Florida: State Commissioner Fires Teacher for Supporting BLM | Diane Ravitch's blog #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Florida: State Commissioner Fires Teacher for Supporting BLM | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: State Commissioner Fires Teacher for Supporting BLM

Richard Corcoran, state commissioner of education in Florida, announced that he fired Amy Donofrio, a teacher in Duval County, because she supported #BlackLivesMatter.

Corcoran made his decision known during a lecture at conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan. He was speaking about “critical race theory” and curriculum oversight and used her as an example of his cleansing of the ranks. Donofrio learned of her termination on a YouTube video. If you look at the photograph accompanying the story, you will see that she teaches at Robert E. Lee Hgh School. (Irony alert.)

Richard Corcoran is not an educator. He was the Speaker of Florida’s House when he was appointed to run the state system. His wife is or was a board member of a charter school associated with Hillsdale College. The Corcorans’ six children were home-schooled.

Corcoran has made clear his hostility to public schools CONTINUE READING: Florida: State Commissioner Fires Teacher for Supporting BLM | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers + The Florida GOP Taliban

Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

"You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

Teachers cannot be trusted, and don’t take my word for it, take Commissioner Corcoran's 

Little boot Corcoran said of the 185 thousand teachers in Florida’s public schools; none of them can be trusted (see the video above). They have to be continually policed to make sure they aren’t sneaking on crazy liberal stuff. The book publishers can’t be trusted either because, like teachers, they will try and sneak stuff in.

Sadly he is the warped one out to indoctrinate kids, but since up is down in Florida, he thinks he is the hero. 

The commissioner has proposed a rule that will prevent teachers from having opinions during school hours, and it will pass too because the state board of education, a board as unqualified as Corcoran, is just as radicalized.  

From First Coast News, 

 Separating fact from opinion in teaching is what Florida's education commissioner says he wants to do with CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

The Florida GOP Taliban

Florida has a recipe for disaster. Add one part gerrymandering, one part far-right dogma, and a heaping pile of intolerance and sexism to Florida, and we get a state where the zealots at the top impose their will on all those beneath them. The Taliban didn't become the Taliban overnight, they evolved into it, and if we open our eyes, we can see disturbing parallels in the GOP in Florida.

Richard Corcoran and Ron DeSantis pairing with the far-right Hillsdale College plans to rewrite our civics curriculum including a liberal amount of God and the Ten commandments while completely avoiding the issue of race. DeSantis says to anyone who will listen that kids are being taught to hate our country in our schools. Corcoran practically bragged how he rigged the book-buying process to eliminate crazy liberal stuff and how teachers have to be constantly replaced. Neither has considered that it is their ideas and actions which are driving people away from them.  

Speaking of actions, this past session saw an anti-trans bill that called for the inspecting of children's genitalia pass the house. Now the final bill wasn't quite as onerous, but at the end of the day, it was a solution without a problem designed to marginalize and attack an already marginalized group. Unfortunately, the GOP in Florida sent a loud and clear message to our LGBTQ community and that's they are second-class citizens who can be excluded from everyday life.  

Then look what has happened in St. Johns county as 80 girls at a high school had their yearbook photos altered because the powers that be determined they were too revealing. The thing is they weren't, but they, CONTINUE READING: The Florida GOP Taliban

Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran - Public Enemy Number 1

Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran - Public Enemy Number 1

Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran

A grifter who can't make finalist in a university president search rigged for him is no match for the honest, competitive study of America -- which is an unpoliceable classroom without walls.

I was already in the process of writing and documenting this piece about The Great Migration’s relevance to today’s economic and social moment when the comical ball of failure and grift that is Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran did what he tends to do.

He helped me — by saying really dumb stuff.

Indeed, it’s hard to quantify all the usefully dumb stuff he said to an audience at Hillsdale College during his recent freestyle Facebook rant dressed up as a Q&A. I will try, bit by bit, in weeks to come.

But the passage that follows is most relevant to this article. It’s about the importance of indoctrinating your kids and mine with whatever nonsense Richard Corcoran claims to believe at any given time. I see no evidence he actually believes in anything but petty personal dominance, which means the “indoctrination” will morph from moment to moment if he think he can bully you with it. Indeed, note the part in bold at the end. I think it illustrates pretty well Corcoran’s embarrassing sense of himself as tiny dictator.

