or even another public school, three guesses what will happen to our public school system in Florida. First two don't count.
Scott has come up with a new idea called "Education Savings Accounts", another word he uses for vouchers. It is so far out that I had not taken it that seriously, but there still appears to be concern that he might get it done.
From TCPalm.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott doesn't want to fix public education, he wants to destroy it 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. Restructured as private schools, they will open up without county approval and try to crowd out public schools. Unlike public schools, private schools are not be required to provide transportation, give the FCAT, have state-certified teachers, follow Florida's course guidelines or meet class-size restrictions, along with insufficiencies in many other areas. Most important, they can kick students out their school for any reason and selectively recruit the best students from the public school system.
Here is more about the court ruling on such vouchers from 2006.
From USA Today.
Fla. Supreme Court strikes down school vouchersFlorida's highest court on Thursday handed public school advocates a decisive victory, striking down a Florida program that gives students taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers to private schools. It was the first time a state Supreme Court has said states have a duty to educate students in public schools.
..."Unaffected are two other Florida voucher plans: One that pays for 16,144 disabled students to attend private schools and another that gives tax credits to businesses that donate to a scholarship fund allowing 13,497 low-income students to attend private schools.
But Thursday's ruling ultimately could affect these and other voucher programs. The court found that taxpayer support for private schools in general is unconstitutional because Florida's constitution requires "a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality system of free public schools." Private schools aren't "uniform when compared with each other or the public system," the justices wrote. They're also exempt from public standards on teacher credentials and requirements to teach about a wide range of subjects, such as civics, U.S. and world history and minorities' and women's contributions to history.
Mother Jones covered this issue back in December.
Rick Scott's School Plan for ScoundrelsConservatives have been plotting for years to blow up the public school system. Now, Florida's incoming governor Rick Scott is poised to light the fuse.
During his campaign, Scott pledged to overhaul the state's schools while simultaneously reducing school property taxes by $1.4 billion. How to accomplish both? Privatization, of course. His plan, which promotes online schooling along with other educational options, may actually pave the way for the elimination of such pesky budget busters as buses, cafeterias, teachers, and, well, school facilities themselves.
Scott's transition office did not respond to inquiries from Mother Jones, but according to various news reports, Scott is cooking up an education proposal that would expand an existing voucher program designed for low-income and disabled kids, opening it to all students. The result would be that instead of public school funds filtering through the unionized public bureaucracy, it would go with the students, who could use the money to enroll in the school of their choice—public, private, charter, or virtual. If parents are wealthy enough to pay for their child's education with their own funds, they can use the voucher money for laptops or school supplies, or even sock it away in a college fund. The proposed voucher amount, about $5500, is only 85 percent of the annual cost of educating a child in Florida.
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.
I am fearful because he has a legislature that is so strongly Republican that he can do whatever he wants with their blessing. And many of them seem to be in favor of these vouchers that will end up destroying our public schools. Another article from December shows their support.
From the Miami Herald:
Scott shaking up halls of academia with planA draft of the plan that surfaced Friday, written by Levesque, says parents of eligible students would receive 85 percent of the state's per-pupil funding figure, which is $6,843 this year.
``I don't think it's radical at all,'' said Lindsey Burke, education policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. ``At this point, the radical notion is to trap a child in a failing public school.''
``I love it,'' said Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla.
It could unlock an ``educational marketplace,'' said Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, one of House Speaker Dean Cannon's education advisors. ``The parent would not be bound by an attendance boundary, but rather would have the ability to compete and put their child in whatever school they think will best meet their child's needs.''
School board members, union officials and Democratic lawmakers, though, gasped at the sweep of it.
``There had been talk of expansion of the (voucher) program,'' said Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg. ``But that's not an expansion. That's a takeover.''
He wants to give away our public taxpayer money to any student who decides they want to go to a school of their choice. It is arising out of the atmosphere set by the strong emphasis on charter schools by Arne Duncan at the DOE. It is arising out of the anti-teacher, anti-union atmosphere created by this administration in Washington.
Such an atmosphere makes it easier to tear down public schools with no recrimination from higher up. Because in fact there is no party now that is really supportive of public education.
If Rick Scott does go ahead with this plan, he just might get approval. That will destroy the Florida public school system, and he might just get away with it.