FL education leader: "You're not going to climb out of a hole on the backs of public schools."

[madfloridian]

I was glad to hear this said finally. Also I notice some legislators are edgy about Rick Scott's plans to cut so much our of the education budget for public schools.

Cuts in Education Could Lead to 20,000 Layoffs

TALLAHASSEE | While promising to create a world-class education system, Gov. Rick Scott has simultaneously proposed the deepest cuts for Florida public schools by any governor in recent history. In a worst-case scenario, they would lead to more than 20,000 layoffs of teachers and other personnel in the state's 67 school districts.

The threat of layoffs comes at the same time Scott and lawmakers are pushing to make other major changes that will impact teachers, including revamping the way they are hired, fired and evaluated and requiring them to help pay for their pensions.

I like the comment from Wayne Blanton of the Florida School Boards Association. He is a longtime leader in education.

"My school districts, based on the governor's budget, are in a panic," said Wayne Blanton, a longtime lobbyist for the Florida School Boards Association.

"I've never seen a governor's budget that was this draconian for education at the same time you're talking about creating a better economic climate," said Blanton, who has spent 36 years working with the state Legislature. "You don't create a world-class education system by trying to cut it or lay off teachers in the classrooms."

I really am impressed by this comment of Clanton.

If you want the best and the brightest, you can't continue pounding and blaming teachers for what's going on in the economic climate," he said. "You're not going to climb out of a hole on the backs of public schools.

I really do believe that Governor Scott actually struck fear when he brought up his very weird very anti-public school voucher plan. He wanted to give $5500 to every student so their parents could send them wherever they wanted to go to school...including private religious schools. Taxpayer money.

Scott wanted to give $5500 to each child who leaves public school to go to private or charter school

The new governor and his advisory team on education don't seem to care what respected studies or the law say about poverty, merit pay or vouchers, but they seem destined to try the opposite of what sound research says should work. This plan is not about school choice; it's about putting profit before education.

His first step is "Education Savings Accounts," which are the new rebranding of vouchers. Gov. Rick Scott's goal is to give $5,500 to parents directly so they can choose where to send the student, public or private. The Florida Supreme Court ruled this type of voucher system unconstitutional (Bush vs. Holmes); violating among other components the requirement of providing a system of uniform, free public schools. Why would Scott going to waste dwindling tax money on fighting for something that is unconstitutional?

Will this money allow a disadvantaged student to afford a swanky private school? No. Private schools will raise their prices and pocket extra public tax dollars for their own purposes. Charter schools will quickly switch to private schools, preventing any public oversight or accountability.

Last I heard he said he would abandon that part of his extreme plans for until next year.

Good to see state people speaking out against his unreasonable plans.

[madfloridian]

1. Mother Jones covered Scott's deep cuts, and his vouchers.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/rick-scott-florida-education-jeb-bush

"Far-right conservatives have been pushing vouchers for years as a way to dismantle public schools and fund parochial schools. But Scott's proposal may be the first to propose using vouchers as a way of also cutting taxes. The plan is modeled on one proposed by the conservative Goldwater Institute in Arizona, which last year posited that the state could save a significant amount of money if it gave parents a spiff to opt out of the public school system. It's been supported by the Foundation for Florida's Future—a think tank founded by Scott's predecessor, former Gov. Jeb Bush, and run by Bush's former education policy advisor, who is now on Scott's transition team.

Scott's plan is radical because it's designed to get around a constitutional problem the state encountered a few years back when, during Bush's tenure, it attempted to create vouchers to send public school students to private schools. But Scott apparently believes that his proposal will slip through, in part because the money could be used for other public schools. There are many flaws in Scott's proposal. But here's a biggie: It’s likely to be a fraud magnet.

As soon as the state starts handing families $5500 a year, it's virtually assured that enterprising thieves will devise various schemes to help them part with those funds, including by starting "independent" for-profit virtual schools, charter schools, and other predatory "educational" institutions. While the idea of privatizing the education system may seem like a big money saver, and no one really loves school bureaucracies, putting that much taxpayer money out there without adequate oversight (i.e. bureaucracy) is a formula for disaster."

