Scathing Purple Musings
Color me purple in Florida ALL Week
Michael Bileca’s One Size Fits All Charter School Bill(s)
Mark me down as skeptical anytime I hear one of Florida’s republican legislators say are they are worried about friction between school boards and charter schools. And then some new enlightened piece of legislation will take care of all that. Let’s consider a bill under consideration in Rep. Michael Bileca’s (R-Miami) education subcommittee for Choice and Innovation. Sun Sentinel reporter Scott T
A Tale of Two Emails
Yesterday’s 107 minute news conference by New Jersey governor Chris Christie was taking place about the same time the story broke that disgraced education commissioner Tony Bennett had hired some top dollar lawyers to fight ethics charges revolving around his own email problems. I couldn’t help but notice the difference in the manner the two republican politicians dealt with clear evidence of wron
To My Readers: Thank You
Yesterday marked 200,000 views to Scathing Purple Musings. There are over 1400 posts archived here, virtually all of them on education policy. I started blogging in this space during March of 2011. Many of you have been with me from the start and have helped spread this link around. Some of you follow me every day. To all of you, thank you.
JAN 09
Florida’s Predictable Pro-Charter School Propoganda Begins Anew
You can be sure that the state’s charter school cheerleaders at redifinED will be trumpeting this Brookings Institute Report that gives Florida a “C” for “limited choice options.” Why it was just last week that Patrick Gibbons was reporting that the state’s charter high schools were outperforming public schools. Gibbons bristled when a commenter dared mention that 8 charter schools closed during
JAN 08
PARCC, Common Core, and Moving the Bar Again After Everyone’s Jumped
From Catherine Gewertz in Education Week: If you’re paying close attention to every twist and turn of the state assessment chronicles, you could be forgiven for concluding that Florida has finally, officially, dumped the PARCC assessment consortium. New details have emerged suggesting that this is the case, but no one’s calling the gravediggers just yet. In a Jan. 7 story, the Bradenton Herald quo
JAN 07
The Republican Bill to Stop Common Core in Florida
The Orlando Sentinel‘s Leslie Postal reports that opponents of Common Core are beginning an advertising campaign in southwest Florida: Opponents of Common Core in Florida today launched radio ads they hope will spread their message that the new academic standards will harm education. The group Stop Common Core Florida says its ads started airing today in the Fort Myers and Naples areas, and they
JAN 06
Are There Really Military Families Desperate For Charter Schools?
The proposal by Charter Schools USA to open a building on MacDill AFB has featured the “needs of military families” which supposed aren’t being met by local public schools. Sen. John Legg (R-Lutz) who it should be noted is a charter school owner weighed in with Ron Matus of redinED: Spurred by conflict over a proposed charter school at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida lawmakers will consider creat
JAN 05
Charter Schools USA Big Money Efforts to Influence Florida Policy
Scathing Purple Musings noted in the blog post about Rep. George Moraitis’ HB 377 that Charter Schools USA donated $1000 to his campaign less than a month before he filed the bill. And also this in an earlier post: There was no election last fall, but Charter Schools USA made three contributions starting in August totaling $8500. One of those for $2500 (9/24/13) went to a new Electioneering Commun
Is Moraitis HB 377 Charter School Bill Inspired By ALEC?
Rep. George Moraitis will be asked sometime this week why he left any mention of “charter schools” in HB 377 and instead referred to them as “private, not-for profit elementary, middle and high schools.” Never mind that he filled the bill as Educational Facilities Financing. When one cut through Moraitis’ clear attempt to deceive, what Floridians see is the creation of permanent financing for and
JAN 04
HB 377: George Moraitis’ Stealth Charter School Bonanza Bill
On November 14 Charter Schools USA slipped $1000 to Rep. George Moraitis (R-Fort Lauderdale). Just 26 days later, Moraitis filed HB 377, a bill innocently titled Educational Facilities Financing. But its abstract signals that there are real devils in the details: Revises provisions relating to financing of independent nonprofit higher educational facilities to include financing for private nonprof