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| Florida Council of 100 |
Time for Rick Scott and Florida’s Republican Legislators to Admit SB736 Was a Bad Idea
From this morning’s Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida teachers got high marks for the 2012-13 school year, but the grades were so good — compared to student performance — that some skepticism and concern on the part of taxpayers and parents are warranted. For example, evaluations of instructional staff in the 2012-13 school year found that 97.9 percent of Florida teachers and instructional sta
Charter Schools USA’s Predicatable Rhetoric Over Hillsborough Board Decision
The editors of the Tampa Bay Times write: …the board was right to follow the staff’s recommendation to reject the plan, because the sponsors were inconsistent about the leadership structure. In its application, the foundation said a local governing council of base leaders, parents and others would have “direct oversight” of the school, including “authority to oversee the school’s finances” with th
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The editors of the Tampa Bay Times write: …the board was right to follow the staff’s recommendation to reject the plan, because the sponsors were inconsistent about the leadership structure. In its application, the foundation said a local governing council of base leaders, parents and others would have “direct oversight” of the school, including “authority to oversee the school’s finances” with the foundation providing “broader strategic direction.” But the application blurred the lines of authority. In recent days, sponsors made matters worse by insisting the local council was — contrary to t
From Jeffrey S. Solochek from the Tampa Bay Times Gradebook: Dale Chu, chief of staff to former Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett, resigned his post one day after his boss quit the department. Chu came to the Florida Department of Education with Bennett from Indiana, where he had been assistant state superintendent, overseeing Indiana’s education reform initiatives. He came as part of a team of Indiana transplants whom Bennett relied upon as some of his core advisers. Chu’s name also appeared on several of the emails that became the crux of an Associated Press report indicating that
In a stunning defense of disgraced education commissioner Tony Bennett, Jeb Bush picked up his pen today in an attempt to save Bennett’s legacy – and perhaps his own. He wrote from his perch with Foundation for Florida’s Future. Lets take a look at a few of Bush’s stunning positions as they are published in the Miami Herald: A man accused of trying to undermine public education, in fact, had dramatically improved it. He took on both the political left and the political right, and that cost him his job. Nobody who objectively assesses the job Tony has done in Florida can conclude he should be
DEC 09
Sick of ObamaCare? Consider JebSchools
Last year’s abrupt departure of Florida’s education commissioner, Tony Bennett, put the brakes on the ideological insanity that drove the state’s education policy-making. After three straight commissioners who were tools of Jeb Bush’ s foundations, it was time to have someone different. Pam Stewart has brought much-needed deliberate, thoughtful process back to the table. The Orlando Sentinel’s exc
DEC 08
Florida Council of 100 Uses Sketchy “Skills” Data to Justify Common Core
Tampa Bay Times reporter Danny Valentine sought out Florida leaders for quotes in the aftermath of the state’s poor PISA outcomes. Among them were the Florida Council of 100. Susan Pareigis, president and CEO of the Florida Council of 100, said in an email that the PISA results translate directly into a larger talent gap in the economy. She cited recent numbers showing that roughly 70 percent of f
Shaky Grant From For-Profit Charter School Ensnares Miami Republican Sen. Anitere Flores
Sen. Anitere Flores (R-Miami) never met a piece of legislation that benefited the for-profit charter school industry she didn’t like. Just pay no attention to the little matter that she works for one. This week’s revelations that the one she works for received a tax-payer funded grant marks the beginning of another episode in the shady relationships between Florida legislators and the for-profit
The Week’s Florida Test Data Spin From Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee
From Sunshine State News: Bad news for Florida’s education system: Students in the Sunshine State who took international tests in math, reading and science last year did worse than other teens in the country and performed far worse than teenagers in the world’s top-performing education systems in Asia, according to Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores released Tuesday mornin
Common Core’s Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost in Florida
There’s a nifty little site I can calculate the number of days it has been since my last post – 116 to be exact. More on my sabbatical later. But it seems ironic now that my last post on August 15th was It’s Begun: Florida County’s Republican Assembly Officially Demands Explanations on Common Core. While some Washington republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio and the Republican National Committee have