Editor’s note: This commentary from state Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater, appeared today on the Tampa Bay Times.

There can be no argument that the Hillsborough County School Board is struggling to find its footing.

The members seem to be flailing about looking for answers to the very real problems they are facing. Serious financial mismanagement led to a near state takeover earlier this year. Fortunately for the school board, the federal government bailed them out just in time with a huge influx of federal stimulus dollars. While the financial mismanagement is serious, it pales in comparison to tragically low levels of academic achievement across the district.

With 39 chronically low-performing public schools, Hillsborough County School Board owns the distinction of having more persistently failing schools than any other district in the state. And it’s not even close. Their school board has almost twice as many chronically low performing schools as Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach combined.

Most of these schools serve predominately economically disadvantaged, minority students. Two out of every three Black students in Hillsborough County are reading below grade level. The high school graduation rate for Black students is 10 points lower than for white students in Hillsborough. There is a 35-percentage point gap in math performance between Black and white students in the district.

How does the school board deal with this unconscionable inequity?

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At least 900 more students in the Jacksonville area will get an additional education option  when IDEA Public Schools opens four schools in 2022.

“We are excited that IDEA Public Schools is expanding to the Jacksonville area,” said Jose Luis De Leon, executive director of IDEA Jacksonville. “Our mission is to prepare students for success in college and citizenship. At IDEA, our goal is to provide families in Jacksonville a high-quality school option. IDEA Jacksonville is excited to engage with the community, recruit top-notch principals and educators and create high-quality schools for the Jacksonville community.”

The nonprofit, Texas-based organization officially announced the move Wednesday, though officials say plans have been in the works for seven months.

IDEA Public Schools primarily serve minority students who qualify for free school lunches. It currently operates 80 schools across the country, typically in communities served by public schools rated as failing.

In a news release, IDEA Public Schools promised to provide “an additional education option to help close the opportunity gap and increase levels of achievement for students and families in Jacksonville.”

This is not the first announcement IDEA Public Schools has made about expansion plans in Florida. In May, the Hillsborough County School Board unanimously approved for IDEA to begin operating schools in the area in 2021. Company spokeswoman Jennifer Flores said then that the network plans to launch four new schools in the area by next year, eventually growing to 20 schools at 10 campuses in the Tampa Bay area by 2028. At full scale, IDEA will serve almost 15,000 K-12 students in Tampa Bay annually.

Four months after receiving approval in Hillsborough County, the company got a boost with a pledge of a $5 million gift from the Vinik Family Foundation. The gift will help launch new schools in Hillsborough, Polk and Pinellas counties.

The Vinik Family Foundation is a private foundation created and managed by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and his wife, Penny. The foundation has donated more than $100 million to nonprofits working in the areas of education, human services, health care and the arts since it was founded in 1997.

IDEA Public Schools, a network of tuition-free, college preparatory public charter schools, serves nearly 53,000 college-bound students in 96 schools across Texas and Louisiana. The program’s founders chose the name IDEA, an acronym for “Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement” and the motto “No Excuses!”

IDEA’s vice president of growth Dan Fishman told redefinED in a July interview that the company is expanding into Florida due to the state’s need for more educational options for low-income students.

For more than a dozen years, 100 percent of IDEA Public Schools’ graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges and universities, and IDEA alums graduate college at five times the national average, according to Flores.

This week, while the school board in one generally charter-friendly Florida district was voting to reject a charter school application, another lamented the limits of its authority.

Speakers lined up to oppose a pair of charter school applications before the Hillsborough County School Board. Most dinged charter schools generally but concentrated their criticism on for-profit management companies.

In a sign of rising political tensions, some school officials talked about turning their attention toward Tallahassee.

In some ways, Hillsborough County seems like friendly territory for charter schools. Steady population growth, a well-regarded charter school office and a relatively collaborative climate have allowed the district to avoid some of the problems that cropped up elsewhere in the state.

