Charter schools. The Pinellas school board will again consider whether to sell a vacant middle school building to a proposed charter school, reports Gradebook. A new charter school in Immokalee that will use blended learning is now enrolling students , reports the Naples Daily News.

Data. The Bradenton Herald editorial board: The data access bill by Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, won't compromise student privacy.

School choice. Jewish educators and leaders lobby for expanded school choice in the Capitol. Lubavitch.com.

Teacher evals. State Impact Florida: "A new study says error rates for teacher evaluations based on student test scores is “quite high,” but that the evaluations may still be more accurate than traditional measures."

Gays and lesbians. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen files legislation to better protect gay and lesbian students from bullying, reports the Miami Herald. In support of the bill, a Leesburg eighth-grader tells reporters about being harassed, reports the Orlando Sentinel. (more…)

Charter schools. Some big ideas on tap for today's discussion in the Senate Education Committee, including a proposal to let school districts start their own charter schools. Tampa Bay Times.

Tax credit scholarships. Jewish groups let lawmakers know much they value them. South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Parent trigger. Senate sponsor Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, crafts an amendment that would leave the final parent trigger decision to school boards, not the state Board of Education, reports the Tallahassee Democrat. Creative Loafing notes the parent trigger origins on the political left, but inaccurately writes that unlike California, "troubled schools singled out in the Sunshine State would be taken over by a for-profit corporation." Fund Education Now's Kathleen Oropeza pens an anti- parent trigger op-ed for the Gainesville Sun. Former state Sen. Paula Dockery pens one for the Miami Herald.

Virtual schools. SchoolZone writes up the proposed funding cut to Florida Virtual School.

Magnet schools. The proposed Senate budget includes $1.5 million for a proposed STEM magnet in Pasco. Tampa Bay Times. (more…)

As a Rabbi in training, I had the opportunity to travel and live in countries around the world, such as Argentina, France, Israel and Ukraine. What I saw was greater emphasis on preparing the youth to succeed in life. Kids were being given the skills necessary to grow and become successful adults who can find work and support themselves and their future families. In the U.S., we are definitely falling short of this goal.

As the most prosperous country in recent history, we owe a great deal of our success to free markets and the excellence that competition breeds. The ability to choose where you live, work and play has forced the marketplace to create products catered to our society.

Education should be no different. The more options we have for schooling our children, the more focused schools will be on providing the best experience possible. This means supporting a successful public and private school system, so parents can find the right environment and system that caters to their individual child's needs.

The reality is many children have been removed from this marketplace by the cost of tuition at private schools. Even with scholarships available, it is still too costly for many of our middle-income families, thereby excluding them from making the right choices for their children.

Floridians are truly fortunate that our state has seen this challenge and acted to overcome it. (more…)

Florida: Incoming Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett talks about the idea of voucher students being required to take the same standardized tests as their public school peers (Tampa Bay Times' Gradebook blog).

Texas: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst sees expanded school choice as part of a legislative agenda that aims to make Texas the most conservative state in the country (Associated Press). The pending fight over vouchers highlights a difference over the best way to fund schools (Dallas Morning News).

Tennessee: A possible school voucher program will be a top issue for Gov. Bill  Haslam and state lawmakers next year (The Tennessean).

New Hampshire: The state's new tax credit scholarship program will again be the subject of debate - and potential legislative action - next year (New Hampshire Public Radio.)

Indiana: The state's school districts turned to marketing efforts in 2012 to compete with private school vouchers (Evansville Courier & Press). Charter school administrators say they have the flexibility to quickly respond to make improvements (Evansville Courier & Press).

Massachusetts: A new Pioneer Institute report opens a debate over the value of school choice options, specifically tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts, for Jewish day schools (Masslive.com)

Louisiana: Education reform,including creation of a statewide voucher program, ranks as one of the year's biggest stories (Houma Comet). Gov. Bobby Jindal's education reforms have reliable backing from the state education board, including its elected members (Baton Rouge Advocate).

Ohio: A long-troubled charter school moves again (Cincinnati Inquirer).

Washington D.C.: Fewer than half of the city's charter schools employ nurses (Associated Press).

Pennsylvania: Charter schools aren't just small, independent operations any more (Pittsburg Post Gazette). The western part of the state is seeing a rapid increase in charter school enrollment (Trib Live).

Delaware: Three charter schools delay opening next year, citing start-up costs and problems securing locations (Delaware Online).

 

Louisiana: School choice groups join the state in defending the new voucher program against a lawsuit filed by the state teachers unions and school boards association. (The Advertiser) A judge denies an injunction sought by voucher opponents to suspend the program while the case plays out in court. (New Orleans Times Picayune)

Florida: In one South Florida city, 14,000 students are on a waiting list to enroll in one of the city's charter schools even though the city's traditional public schools have a good reputation. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

New Jersey: The state teachers union and school boards association want education officials to hold off on approval of virtual charter schools. (NJ Spotlight) Celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, running for Congress, supports a federal school voucher program. (NJ.com)

Georgia: A state senator forcefully reiterates his support for vouchers during a debate with his election challenger. (Cherokee Tribune)

Tennessee: A pro-charter school political action committee donates the maximum to school board candidates it backs in Nashville. (The Tennessean)

Pennsylvania: State education officials authorize four new virtual charter schools after closing a different one last week. (Education Week's Charters & Choice blog) (more…)

It’s another persistent myth about expanding school choice: Ethnic and religious groups will retreat into walled-off camps that are more insular and intolerant. Society will splinter. Democracy will crumble.

Rabbi Moshe Matz offers a polite rebuttal. “The reality is that an educated population is bound to be the force for greater democracy and greater embracing of unity in a society,” Matz, a school choice stalwart in Florida, says in the redefinED podcast interview below. “Look around. Tyranny always feeds off the uneducated.”

Matz, 39, is director of Agudath Israel of Florida, which represents roughly 100 rabbis and synagogues. In 2010, he was literally front and center when 5,000 people marched in Tallahassee to support an expansion of Florida’s tax credit scholarship program. Last school year, 27 Jewish schools participated in the program, with 778 students on scholarship.

Matz’s comments are especially timely now. Conversation about school choice in the Jewish community spiked a bit in the spring after a provocative op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by author and pundit Peter Beinart. Jews in America could strengthen Jewish identify by shoring up Jewish schools, he wrote – and vouchers would be vital to that effort.

The past few months have also seen a steady stream of anti-Muslim comments in school choice debates, including a state lawmaker in Louisiana who said she regretted voting for that state’s new voucher program because she now fears it will promote Islam. Matz called such comments unfortunate and a distraction.

“The argument can’t stray away from the real issue here, which is parental choice,” he said. “Concerns like this are going to be out there, like they are probably for many other choices that parents are going to make for what’s the best education for their child. But ultimately, I think that you can’t allow these types of things to distract us from the ultimate goal.”