Gov. Scott silent regarding future of his education commissioner
BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY AND JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
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| Yo Tony Mr Broad wants his prize back!!! No wait, second thought he said you could keep it! |
TALLAHASSEE -- Nationally celebrated education reformer Tony Bennett was wooed to Florida in January to bring stability to the state education department.
But barely eight months later, his tenure as education commissioner could be in trouble.
Scathing emails obtained by the Associated Press suggest that Bennett, while serving as education commissioner in Indiana last year, intervened to raise the grade for a charter school run by an influential Republican donor. Bennett was already under fire in Florida, where influential superintendents and state Board of Education members have raised questions about the validity of school grades.
Gov. Rick Scott has been silent on the scandal engulfing his education commissioner. He declined two opportunities to speak publicly on the matter Tuesday, saying he had not read the AP report.
Scott spokeswoman Melissa Sellers later said Bennett was “clearly committed to making Florida’s education system the best in the nation.”
But with the 2014 governor’s race on the horizon, observers say Scott has a tough decision to make.
“If the governor wants to appeal to moderates across the state, he has to get rid of [Bennett],” said Brian Peterson, a professor at Florida International University and editor of the Miami Education Review online newsletter. “If he doesn’t, the message is that the game is rigged, and that public schools are going to be