Legislative preview. Parent trigger will be a top education issue, reports the Fort Myers News Press.

Common Core. Sen. John Legg files legislation that would require the state to verify that districts have the technological capacity to carry out the switch to Common Core. Gradebook. More from StateImpact Florida.

Charter schools. The Orlando Sentinel takes a closer look at a failed charter in Orange.

Career academies. The number in the Bay County school district will rise from four to 12 next year. Panama City News Herald.

Conspiracy! The Tampa Tribune gets picked up by the Huffington Post.

School security. It'll be an issue during the legislative session. Palm Beach Post.

School recognition funds. Lower grades, less money for Marion schools. Ocala Star Banner.

School closures. A lawsuit backed by the Florida Civil Rights Association says proposed school closures in Brevard would disproportionately affect low-income, minority students. Florida Today.

Restraint. A couple is suing the school board over district officials' repeated use of physical restraints on their autistic son. Palm Beach Post.

Privatization. The union representing custodians and grounds maintenance workers in Volusia is seeking severance pay for 485 workers whose jobs are set to be outsourced. Daytona Beach News J0urnal.

Technology. Some Escambia high schools have BYOD policies. Pensacola News Journal.

AP results. Florida students rank No. 4 in the nation in the percentage of graduates passing an AP exam. redefinED. Tampa Bay Times. Miami Herald. Tallahassee Democrat. Orlando Sentinel. CBS Miami. Florida Today. Associated Press. Fort Myers News Press.

Tutoring oversight. The Tampa Bay Times elevated a handful of bad actors to taint the overall tutoring effort in Florida and ridicules a program championed by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy to help low-income families, writes Steve Pines, executive director of the Education Industry Association, in an op-ed response to the Times series and editorial.

Teacher evals and school grades. Despite the concern of Education Commission Tony Bennett and others, the two systems are not meant to be in sync. Shanker Blog.

More conspiracy! Now in Education Week.

Class size flexibility. There's bipartisan support for a bill to provide that. StateImpact Florida.

Common Core. Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett talks more about the why's behind Plan B. Education Week. (more…)

Montana: House Republicans endorse three school choice bills - one to authorize charter schools, another to create a modest tax credit scholarship program and a third to create an education savings account program for students with disabilities (Independent Record). A day later, several defect on the charter school bill and it goes down - though maybe not permanently - on a 50-49 vote (Billings Gazette). The tax credit scholarship bill clears the Senate (The Missoulian).

Florida. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduces legislation to create a national tax credit scholarship program (redefinED). A parent trigger bill that was defeated last year in a dramatic tie vote is back this year (redefinED).

Colorado: Two bills to expand private school choice through tax credits go down to defeat (Ed News Colorado). A student is in limbo after his mother withdraws him from a charter school to send him back to his zoned district school but the district says it's too late (9News.com).

Arizona: Charter schools would have to follow state purchasing laws and those that use management companies would have to post salary information under a bill filed in the wake of a newspaper investigation (Arizona Republic). Lawmakers nix a bill that would have required mailers be sent to parents informing them of school choice programs (Arizona Daily Sun).

New Mexico: Public schools, including charter schools, would be barred from contracting with private entities under a bill supported by critics who fear "a Trojan horse-type assault on the state to divert public education funds" (Santa Fe New Mexican).

Idaho: Lawmakers consider equitable funding for charter schools (Idaho Reporter).

Washington: The state public schools superintendent asks legislators to put charters under his watch, a move that conflicts with the new law voters recently approved that calls for a separate supervisory panel (King5).

California: The San Francisco school district triples the rent for charter schools, after charging less than other districts for years, prompting an outcry from some charters (San Francisco Chronicle). (more…)

Private schools. What happens to private school records when private schools close? Sometimes, they disappear. Palm Beach Post.

Charter schools. The Broward school district is taking a closer look at how much it charges charter schools for bus transportation after a citizens task force complains the district is losing money on the deal and subsidizing the competition. Miami Herald. (The district is considering other ways to reduce busing costs, too, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel.) A K-8 charter school that teaches boys and girls separately is proposed for Palm Beach Gardens, reports the Palm Beach Post.