But you have to police it on a daily basis, it’s 185,000 teachers in a classroom with CONTINUE READING: Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran - Public Enemy Number 1

FL Dept of Ed Commissioner said he fired a teacher for #BlackLivesMatter #CRT #ISUPPORTAMY | Cloaking Inequity

FL Dept of Ed Commissioner said he fired a teacher for #BlackLivesMatter #CRT #ISUPPORTAMY | Cloaking Inequity

FL DEPT OF ED COMMISSIONER SAID HE FIRED A TEACHER FOR #BLACKLIVESMATTER #CRT #ISUPPORTAMY

You should know this is happening: Richard Corcoran, the Florida Dept of Education Commissioner, said he fired a teacher for #BlackLivesMatter

Here is what the Florida Times-Union said about the situation

A Duval County teacher who hung a Black Lives Matter flag in her classroom says she heard she was fired through a YouTube video. 

On Monday, Amy Donofrio’s legal team released a statement criticizing a recent guest speaking engagement from Florida Department of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran at Hillsdale College, a private conservative school in Michigan. Until recently, Corcoran was short-listed in the running for the new Florida State University President position. He is not among the three finalists for the position.

Corcoran used Donofrio as an example while speaking about critical race theory and curriculum oversight and announced that he had her fired.

They continued,

In March, the school district announced Donofrio would be removed from her classroom while Duval Schools conducted an investigation for “several allegations.” The district declined to say what those allegations are, citing the active investigation. By April, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced it was suing Duval Schools on Donofrio’s behalf.

“I’m getting sued right now in Duval County, which is in Jacksonville because there was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter,” Corcoran said during his presentation. “We made sure she was terminated and now we’re being sued by every one of the liberal left groups who say it’s freedom of speech issue.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center weighed in,

“That this decision has been made by those at the highest level of Florida’s Department of Education before the DCPS investigation is even completed shows the depth of the retaliation and deprivation of due process and free speech upon which Ms. Donofrio’s lawsuit against the District is based. According to Corcoran, a classroom that teaches Black Lives Matter or what Corcoran has labeled ‘crazy liberal stuff’ justifies censorship and the firing of teachers.”

We’ve recently heard quite a bit about “cancel culture” and “free speech” from a certain ilk. Here’s what I tweeted about it recently.

In fact, we used Critical Race Theory in a Harvard Education Review article some years back to talk about the very issue at stake here: Politicians have abused their power to limit scholarly conversation about slavery, racism and other prejudice in classrooms. We found in our research that policymakers and elected official have gone out the way to sanitize historical truths.

Their current strategy is to try to cancel history, Critical Race Theory and limit freedom of speech in the classroom. The irony of their actions relative to their rhetoric is NOT lost on anyone. #ISupportAmy

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion and the tweets in this article with others.

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Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

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FL Dept of Ed Commissioner said he fired a teacher for #BlackLivesMatter #CRT #ISUPPORTAMY | Cloaking Inequity

Big Education Ape: Lee High teacher reassigned to paid, non-teaching post amid controversy over BLM flag, her organization says #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER #SPLC - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/04/lee-high-teacher-reassigned-to-paid-non.html

Education Matters: At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicity

Education Matters: At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicty

At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicity

Orange County has made its position known and I would love to know DCPS's. Or do they think like senator Stargel, that being gay is a choice?

At some point, silence becomes complicity and DCPS is silent about a lot of things.

Education Matters: At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicty

Education Matters: Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

Education Matters: Education Commisioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

More incredible work from Accountabalony:

but I didn’t think to say “okay and keep all of the crazy liberal stuff out” and so now we literally have them, and they hide it in “social emotional learning” so it doesn’t SAY “Critical Race Theory” but you could definitely have a teacher who teaches Critical Race Theory so now we have to go back and say, if it’s electronic, we want it out and, on top of that, we’re passing a rule this coming month that says, for the 185,000 teachers, you can’t indoctrinate students with stuff that’s not based on our standards, the new B.E.S.T. standards…

