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| DISCUSSION |
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| Education - Today’s Reality - Too Many Dropouts |
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When I debated Carl Domino in 2006, he took the position that Florida’s education system was improving under Republican leadership.
Are our kids at any level of education better off today than 2 years ago or 8 years ago? Absolutely Not.
Choose any ten 9th graders enrolled today in our schools and then predict where they will be in four years:
• Three will have dropped out without completing a High School degree.
• Three will graduate but not continue their education.
• Four will apply to college but 2 of them will need remedial instruction to meet the minimum standards.
Florida has the lowest rate of High School graduation and per capita spending in the nation. Our teachers salaries are so low that many living in North Florida teach in Georgia schools because Georgia pays its teachers $6,000 more per year.
This scenario illlustrates the crisis in education and no one argues that it has a negative and costly impact. No one argues that the goals of public policy for education are:
• Recruiting and retaining high quality teachers.
• Investing in ongoing professional and leadership development.
• Setting and aligning curriculum, instruction and assessment against valid and high standards.
The issues are clear, the crisis is evident, so what are the obstacles. Republicans don’t have the political courage to openly admit there is a crisis and don’t have the political will to address the causes or offer solutions.
I actually wonder if the slashing of the education budget was more about "gutting" public education than "cutting"!
There is a basic philosophical difference here - I ardently believe that Florida needs to place a higher priority on education and PUT EDUCATION FIRST!
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| Vouchers - Just Another Loophole! |
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I see myself as an advocate for young people at all levels of our education system. Democrats have always strongly supported Public Education and I will do the same. As one voter asked me, “how strong a position would I take against school vouchers?” My answer: “I would shout it from the rooftops for every voter to hear. NO SCHOOL VOUCHERS.” (except special disabilities, McKay vouchers)
Republican-led voucher programs offer little accountability, have been poorly run, and lack the high-standards of our public schools. Rick supports increasing our investment in public education, not draining money away to pay for risky experiments like vouchers.
But Republican Don’t Give Up. Watch out for the two ballot initiatives that may make it on to the 2008 Ballot. The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which meets every 20 years to review budget policies, placed Amendments 7 and 9 on the November ballot. They provide a backdoor strategy to get around the Florida Constitution's prohibition against the state directly giving money to private and religious schools. What political pressure induced this panel to offer these amendments when they do not deal with taxation and the state budgetary process? There is a lawsuit currently trying to stop these amendments from being on the ballot in November. But, it they make it, VOTE NO!
Republicans see vouchers as a panacea for all of education’s problems. Former Governor Jeb Bush sabotaged the Classroom Size amendment and saw his mission as establishing and expanding school voucher programs. He continues to pressure and lobby, through his Foundation for Excellence in Education, a voucher agenda even though the Florida Supreme Court ruled vouchers are unconstitutional.
A program that could be worthwhile if it were not being used as a loophole for vouchers was one of the only programs to get an increase in funding in this year's budget while other education programs were cut. An additional $30 million, on top of the current $88 million, was given to the Corporate Scholarship Program that funnels money to private schools through deferred taxes.
If the intention of Republicans were to help kids, then when challenged to allow corporations to also donate money through tax deferments to public schools, they should have jumped at the opportunity. However, startled Republicans, caught like deer in headlights, cried, “NO! Can’t be done.”
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| FCAT - Still Teaching to the Test |
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I support high academic standards and increased accountability, and I believe standardized testing is an important tool to help parents and teachers work with each individual student to identify areas that need improvement.
According to their website, "the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test® (FCAT) is part of Florida’s overall plan to increase student achievement by implementing higher standards." It has not worked. Grading schools so that funds can be channeled to those schools meeting standards while penalizing failing schools flies in the face of common sense. The logical response if a school is failing is to provide assistance to that school. A strategy and plan to upgrade the school should be the priority, but it is not.
When teachers and parents raised serious issues about the FCAT, Tallahassee ignored them in 2006 and 2007. Finally in 2008 there was some movement, the grading score for schools will now include graduation rates and not rely totally on the FCAT scores. But this is not enough. A misplaced emphasis on accountability has caused the entire Florida education system to teach to a test. This limits the ability of teachers to teach. When opponents of the FCAT fight to have the FCAT used as a diagnostic test, Tallahassee doesn't hear them.
The FCAT system is founded on the flawed concept that grade retention is the answer to motivating student performance. However, a 2007 study concluded, "it is very clear that intensive reading instruction provided to at-risk students was the primary cause of reading improvement scores and not grade retention." (Robert Lange, PhD). If I am your Representative, I would recommend that mandated Grade 3 retention should be removed from the law, retention of K-2 should be discourage and that small-group remedial instruction K-8 should be emphasized.
Just recently, high school students at risk of not graduating because they cannot pass the reading portion of the FCAT have been given an alternative. If they can achieve a basic score on the SAT or ACT tests, they can use that test score in place of the FCAT to graduate. This option is becoming more popular, but it again speaks to the deficiencies of the FCAT. The explanation cannot simply be that some students are FCAT-test-phobic, but they can pass the SAT or ACT. It points to the fact that something is very wrong with our FCAT system. Why does our Florida Legislature persist in defending a failed system? Where is their accountability?
If elected as your District 83 Representative, I will work tirelessly to reform the FCAT system, making it only a diagnostic test to be given at the beginning of each school year in order to determine where deficiencies exist and then “let the teachers teach” to correct those deficiencies.
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| Voters Want Reduced Class Size |
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| We all know a smaller class means a better educational environment, increased discipline, and more individual attention for students. For the past decade, Republicans have opposed efforts to reduce classroom size, and since 2002, have been trying to overturn the Class Size Amendment overwhelming passed by the people of Florida. I believe every child has a right to learn in a safe, high-quality neighborhood school, which is why I will fight for smaller classes, and work to build bipartisan coalitions to preserve the Class Size Amendment.
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| Teachers Salaries are a High Priority |
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| I believe that every child deserves an education provided by world-class teachers, which is why I support initiatives to pay teachers the professional salaries they deserve. For the past decade, Republicans have consistently opposed Democratic efforts to improve teacher pay in Florida. Today, Florida's teachers earn $6,000 less than the national average and less than our neighbors to the north in Georgia and Alabama. Our teachers are everyday heroes and they deserve to be paid like the professionals they are. Even this year, despite a budget flush with cash, Republicans have once again decreased the education share of the budget, rather than working with Democrats to give teachers their well-deserved raise. I support a permanent 10% increase in teachers salaries and automatic cost of living increases every year. |
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