A Florida-based training program focused on science and math teachers is hoping to get a financial boost from the state. The program is looking to go statewide, but faces its own “fiscal cliff” when its startup grant runs out.
Science Math Masters is a teacher training partnership with 32 rural school districts and the University of Tampa. It’s funded by a three-year grant from the Florida Department of Education. Dr. Ed Moore, who heads the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, says he wants to make the training program permanent.
“If down the road we can expand this and make it solid and work with districts around the state, I think we’ll be better off," he said.
Moore plans to make a request for funding to state lawmakers. The issue of teacher training comes as the state works to transition to a nationalized education system. About 190,000 public school teachers will need training on the new standards. Governor Rick Scott has proposed two-million dollars for a training matching grant program. That's a reversal of his policy. Earlier in the year, the governor vetoed millions of dollars for the Panhandle Area Education Consortium, which, among other things, offered teacher training programs as part of its services to rural districts that can't afford them on their own.