However, the school district is under fiscal stress. New needs, like security officers, add to its expenses. Superintendent Jeff Eakins is reorganizing the administration to shed an unsustainable cost structure and talking about a local tax referendum to boost revenue.

Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association was one of several speakers who argued charter schools make the problems worse. The union is trying to negotiate a new contract. Its demands for raises have run headlong into a lack of available funding. With that backdrop, she asked the school board to reject two applications to open K-8 charter schools in the fast-growing Riverview area. (more…)

by Jaymie Perez

I recently had the opportunity to sit in on the Tampa PTA town hall meeting called “Real Talk.” This was billed as a chance to talk about underperforming schools and how they can be improved to meet students’ needs.

This topic is important to me. My husband and I have adopted nine children with special needs. Getting them the support they need to learn has required endless battles with the school system.

I’m disappointed at the panel’s failure to discuss issues, such as identifying children with special needs and additional supports in the classroom regardless of race or location of school. But I was shocked when several panelists demeaned the concept of educational choice, which has enabled me to give my children the education they need.

The panel included state Sen. Darryl Rouson, who was more sympathetic to parental choice, as well as education activists and people who work in the local school system.

Cindy Stuart, a member of the Hillsborough County School Board, pointed fingers at parents who were leaving public schools, calling us examples of “white flight.” She scolded affluent families who leave their assigned schools for schools of choice, suggesting they should instead “stay and fight for public schools.”

I took offense at this unfair characterization of my family's choices. We are, for the record, leaving public schools for a different reason. I’d call it “ESE flight.” I am Native American. My husband is Filipino. Our children are of multiple races, and all of them come from the foster care system. We are tired of fighting the school system, only to receive little support and no assistance. (more…)

Over the weekend, the Tampa Bay Times took an in-depth look at a battle between the Hillsborough County School Board and Kids Community College, a charter school it authorizes.

The article raises a number of interesting issues about charter school politics and practices in Florida, but one, raised by Jenna Hodgens, the district's charter school director deserves extra attention.

Basically, the school charges students for certain items and also seeks "suggested donations" from parents.  The school says these extra contributions are voluntary, and notes many district schools charge activity fees. But when it comes to low-income parents' perceptions of the school, that may be beside the point.

Hodgens said it's clear that poor families perceive Kid's Community as costly — not a private school, yet not a true public school either.

"And see, that's what bothers me, I guess, as a person," she said. "Because I'm thinking, if I'm a poor kid and I tell my mom I want to go to Kid's Community College and then my mom finds out you have to pay a $500 enhancement fee and $280 in consumables, my mom says to me, 'You're going to stay at Gibsonton.' I don't even have a choice."

So, as a charter school, she said, "you can select your kids without selecting your kids if you do certain things."

In other words, while charter schools are public schools and state law limits their ability to charge additional fees, parents may perceive this charter school as an exclusive option that might cost them more money out of pocket.

This sounds like an opportunity for the district and charter schools to collaborate. (more…)

Testing. Florida's testing system is deemed valid, but questions remain. Politico Florida. StateImpact. Associated Press. News Service of Florida. Tampa Bay Times. Miami Herald. Sun-Sentinel. Sentinel School Zone. Palm Beach Post. Fort Myers News-Press. Bradenton Herald. Naples Daily News. Lakeland Ledger. Ocala Star-Banner. Gainesville Sun. Tallahassee Democrat. Sunshine State News.

Failure factories. The Tampa Bay Times tells the story of dozens of students in resegregated schools.

Jeb Bush. The presidential candidate bashes teachers unions for opposing school choice policies in a Townhall column. The former Florida governor visits a South Florida school. WPLG. WTVJ. WSVN. WFOR.

Growth. Sarasota schools plan to present their growth plans. Sarastota Herald-Tribune.

Social media. Hillsborough sets a new social media policy for student-teacher interaction. Tampa Tribune.

Dual enrollment. Miami-Dade students flock to dual enrollment programs. WTVJ.

