Florida School Boards Association
The Florida Legislature, particularly the House, is hell-bent on pushing its charter school facility funding and expansion agenda at the expense of the state’s traditional public schools. Let me be perfectly clear. I don’t oppose charter schools. In fact, I’ve been very supportive of them. While in the Legislature I voted for legislation that promoted…
Under the guise of school choice, the Florida House is pushing ahead with three bad bills that would benefit charter schools and yet again damage traditional public schools. The priorities are upside-down, and the Senate should stick up for local control and a fairer distribution of tax money to public education. The first example of…
The Florida House has approved several education bills changing everything from the way students can transfer to how how quickly they can advance in school. But some of those proposals face opposition in the Senate when they get there. Democratic Representative Steve Geller sums up his party’s sentiment about the education bills. “It’s a pattern…
TALLAHASSEE – A familiar face is back at the center of a perennial tug-of-war in the Florida Legislature between privately-managed charter schools and district-run public schools over taxpayer money for construction projects: Erik Fresen, the Miami Republican who controls the purse for education funding in the Florida House. His connections to the charter school industry…
A new statewide poll commissioned by the Florida Charter School Alliance finds significant support for charter schools — including support for a statewide authorizer, one of the alliance’s top legislative priorities this year that school districts fear would take away local authority over public education. The Herald/Times was given a copy of the poll results ahead of their…
Palm Beach County’s School Board has angered the charter school industry by rejecting two charter applications for not being “innovative.” Now the charter movement’s allies in the Florida Legislature are pushing back. A state House committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would change the Florida Constitution to give voters the option to let charter schools win approval…
TALLAHASSEE — Charter schools continue to blossom in popularity and in number throughout Florida, but the controversy surrounding them isn’t dissipating in 2016 — especially as “school choice” continues to dominate education policy coming out of the state Capitol. As Republican lawmakers consider plans to make it easier for charter schools to form and also…
Marion Brady is a veteran educator who has long argued that public education needs a paradigm shift. Brady says schools need a complete transformation in what and how students learn — not the Common Core State Standards, standardized tests and other elements of corporate-influenced school reform. Here’s his latest piece, on efforts by some reformers…
The Rowlett Academy for Arts and Communication presents a solid case study of success in the operation of a charter school. With parents deeply involved in the education of their children and in the performance of the converted district school, Rowlett stands in sharp contrast to the failures of many charters. These tuition-free public schools,…
Less than a mile from the state Capitol, a former steakhouse shows little evidence that it was once part of a movement to change Florida’s schools. It was on this location nearly two decades ago that the leader of a prominent Tallahassee church put together one of the state’s first charter schools. The space where…