[glowing]

2. Between his assault on teachers/ education and his refusal to build

the highspeed train between Orlando and Tampa (creating an Orlampa that wants to be able to compete for industry and jobs nationally/ globally), I do not see how he is creatig any jobs... The jobs that he said he knew how to create... the jobs that got him elected.

Once a crook always a crook... and yes, he cuts funding to all locations, however doubles his own budget... and btw doesn't see a need to keep a Lieutenant Gov. employed. Even Republican lawmakers are trying to figure out a way around (p)Rick Scott to keep the Federal money for the highspeed rail project. There is a rally in Tampa on Monday 2/21 12:00 - 1:30pm City Hall Plaza on the southeast corner of Kennedy Blvd and Franklin st. Show Rick Scott that people are eager to accept $2.4 billion of Federal money and the 20,000 jobs which will be created by the Highspeed Rail Project.

Seriously, even the right-wing newspapers are questioning his refusal of Federal monies. If you can make it, please show up.. AND remember, this is not an anti-Rick Scott event; but a pro- High Speed Rail Rally... please have your signs reflect this for positive media images.

You can RSVP on Facebook or check out more details Rally in Tampa to suport high-speed rail... Friend the sight and try to make it.

[madfloridian]

12. Hope that rally draws a big crowd.

:hi:

[madfloridian]

15. Just saw on TV that the teabaggers really showed their you know whats.

It's so sad they organized after the rally did. They are taking over this state, and it angers me so much.

[Joe Fields]

3. As fucked up as public schools are, parents should be able to send

their kids where they think their kids will do the best.

[Dappleganger]

4. With their their own money, of course.

But not take MY tax dollars away from MY FLorida public schools--not one thin dime!!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[BzaDem]

6. Leveling the playing field? Do you seriously think that is the endgame here?

You think taking money away from public schools to allow rich kids to go to private schools (who could already afford to go to private schools) "levels the playing field?"

It does exactly the opposite. It turns education into healthcare -- you can get as good an education as the number of dollars you have, and not one bit more. More money going to private schools while public schools are financially decimated, leaving those who can't afford private schools (even with the voucher) nowhere else to go. That is their ultimate goal. And not only are you falling for it -- you are calling others who are not falling for it "prejudiced." Just amazing.

[Dappleganger]

Are you accusing me of being prejudiced?

That's preposterous and this "conversation" has just ended. Welcome to ignore.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[chervilant]

18. Durn...

too late to see who... I hope that pathetic pontificator is already on my ignore list.

[Dappleganger]

7. .

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[quaker bill]

10. A free, universal, high quality public education system

is the cornerstone of a real democracy. The fact that republicans have refused funding to build one for 30+ years (since desegregation) is no excuse to give up. The republican plan all along has been to cut funds to government services, as much as they can each year, then after a number of years of cuts, call the program ineffective and shut it down.

In spite of all of this, the inner city schools here are better than they were before desegregation, not as good as they need to be, but better.

[w8liftinglady]

11. my partner teaches at an inner-city public school.

Temporary buildings intended to last one-two years have been in use for 18-20 years.
Teachers supply student supplies like pencils and erasers out of their own pockets...because that is a luxery the kids can't afford.
many of the kids are homeless- jumping from relative to relative.
many of the kids would have received NOTHING for Christmas(Yes- this IS Texas) had my partner not given them each a stocking.

Almost His whole class passed the TAKS test.

Yoy want these teachers to improve their act.
Put me on ignore,too.

[WinkyDink]

13. They are so able; it's called "non-public schools." Tax-payers provide for PUBLIC ENTITIES, be they

schools, bridges, highways, or B52's.

[Starry Messenger]

14. k&r

[bertman]

16. It's good to know that Education Leaders are standing against Scott. REC. nt

[tigerfan1]

17. Teachers are scapegoats

But this is what Bush, the Republicans, and No Child Left Behind did! They made the schoolteacher the scapegoat for their own failure to address the social issues plaguing society. A kid who has no good home, no good parents, and lives in a drug and crime ridden neighborhood has no change at succeeding in school, no matter what the teachers do!

[Overseas]

19. Recommended! Glad to hear it //nt

[MadHound]

20. Somehow I think that the long range goal isn't about balancing the budget,

But rather it is about producing a more compliant, less educated public in the decades to come.