Facilities. The official in charge of a Broward school construction bond quits. Sun-Sentinel. An A/C failure leaves Merritt Island students uncomfortable. Florida Today. The Volusia school board looks for ways to finance a new school. Daytona Beach News-Journal.

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In the wake of the school shooting tragedy in Newtown, Conn., traditional public schools aren’t the only ones having serious discussions about how to beef up safety. In Florida, charter schools and private schools are also making sure they’re maximizing protection for students, parents and staff.

But as district officials and state lawmakers debate next steps – and how to pay for them – there is the potential for tensions to surface between different education sectors.

In Broward County, for example, Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, is proposing a new property tax that could raise $55 million to pay for police officers in every public school operated by the district. It wouldn’t apply to private schools, and Sobel, a former school board member, said she was uncertain if charters would be included, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently reported.

Some charter school supporters, meanwhile, are worried about the costs of new safety measures, especially if lawmakers mandate them. That could become a financial burden for charters, which already receive less in per-student funding than districts, and little in the way of capital outlay dollars, said Lynn Norman-Teck of the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools.

“It’s going to hurt,’’ Norman-Teck said, and it’s really not right. If lawmakers are going to look at ways to make schools safer, including allocating more dollars to public school districts, she said, they need to “bring charter schools to the table. They need to look at them [charters] as public schools because they are public schools.’’ (more…)

Charter school debate. Interesting debate in Duval over the performance of charter schools. Says new superintendent Nikolai Vitti, according to the Florida Times Union: “I want the conversation in Florida and in Jacksonville to shift toward what’s best for kids, what’s best for communities, and not a conversation driven by ideology. The conversation in Florida regarding charters has been too focused and dominated by ideology and not data.”

More paths to graduation. Sen. John Legg, R-New Port Richey, says the ed policy committee will look at expanding the list of courses that can satisfy graduation requirements and find ways to make 11^th and 12^th grades more meaningful, reports Gradebook.

Disabled students. The Hillsborough school district asks for dismissal of a case involving the death of a disabled 7-year-old on a school bus. Tampa Bay Times. More from the Tampa Tribune.  New school board chair April Griffin says finding solutions to the district’s problems with disabled students is a top priority, the Tribune also reports.

More class size. Alachua County is one of the districts most out of compliance, reports the Gainesville Sun. So is Marion County, reports the Ocala Star Banner.

From ports to … education? Democrats criticize Gov. Rick Scott’s position on a pending strike by Florida port workers, then pivot to get in a word about education funding. The Buzz.

Synthetic marijuana. School officials in Santa Rosa see progress in a crackdown on students who use “spice.” Pensacola News Journal.

Ed stories to watch in 2013. StateImpact Florida.

What does Rick Scott want? Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab on the possibility of Tony Bennett coming to Florida: “Indiana's loss could be Florida's gain. Then again, it will all depend on whether the state board and the governor are looking for somebody to push Florida forward or somebody to soften Scott's image on education reform. There are worrisome signs that Scott is looking for the latter.” Two knocks don’t make a pattern, but this is the second time in a month Scott has been criticized from the reform side.

Joining the chorus. Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts says the state Board of Education lowered the bar for minority students when it adopted short-term achievement goals that called for steeper rates of improvement for those students.

Tax credit scholarships and religious schools. The Orlando Sentinel takes a look at a long-established fact - the majority of students receiving tax-credit scholarships attend religious schools – and critics recycle myths about funding and accountability.

State settles with Christian college. From the News Service of Florida: “Settling a federal lawsuit that involved questions about the school's "secular purpose," state education officials will allow students at a Central Florida Christian college to be eligible for a popular grant program.” Complaint here. Settlement here.

Charter school analysis. News outlets continue to highlight UCF Professor Stanley D. Smith’s analysis, which finds that as a group, charter schools in Florida under perform traditional public schools. Smith writes an op-ed for the Tampa Bay Times. The St. Augustine Record uses his findings as a basis for this editorial. (more…)