Commentary:
Florida's False Choice for Students
By Debra Gianoulis
February 7, 2011
Twenty-eight years ago in 1983, the seminal report on the state of America's declining public schools was released. Ominously titled A Nation at Risk, I remember it well because my first child was born that year. As a practicing journalist covering public education, I was reporting on the initiatives of our then-governor Bob Graham.
Governor Graham made education a primary focus of his administration. Each year he was in office Florida's national ranking in education inched higher. Our universities made it into the top quartile in America and our public school and community college students demonstrated substantial improvement. Our per capita income exceeded the national average for the first time in state history and Florida was considered among the most business-friendly states in the nation.
It was a recent conversation with former Governor and U.S. Senator Graham that brought those optimistic days back to me when I was a young wife, mother, and professional who believed Florida was a welcoming place to work and raise a family, not just an escape for retirees seeking low taxes and tourists seeking a Magic Kingdom.
Graham recalled the release of A Nation at Risk at the beginning of his second term as Florida's governor. "I remember asking business leaders for their thoughts," he reflected, “and a prominent businessman from Jacksonville told me ‘we don't want them to get too smart or they will want a raise.’"
Having recently attended an education summit sponsored by Senator Maria Sachs in Boca Raton, I wondered if the attitude of Florida's business leaders had really changed that much in the past 30 years.
Barney Bishop, the CEO of Associated Industries of Florida was invited to represent business in the panel discussion. In his opening remarks Bishop said businesses need employees with rudimentary skills in reading, writing and math who can communicate using good grammar. In closing the discussion, Senator Sachs asked the panel if they could see one change in Florida's education policy this year what would it be? Bishop said, "Let the money follow the student to where they want to go."
Governor Rick Scott has floated the idea of issuing to parents vouchers good for use at any public, private or home school. The amount of the voucher would be significantly less than public school students receive now, but could be used to defray the cost of tuition at private schools. The goal is to spend less on education under the premise of giving Florida parents “choice.”
The model is Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship. It allows corporations to divert their taxes from Florida's general fund to private non-profits that administer vouchers to parents who choose mostly religious schools. These schools do not have to be accredited, do not have to have certified teachers, do not have to track their students’ graduation rates and do not have to administer the FCAT exam. These students essentially disappear from Florida’s harsh accountability system for grading public schools.
The non-partisan group Strong American Schools reviewed the recommendations of A Nation at Risk on the 25th anniversary of the landmark report and found that "stunningly few recommendations had been enacted." Longer school days, a longer school year, and teacher salaries that are professionally competitive and performance based were among those recommendations.
You will hear these same imperatives now from the proponents of the best charter schools, like highly acclaimed KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), which opened its first school in Florida this school year in Duval County.
Mike Feinberg, one of the founders of KIPP, recently wrote to Texas newspapers urging the Texas legislature to help high-quality charters and close low performers. He said extending the school day and year had to be applied to more schools. And he stressed ALL kids need "high expectation instruction in core subjects while being exposed to music, the arts, sports and community service."
KIPP had to be enticed to come to Florida because our state's spending on education is so low. Philanthropists here have to step up even more to close the funding gap so they can close the achievement gap. KIPP has a track record of success, and it costs significantly more per student than Florida spends in public schools.
Most charters operate with the same money per student as public schools and get similar results. 83% of charters perform no better and sometimes worse than traditional public schools. In Mike Feinberg's words, "charter schools are not the magic bullet for education."
Yet charters are promoted as the answer nationally and here in Florida, where for more than a decade this state has identified and punished failing students and their schools.
Blaming public schools and encouraging families to leave them is not public school reform. Promoting the proliferation of start-up schools with no track record or accountability to the taxpayer is a “choice” to continue to leave children behind. It is a “choice” to remain a low-expectation, low-wage state -- a Magic Kingdom that works for the wealthy and tourists, not for the families of Florida.
Debra Gianoulis, a former Peabody Award-winning journalist helped found the advocacy group Save Duval Schools in 2009. She also ran for Florida State Senate District 8 in 2010.