Florida now has more charter school teachers than eight states have public school teachers, period.

The number of charter school teachers and other instructional personnel in the Sunshine State rose to 12,362 this school year, according to recently released Florida Department of Education data requested by redefinED. That's up from 11,446 last year, or 8 percent.

As we've written before, the growth is no surprise given Florida's fast-growing charter school sector. And the numbers are still a fraction of the state's 190,000 public school instructional personnel total. But they're worth keeping tabs on.

Charter school teachers are for the most part non-unionized. And as the charter sector grows, teachers are increasingly weighing whether moving there is worth the trade-offs. (Last month, we wrote about one charter school teacher's thoughts on that subject here.)

Six Florida school districts now have more than 1,000 charter school teachers within their borders, with Miami-Dade and Broward topping 2,000. This DOE spreadsheet shows the breakdown by district and by personnel category.

It’s no surprise, given rocketing growth in Florida charter school enrollment, that the number of charter school teachers is on the rise, too. But the trend lines are still worth an update.

Last year, the number of instructional personnel in Florida charter schools reached 11,446, according to the most recent data from the Florida Department of Education. That’s up 7 percent from fall 2011, when the number topped 10,000 for the first time. (The number of instructional personnel in all Florida public schools is up 2.2 percent.) Charter teachers now account for 5.9 percent of Florida’s entire teacher corps.

We’ll try to corral the 2013-14 numbers once they’re available in a month or so. In the meantime, check out this spreadsheet from DOE. It shows the number of charter school employees by category, and offers a district-by-district breakdown.

Twenty years ago, Dennis DiNoia taught middle school math in typical classrooms, in typical Florida public schools. Now his classroom is a local church, or bookstore, or online. Students come from public schools, private schools, and homeschooling co-ops. Lessons are based on a curriculum he designed and put on video.

DiNoia even has a toehold in the growing market of charter school consulting, explaining math and test-taking skills to students and teachers at a conversion charter school in Hawaii.

School choice has opened up a whole new career track for DiNoia, allowing the business school graduate to earn enough money to remain in a profession he loves while giving him the satisfaction of helping students master his favorite subject.

“A lot of people don’t go into teaching because they don’t think they can make a living at it,’’ said DiNoia, a father of three who lives in Sarasota, Fla. “If you go into it with that mindset, you’ll be right.’’

DiNoia went into the field thinking that one day he would have a successful business. Apparently, he was right, eventually figuring out how to grow his tutoring company from a sideline that supplemented his district paycheck to a full-time endeavor to support his family.

It serves as yet another example of how having more education options not only meets the different needs of children, but can benefit educators, as well.

“Everybody has different vehicles to educate students,’’ said Clayton Snare, a former principal who worked with DiNoia in the Pinellas County, Fla., school district. “Some people are good in a classroom. Some people are better online. Others are better one on one.’’

DiNoia “defined what I thought a successful teacher was all about and it truly starts with developing a rapport with your students,’’ Snare said. (more…)

Editor's note: Dionne Ekendiz founded the Sunset Sudbury School in South Florida. In her own words, here's why she did it.

I always wanted to become a teacher and make a difference in the lives of children. I truly believed in public education and wanted to be part of making it better. But like many “smart” students, I was dissuaded from that career path, especially by my math and science teachers. They encouraged me to do something “more” with my life, so I went off to MIT and pursued a degree in engineering. After 12 years as an engineer, computer programmer, and project manager in the corporate world, I finally had the confidence and courage to make a change. Others thought I was crazy to leave a great career, but I was driven to pursue my own passion.

I entered a master’s of education program and sought to get the most of my experience there. When I heard about a professor who was conducting research in the “best” public schools in the area, I volunteered to be his graduate assistant. This took me into the schools twice a week. I loved working with the students, but there were things I didn’t like about the environment. One of the most disturbing was how teachers and aides would yell at students to “stay in line” and “don’t talk” in the hallways. Those were the times that schools felt most like prisons to me. But still, I believed a good teacher could learn to control his/her students in a more humane way, so I didn’t let it bother me so much.

