Florida Media Finally Shines the Light on Voucher, Charter School and Online Education Money in Florida Politics
The narrative the Florida media is advancing on education policy has changed. And not in a way which is favorable for the state’s education power brokers. Jeff Solochek published a column in the Tampa Bay Times on the last day of 2012 in which he observed that “Florida’s reform movement faced its first significant pushback after a more than a decade of ineffective complaining.” Now in today’s Palm Beach Post, John Kennedy builds on his newspaper’s research:
Charter school, voucher and online education companies poured more than $2 million into this fall’s political campaigns, primarily those of Republicans who are again demanding more alternatives to traditional public schools.My post in August last year detailed the manner these groups merged. The Post’s research is far more
John Kirtley’s Step Up For Students Received $6.9 Million in Management Fees This Year
In this morning’s investigative piece in the Palm Beach Post, it was revealed that the voucher group that runs Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship receives a lot of money as a management fee.
Tony Bennett’s Charter Schools USA Problem
Many of Florida’s Republican leaders came of political age under Bush. The charter, online and voucher industry also have become a steady source of major campaign dollars, mostly for Republican candidates, according to state records reviewed by The Palm Beach Post.
Charter Schools USA gave $215,450 during the last campaign, most of it going to the Florida Republican Party and the Florida Federation for Children, a political spending committee chaired by John Kirtley, who helped create the state’s program that gives corporations tax credits for money they contribute to education vouchers for low-income students to attend private schools, including religious ones.
Scott spoke in December at a dinner honoring the corporate tax-credit scholarship program, which
Tony Bennett’s Charter Schools USA Problem
An August 2012 story in the South Bend Tribune reported that Florida-based Charter Schools USA was predicting that they’d lose money in the deal to take over three Indianapolis public schools,
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A company hired by the state to take over three Indianapolis public schools says it could lose money in the deal in the first two years even though its contracts don’t set minimums for classroom spending.
Similar contracts cover private operators now running a Gary high school and another Indianapolis school in the first state takeovers of schools that struggled for years with low student test scores,