School choice. The Palm Beach district gets 17,500 applications for about 9,000 district choice seats. Palm Beach Post.

Digital education. Florida's mandates on digital offerings brings opportunities and challenges, editorializes the Palm Beach Post.

Privatization. The Volusia school district is right to consider outsourcing custodial services to save money, editorializes the Daytona Beach News Journal. The move could save about $5 million a year, the News Journal reports.

Florida's progress. Matt Di Carlo at the Shanker Blog: "Again, Governor Bush and supporters of his reforms have some solid evidence to draw upon when advocating for the Florida reforms, particularly the grade-based accountability system. The modest estimated effects in these high-quality analyses are not as good a talking point as the “we quadrupled the number of A-rated schools in six years” argument, but they are far preferable to claiming credit for what’s on the scoreboard after having changed the rules of the game."

Pace of change. Sweeping changes to teacher evaluations, academic standards and testing have district officials on edge and lawmakers considering changes. Tallahassee Democrat. (more…)

Florida's status. Matt Reed, Florida Today's editorial page editor, takes a look at NAEP data and the most recent Education Week Quality Counts report and concludes: "We obviously have room to improve. But our system is neither starving, as educators always say. Nor is it “broken” or “failing,” as reformers keep telling us."

Florida's status, Part II. Diane Ravitch's latest take, after quoting a Florida teacher at length: "There is no Florida miracle. Education has only gotten worse over the past few years, no matter how schools, districts and the state itself game the system. And, contrary to what the media will tell you, it is NOT teachers’ fault, unions’ fault, and I won’t even blame it on the kids or their parents this time. It is the fault of education “reform” led by Jeb Bush et al."

Charter schools. The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes up the bill that would require school districts to share unused or underused facilities with charter schools. Bad idea, editorializes the Palm Beach Post.

Gays and lesbians. The Lake County School Board considers rules that would keep a Gay-Straight Alliance from forming at a middle school. Orlando Sentinel.

Teacher evaluations. Tampa Bay Times on one impact (or not) of the new system in Hillsborough: "After years of planning and training, observation and deliberation, the first wave of firings has begun under a teaching-improvement project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The tally: Three teachers." (more…)

Editor's note: This is the fourth installment of "A Choice Conversation," a dialogue between Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up For Students, and John Wilson, a former National Education Association leader who writes the Unleashed blog at Education Week.

Doug Tuthill: John, I’d like your feedback on some ideas I have about privatization in public education.

For me, privatization in public education occurs when government allows private interests to usurp the public good. Public education would not exist without the products and services individuals and private corporations provide. So the fact that local and state governments contract for these products and services is not a concern. The problem occurs when government officials sign contracts that put private concerns over the public interest.

When I was a teachers union leader, I was regularly criticized for placing the private interests of teachers above the public good. While I gladly pleaded guilty to advocating for our union members, which I was legally and morally obligated to do, I rejected the charge I was trying to privatize public education. If the school board agreed to a contract that put the interests of our union members above the public’s interest, that was the board’s fault. Their job in contract negotiations was to represent the public; my job was to represent the teachers. 

All the individuals and corporations that contract with school boards - textbook publishers, charter school providers, teachers unions, builders, bus drivers - have private interests they advocate for when they negotiate contracts. If any of these contracts contribute to privatizing public education, it’s the school board’s responsibility. 

John Wilson: Doug, while I agree private interests should not usurp public good, I do not accept that teachers as public employees have private interests within their professional responsibilities or collective bargaining agreement. Salaries, benefits, working conditions, and teaching and learning responsibilities are all in the interest of the public as taxpayers or in the interest of the public as to the impact on assuring a quality teacher for every child. The union may be private, but the members are public; therefore teacher interests cannot be compared to the interests of private sector and for-profit vendors. 

I would also add that many of my union colleagues define privatization more broadly as turning over to a private provider a job that has been previously done by a public employee. I would contend this is the single factor that causes mistrust of charter schools and private management organizations. For those of us who believe public money is for public schools, we will have to reconcile how we create choice and customization under the public domain. (more…)