By Lynn Hatter
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Tallahassee, FL – Every session yields winners and losers those that see their priorities get a green light, and others that see their hopes and dreams go up in flames. Lynn Hatter reports, that's the story for Education this year where traditional public schools will see their budgets drop, while lawmakers are expanding the number of education options available to families.
"Right now, and if this bill passes, we will have public schools, charter schools, high-performing charter schools, high-performing charter school systems, virtual schools, district virtual schools, Florida virtual school, blended virtual schools, charter virtual schools and so on. So the question is, how much can a school district absorb and properly manage?"
That's Democratic state Senator Bill Montford in debate over a bill to expand charter schools. Montford heads the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, and, not surprisingly, he's sided with traditional school advocates on a number of big education issues this year. Unfortunately, that's the losing side.
Backed with a Republican super-majority in the legislature, school choice advocates have managed to push through several proposals that might have died in earlier years. Celebrating success is the Foundation for Florida's future. It's a school-choice lobby group, where Jaryn Emhoff is the spokeswoman.
"I think what you had was, after the election, people came in and made it clear the education reform, they had an appetite for that, a clear desire to do it. And it was piggy backing with a movement across the nation and for Florida to continue to do that and move the ball further was incredible."
The Foundation was founded by former Governor Jeb Bush, and the organization was behind several big issues now headed to the governor's desk: like expanding online education programs, increasing the number of charter schools in the state, allowing students to cross district lines, labeling "D" schools as failing, and expanding school vouchers for students with disabilities. The Foundation also backed what's quite possibly the biggest change in education yet the end of teacher tenure.
"This is going to allow our educators to pick the teachers that are doing the best job for our students. It's going to allow our teachers who believe in measurement to be paid more because they're going to be the most effective ones, and the big winner here is all of our kids, all of the students across the state, so it's a real honor."
The first bill Governor Rick Scott signed into law this year takes away recurring contracts or "tenure" for new teachers hired after July of this year. Future pay raises will be tied to how much students learn and retain. But there's no money in the budget for those raises. In fact, there's no money for much of anything. The legislature is slashing public school budgets by 1.3-billion dollars, and calling on teachers and public employees to put three-percent of their paychecks into the state retirement system. And right now, teachers like Stephanie Moore are not feeling the love.
" This is going to be cost-of-living and its going to kill people like me cause he just had a kidney transplant and he's on all these anti-rejection drugs, and though we have pretty good prices right now, they're going to skyrocket in the fall. I don't know what we're going to do. He's not working, I am. I've got a second job. After school (laughs). A lot of us are going to be doing that "
Stories like these have the teacher's union watching closely. They successfully lobbied against a proposal that would have stopped automatic payroll deductions for union dues, but didn't manage to do much else. Florida Education Association president Andy Ford says it's been a rough session.
"I think teachers' understand what's going on and it's the destruction of the public school system. They're trying to find all kinds of alternatives as they continue to cut our funding. And we have kids now who can bypass school by sitting in front of a computer and that doesn't seem the way you want to go about educating kids."
Meanwhile, in Higher Education, the state's universities and colleges are breathing sighs of relief after the legislature backed down from plans to cut half-a billion out of its budget. The state also found 137-million for maintenance projects and new buildings. Still, lawmakers are raising tuition by eight percent, with the expectation that universities will raise it higher. The Bright Futures Scholarship program will see a 20-percent reduction in award dollars. Students, regardless of the number of credits they have could be required to go to summer school and universities can hold on to abandoned property instead of auctioning it off.