But you have to police it on a daily basis, it’s 185,000 teachers in a classroom with anywhere from 18-25 kids and it you’re not physically there in the classroom. I will tell you it’s working in the universities and it’s starting to work in… I’ve censored or fired or terminated numerous teachers for doing that. I’m getting sued right now in Duval County … because it was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter… we made sure she was terminated and now we’re being sued by every one of the liberal left groups for “freedom of speech” issues and I say to them …

https://accountabaloney.com/index.php/2021/05/16/the-war-will-be-won-in-education/?fbclid=IwAR29qet_44RnTlB54YL9dHRqvf-vkNC63DNcJhw9KfCm7Qac8KabweW95E4

We made sure she was fired. Where does Corcoran end and Greene begin?

If you read the piece you will realize he has no idea what Donofrio teaches or what grade for that matter, but he took great joy in saying he had her fired. 

Look you have to read the entire piece and then listen to the video.

More on this later.

Education Matters: Education Commisioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

Schools Matter: Vouchers in FL Create Black Christian Madrassahs in Strip Malls

Schools Matter: Vouchers in FL Create Black Christian Madrassahs in Strip Malls

Vouchers in FL Create Black Christian Madrassahs in Strip Malls

Although this commentary by Billy Townsend describes a seed of hope in Florida's education desert, the bigger message points to what you get with laws that allow unregulated and unaccredited private "schools" to replace public schools that have been malignantly-neglected by segregationists who want to close them.

Orlando Sentinel, May 16 

Jones High success story illustrates inadequacy of voucher schools

Six years ago, essentially zero Jones High School students took physics. Today, more than 250 do. That means 250 Orlando-area young people per year now have a better chance of becoming engineers or scientists or doctors. We should celebrate that. Physics is crucial to many educational and professional journeys. 

Unfortunately, as a recent former Polk County school board member, I know all too well the rarity of serious growth in Florida’s education capacity. Our state is steadily dismantling education capacity everywhere through its contempt for public schools and indifference to voucher-school performance. Capacity destruction drives Florida’s chronic educator shortages. 

It’s one reason Florida has among America’s worst state test score “learning rates,” according to The CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: Vouchers in FL Create Black Christian Madrassahs in Strip Malls

Education Matters: Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

Education Matters: Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

For teacher appreciation week and more on that later, the district handed out pins with years of service in 5-year increments on them. This is my 20th year as a teacher, and yet I received a 15 yer pin. You would think it wouldn't matter so much, but it was really a reminder of how little the district appreciates teachers, especially veteran ones.

In 2010, superintendent Pratt Dannals declared a financial emergency, and the district skipped giving step raises; the district did the same thing this past year for the entire district but then later and again for veteran teachers gave them out and called them raises. 

In 2010 it was later discovered the district had something like 186 million in reserves when the financial emergency was declared, and Pratt Dannals was eventually fired. You would have thought the step raises would have been reinstated, but you would think wrong.

Back then, the step raises weren't all that great, but if you were around year 15 or sixteen, you got the big CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

JEFF BRYANT: A Florida School Improved Reading and Math Scores With Streetlights—And Joe Biden Is All For It | Ed Politics

A Florida School Improved Reading and Math Scores With Streetlights—And Joe Biden Is All For It | Ed Politics

A FLORIDA SCHOOL IMPROVED READING AND MATH SCORES WITH STREETLIGHTS—AND JOE BIDEN IS ALL FOR IT

“What I’m working on—like making sure students have access to food, clean clothing, and streetlights—may not look like what I’m working on,” Catherine Gilmore told me over a phone call. Gilmore has worked as an educator in Hillsborough County, Florida, for 13 years, and has spent the last six years at Gibsonton Elementary School where she was in the classroom for four years prior to spending the last two years as the community schools coordinator there. During our phone call, she explained to me how her school has addressed its low scores on the state’s school performance report card. And it seems to be working.

In the 2017-2018 school year, Gibsonton received a grade of “D” on the state’s annual report card that assesses elementary schools on the basis of their scores on standardized achievement tests. In 2018-2019, Gibsonton raised its grade to a “C.”

While Gilmore welcomed the progress, she warned against overemphasizing these assessments, calling them “lagging indicators.”

