – my wife’s president of the PTA, Jean (to Jean Hovey with the Florida PTA). She has a spring fling planning meeting today. We need to raise $15,000 at the carnival. But the biggest challenge I think we face as we continue to push Florida where Florida is capable of going, is managing the expectations and preparing parents for what we are asking of them. Because as a guy who is amazed at the homework my kids have, and how technology has transformed their world – my daughter stayed home yesterday sick, she was devastated. She was ruining her perfect attendance record, which is not a guilt I was ever burdened with. As she felt better during the day, she got on the computer and had almost no make-up work because so much of her work was computer-based. It was easily accessible. It was web-based. It was already there. She could email her teacher on Edmodo and all these other things. My 5-year-old’s excited about the points he’s accumulated on Accelerated Reader.

I have parents, when we’re sitting around at Beef O Brady’s after a T-ball game, who may be concerned about the rate of reform, the rate of transformation in education. But they don’t realize they’re on the cutting edge of that transformation. You know, they got a daughter who’s about to graduate from high school with an AA, because she’s also been taking dual enrollment at the community college. They don’t realize that’s an extraordinary transformation in how we’re preparing a new work force in partnership with our state colleges. Or someone who has the opportunity to take PE online as a band member, on the computer, through the virtual school. Or any number of other things where they’re not going about the traditional method.

Parents are of course experts on education because they went to school, right? It’s the same thing in the Legislature. The two things that everybody is an expert on: ethics and election issues, and education issues. Because they all got elected, and they all went to school somewhere. It’s a very dangerous thing.

But parents are the same way. They think this is not what I did when I was your age, therefore, we’re trying to do too much. I didn’t have to pass Algebra to graduate from high school, therefore, we’re doing too much. We have to have champions, in the business community and in public life, who are constantly painting the picture. We’re not breaking through mediocrity. We’re celebrating greatness. We’re the sixth best in the country and continuing to do better. We’re closing the minority achievement gap, and continuing to do better. But here’s why it’s important. Here’s why your kids are doing things you weren’t doing in third grade. Here’s why they’re going to have to hit certain milestones you didn’t have to hit to graduate from high school. Because you weren’t competing against Bangalore and Beijing to get a job.

But nobody’s reminded them of that. And nobody’s reminded them of all the options their kids have that they didn’t have. (more…)

Idaho: State education offficials approve the American Heritage Charter School, which will emphasize American history, patriotism, money management and free market economics. (Idaho Statesman)

Florida: Demand continues to surge for the state's tax credit scholarship program, as the chart at left shows. (Tampa Bay Times' Gradebook blog).  The number of charter school teachers in the state tops 10,000, more than double the number from five years ago (redefinED).

Mississippi: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush encourages Mississippi officials to follow Sunshine State education reforms, including vouchers and charter schools. (Associated Press)

Washington: A parents group forms to fight a ballot initiative to bring charter schools to the state. (The News Tribune)

Georgia: Debate heats up over a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state to authorize and fund charter schools. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Louisiana: The ACLU threatens to sue a charter school for policies banning pregnant girls from classrooms and requiring girls suspected of being pregnant to submit to a pregnancy test. (Associated Press)

Maine: Applications are withdrawn for two proposed on-line charter schools, but the groups behind them say they'll be back next year. (Kennebec Journal)

Utah: State education officials discuss additional financial and academic accountability measures for charter schools. (Salt Lake Tribune)

New York: State education officials will consider seven new charter schools in Queens, including one with a Chinese-based curriculum and mandatory martial arts training. (New York Daily News)

California: A former charter school administrator, fired after allegedly ordering his staff to cheat on standardized tests, is paid $245,000 in a settlement. (Los Angeles Times)