A year into my education program, I gave birth to my first child. Watching her grow and learn on her own, especially during her first years, made me see the true genius inside her. Indeed, it is a genius that exists in all children. She was so driven to master new skills like walking, talking, and feeding herself. I was always there with love, support, and encouragement, but my instincts told me to stay out of her way as much as possible and let her own curiosity guide her. Because of my own experiences with schooling and well-meaning teachers, I was determined to let my daughter make her own choices. I knew that with curiosity and confidence intact, she could do and be anything she wanted to.

It slowly dawned on me that everything I was learning about teaching was contrary to the philosophy I was using in raising my own daughter. The goal of teachers, in the traditional setting, is to somehow stuff a pre-determined curriculum into students’ heads. Some teachers do it more gently than others and make it more fun, but the result is the same. Teachers must stifle their students’ own interests and desires to meet the school’s agenda. Simply put, regardless of how nice a teacher is, s/he must coerce students into getting them to do what s/he wants them to do. What I was once willing to do to other people’s children, I wasn’t willing to do to my child. That was a huge wake-up call for me. (more…)

Editor's note: This is the third of four guest posts on the future of teachers unions.

by Gary Beckner

We are at a critical crossroads on the path to education reform in America. Stakeholders from all walks of life and political stripes are beginning to understand that in order to compete in a global economy we must focus on choice and technology to prepare our students for the future.

Likewise, we must also recognize that in order to drive needed change in instruction we must also examine how the teacher workforce is represented. Just as a one-size-fits-all system is not working for students, a labor union model solely fixated on protecting the status quo is no longer serving the needs of all educators in a modern workforce.

Choices in education have opened up avenues for advancing the teaching profession like never before. Virtual schools, technology, and non-traditional charter schools allow teachers to set new schedules and adapt their vision for education to a school that meets their specific needs. These innovations have brought new experienced professionals into the profession and have allowed other talented educators the ability to stay on in different capacities.

According to a membership survey by the Association of American Educators, the non-union teacher organization that I lead, teachers support laws that advance choice and promote options. For example, 68 percent of member educators support an Indiana law that provides a tax credit to parents who send their children to a private or parochial school of their choice. Similarly, 74 percent of survey respondents support Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which allow parents of special-needs students to use state education dollars in a school that meets the student's needs.

Despite this groundswell of support from educators themselves, the nation’s largest teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, continue to stand in the way of commonsense education reform for the sake of preserving their own monopoly. Not only is this harmful to America’s students, it degrades the professionalism of one of the most revered career choices. (more…)

Charter schools. Supporters are trying a different approach this year to securing facilities funding for charter schools, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Lawmakers split along party lines on a charter schools bill, reports StateImpact Florida. A new charter schools network is eyeing the site of a former fundamental middle school in Pinellas, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Parents say Polk district officials aren't telling students at a district middle school that they're eligible to attend a charter high school in Lake Wales, reports the Winter Haven News Chief. An educator returns to his roots in Cocoa to start a charter school, writes Florida Today columnist Matt Reed. The Bay County school district is reviewing a troubled charter school's finances, reports the Panama City News Herald.

Magnet schools. A magnet in Flagler aims to help student who "aren't clicking in mainstream schools." Daytona Beach News Journal.

Parent trigger. Palm Beach Post: "The goal isn’t to improve schools, it’s to improve the bottom line for for-profit charters."

Graduation requirements. Lawmakers consider alternative pathways for career education, reports the Orlando Sentinel. More from StateImpact Florida.

Parents. Parents of two students assaulted at a Pinellas school for disabled students are planning to sue, reports the Tampa Bay Times. A small group protests alleged bullying by administrators at a Deerfield Beach elementary school, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. (more…)

Students know their priorities the moment they enter St. Joseph Catholic School. A sign by the front door reads, “Our Goals: College. Heaven.’’

Inside the West Tampa school’s cafeteria, boys and girls gather for Holy Karaoke, a morning program that encourages them to dance and sing, and focus on the lessons ahead.