“State standardized testing mostly just identifies student demographics,” she told me, an observation that is validated by research. “Sure, we use data, including test scores. But we use data to drive for the right things rather than letting data get in the way.”

The “right things,” in her view, are the factors—what she spends her time on—that she believes tend to correlate with test scores but are often ignored by school improvement approaches that tend to blame educators when test scores are low.

Often, what can lead to low test scores may have nothing to do with academics. For instance, making sure students are well-CONTINUE READING: A Florida School Improved Reading and Math Scores With Streetlights—And Joe Biden Is All For It | Ed Politics

"Capacity-ism:" Florida spends $1 Billion per year on a fraudulent voucher marketplace that has created zero private education capacity. A documentary. - Public Enemy Number 1

"Capacity-ism:" Florida spends $1 Billion per year on a fraudulent voucher marketplace that has created zero private education capacity. A documentary. - Public Enemy Number 1

"Capacity-ism:" Florida spends $1 Billion per year on a fraudulent voucher marketplace that has created zero private education capacity. A documentary.

$1 billion per year has produced few -- if any -- products worth buying in Florida's voucher marketplace. That's because markets alone don't create capacity; and there is no equity without capacity.

Put aside what you think about Jeff Bezos and Amazon as person and company. This article isn’t about either; it’s about school vouchers. But I saw Bezos use a thought-provoking phrase in his annual stockholder letter. I find it quite helpful in assessing the catastrophic human and economic failures of Florida’s school voucher programs.

“If you want to be successful in business (in life, actually), you have to create more than you consume. Your goal should be to create value for everyone you interact with.” 

Again, put aside whether you think Bezos or Amazon do that. Put aside how easily that statement can lead you to eugenics if you follow its logic into human existence. Put aside the fuzzy definitions of creation and consumption. Let’s just take it on business/economics/marketplace terms.

Doug Tuthill’s schools and organization consume *infinitely* more than they create — here’s a documentary

No institution of any kind in America consumes more money and creates less value than Florida’s voucher school provider network. None. Florida’s failed voucher schools have the worst consumption-to-creation ratio of any large-scale business or private function I have ever seen. Step up for Students, as an organization, consumes so much more than it creates that it’s virtually impossible to quantify the disproportion. Here’s a taste, from an organization that provides zero active quality oversight of its schools or marketplace.

Step Up has the money to spend. It takes a 2.5-3% administrative fee on every CONTINUE READING: "Capacity-ism:" Florida spends $1 Billion per year on a fraudulent voucher marketplace that has created zero private education capacity. A documentary. - Public Enemy Number 1

The Biggest Loser – Grumpy Old Teacher

The Biggest Loser – Grumpy Old Teacher

The Biggest Loser

Florida Politics, a media platform,* has a weekly feature whereby it names the biggest winners and losers of the week in Florida politics. This week, it named Richard Corcoran, Commissioner of Education and erstwhile-House Speaker who was known for always getting his way (is that code language for a bully?), as the week’s biggest loser for issuing a memo to school superintendents to suggest (go back and read the previous parentheses) that mandatory mask policies serve no purpose and should disappear when the next school year begins.

Florida Politics:

THE BIGGEST LOSER: RICHARD CORCORAN. COVID-19 cases are increasing in Florida (and many other places). The Florida Department of Health Tuesday reported 9,068 additional virus cases.

That’s the highest one-day increase since Feb. 5.

That makes the pronouncement by Education Commissioner RICHARD CORCORAN all the more bizarre.

IN A MEMO to public school district superintendents, Corcoran recommended they drop the mandatory mask requirements for the 2021-22 academic year.

Why?

Corcoran’s memo said, “they serve no remaining good at this point in our schools.”

It’s long been obvious to Florida educators that politicians like Richard Corcoran are ignorant about public schools, Florida’s school districts, and CONTINUE READING: The Biggest Loser – Grumpy Old Teacher

Education Matters: Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

Education Matters: Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

The Florida House came up with a solution without a problem, which includes girls' genitals being inspected by a stranger. The GOP just said to children, want to play a sport? Then be ready to show your privates.

The Florida GOP, a gerrymandered bunch, isn't about solving problems or making things better; it's about exercising its power to gin up its base. The state is so gerrymandered to assure them victory that they don't need to, which just makes their latest effort to punch trans children, for checks notes, being trans children is based on sure meanness.  

From First Coast News,

 Florida lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that would ban transgender girls from participating in women's sports.

HB 1475 passed the House by a 77-40 vote.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid, is dubbed the “Fairness In Women’s Sports Act.” It would make participation in athletics contingent on determining a student’s “biological sex.” If a student- CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

Education Matters: Now that the testing EO has come out, the big question is what will DCPS do?

Education Matters: Now that the testing EO has come out, the big question is what will DCPS do?

Now that the testing EO has come out, the big question is what will DCPS do?

If the past is prologue, the answer to that question is the opposite of what is right. They will still use the tests to bludgeon teachers and save money. Who wants to make a bet what they will do?

First, some random thoughts.

Executive orders from the state diminish the power of localities. They make Corcoran a de facto king of education. That wouldn't be a good thing even if we had a reasoned educator in charge instead of the jackbooted noneducator thug we currently have. 

We should all oppose high-stakes testing as it is currently done. Is there a need for an assessment? Sure, but what we have is punitive accountability on steroids that isn't meant to help. It's meant to harm. Greene and presumably the board's full-throated embrace of them is beyond troubling. 

Despite months of telegraphing waivers for the tests were coming, the district spent weeks cajoling families to return and watched up the stress level of students and staff alike, and for what? It's my thought Greene can taste that A grade and is willing to walk over the bodies of teachers and students to get it. Anybody paying CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Now that the testing EO has come out, the big question is what will DCPS do?

Education Matters: Parents opt your students out of Florida's high stakes tests

Education Matters: Parents opt your students out of Florida's high stakes tests

Parents opt your students out of Florida's high stakes tests

 I am finishing my 21st year teaching in Duval County Public schools. I have seen a lot, but without a doubt, the worst and what must go is the state's reliance on high-stakes testing, This is especially relevant as DCPS starts testing season. I call it a season because it will last for weeks. Students at private schools that accept vouchers paid for by the public already don't have to take these pernicious tests, and it's time public schools joined them. 

Testing and preparing for the tests take away weeks of instruction. They don't provide any value either because the results aren't made known for months until after the school year has ended, and they rob teachers of the ability to be flexible, reteach or do deep dives into subjects. On the other hand, these tests affect everything from teachers losing their jobs to housing values and to a city's ability to attract businesses. 

This is not to say we shouldn't have standards or accountability; we should, though, for some reason, the CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Parents opt your students out of Florida's high stakes tests

Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business

The Florida League of Women Voters has long been wary about the state’s rush to privatize public school funding through charters and vouchers. It has previously published reports on the conflicts of interests, the politics, and the money in the charter sector. In this report, it investigates the organization created to hand out money for vouchers, called “Step Up for Students.” I am posting only the introduction. To read the body of the report, please open the attached PDF file.

Step Up for Students

 Preliminary Investigative Report

League of Women Voters Education Task Force

For the past 20 years, a private organization has been growing exponentially using direct and indirect public funds largely out of public view. This organization is the conduit for an unregulated school system without standards being created by the Florida Legislature.

The organization is called Step Up for Students (StepUpForStudents.org), an SFO (Scholarship Funding Organization) that awards and manages tax credit scholarships for the state of Florida, as well as in Alabama.  According to Forbes, Step Up is the 21^st largest charity in the United States. To put that in perspective, the American Cancer Society is 18^th. In 2019 Step Up and Subsidiaries had $697,363,075 in total assets. 

Step Up began with a mission to award vouchers to low-income students to attend private schools. It has grown to include vouchers, now known as scholarships, for students with special needs, students who have been bullied, students who are homeschooled, and students with reading difficulties. The income threshold has been raised through the years to at least 300% of the poverty level, with no income threshold for homeschool or special needs students.

Step Up receives donations from corporations who CONTINUE READING: Florida: League of Women Voters Exposes Voucher Boondoggle As Big Business | Diane Ravitch's blog

Contact: Dr. Sarah (Sally) Butzin

President, League of Women Voters of Tallahassee

sally.butzin@gmail.com

850-728-1097

March 2021

Introduction