Cartoon pumpkins belt out “Blue Moon’’ while bobbing across a giant movie screen. Sister Nivia Arias, in full habit, croons along at the pulpit before prompting her charges to recite daily affirmations.

“We are active learners who do our best work every day,’’ little voices say in unison. “We do the right thing at the right time.”

The saying sums up the philosophy of this 116-year-old parochial school once run by Salesian nuns. It may also be prophetic.

Like other Catholic schools across the nation, St. Joseph struggles with limited resources while trying to attract students and teachers. But a new partnership with the Diocese of St. Petersburg and the University of Notre Dame might be the right thing at the right time.

St. Joseph and another local Catholic school, Sacred Heart in Pinellas Park, are among five schools in the nation taking part in the Notre Dame ACE Academies, a pilot program in conjunction with the university's Alliance for Catholic Education that aims to strengthen Catholic schools and the communities they serve.

The idea is to boost enrollment and help schools develop better leadership, curriculum, instruction, financial management and marketing. (more…)

Between 1992 and 2009, the number of public school students nationwide grew by 17 percent while full-time school staff increased by 39 percent, according to a report released today by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. But the extra employees didn't seem to do much good, the report continued, because student achievement nationally is flat.

The report suggests public schools could have saved tens of billions of dollars each year had staffing levels grown more modestly, with the savings plowed into higher teacher salaries, early childhood education or vouchers for low-income students.

Florida's public school student population increased 36 percent over that span, the report points out, while its teaching corps grew by 70 percent.

There's no doubt Florida's class-size reduction amendment, which voters approved in 2002, played a role. Unlike their national counterparts, Florida students have made respectable gains over the past 10 to 15 years, due to many factors that are tough to untangle.

In this era of expanding school choice, the report leaves us wondering: Will public dollars be spent more effectively in a system organized around customization?

More on staff growth in public education at the EdFly Blog and this recent Jay P. Greene op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

Apart from Jeb Bush's comments at a panel discussion yesterday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered the RNC's most extensive comments yet on education in a speech late last night. Full speech here. Coverage here. Education excerpts here:

They said it was impossible to touch the third rail of politics. To take on the public sector unions and to reform a pension and health benefit system that was headed to bankruptcy.

With bipartisan leadership we saved taxpayers $132 billion over 30 years and saved retirees their pension.

We did it.

They said it was impossible to speak the truth to the teachers union. They were just too powerful.  Real teacher tenure reform that demands accountability and ends the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance would never happen.

For the first time in 100 years with bipartisan support, we did it. (more…)

Editor's note: A response to Kelly's piece from redefinED host Doug Tuthill is scheduled to run tomorrow morning. 

by Kelly Garcia

Fresh out of college, I was green about unions. I knew little about what they were and why they existed, yet I blamed many of the American education system’s woes on the powerful and bureaucratic teachers unions. Like most of my young and idealistic colleagues in Teach For America, I likened teachers unions to status quo. I resented them for that.

I also admired Michelle Rhee, a TFA alumnus, for her efforts to award Washington D.C. teachers for making achievement gains with their students. Performance pay was a concept that most union members did not support. I could not see the benefit of joining a union that was seemingly perpetuating the achievement gap by maintaining the system.

Over time, though, my black-and-white views about unions became more gray.

At the end of the first week of my first year of teaching, my roommate, a TFA corps member and a teacher in the Houston school district, came home to tell me she had met with a union rep at her school and joined the union. It seemed like an insult to her commitment to Teach For America, and to closing the achievement gap. I couldn’t make sense of her decision.

She explained she joined because teaching was a dangerous profession. At any time, a student or parent could make an accusation against her that could be career ending or have serious financial implications. She even shared a horror story of how the union helped save an accused teacher’s career and bank account after a student accused the teacher of sexual harassment.

Two years later, as I entered the public school system in Hillsborough County, Fla., I was invited to join the union for the first time. I declined. (more…)